UK retailer John Lewis is moving to a centralised distribution centre (DC) structure in the UK, inorder to consolidate and improve visibility and control of its e-commerce stock, a senior manager
said.The company currently does its e-commerce fulfilment from five regional distributioncentres, Mark Robinson, director of customer delivery operations, told the recent The Future ofE-Commerce Delivery conference in London.
However, responding to a question from CEP-Research, Robinson said that this did not give asatisfactory level of stock visibility, a key factor in the decision to move to a centraliseddistribution centre structure.
As one of the UK’s leading and most rapidly growing e-retail and bricks-and-mortarretailers, the firm’s distribution strategy holds strong interest for parcel delivery firms.Earlier this month, Hermes UK CEO Carole Woodhead said the company’s next phase of hub developmentwould depend on the strategy of key retailers, in terms of whether they pursued central or regionaldistribution centre strategies.
With John Lewis expecting to more than double its e-retail sales and deliveries inthe next five years, the company is building a second national distribution centre in Milton Keynesthat is due to open next year next to its existing DC.
Robinson acknowledged that the move towards centralised rather than regional distributionremained a much-debated topic. However, he did later say that he could imagine in the future thatJohn Lewis stores could also be used for local e-retail fulfilment – especially as expectations ontransit times continued to evolve, with customers expecting shorter and shorter delivery times.
