Reverse Logistics is a type of supply chain management that moves goods from customers back to the sellers or manufacturers. These companies are becoming more and more important every day to help other companies make the most out of their assets and turn them into profit. A reverse logistics company processes a high volume of products and so in order to be as efficient as possible, they’ve adopted automated solutions. What used to take minutes by manual process, now takes seconds and allows for RLs to be competitive in this fast-paced market. Logistical tools like dimensioners can decrease the time and manpower it takes to complete a task twice as fast and for a fraction of the cost. Our company, FreightSnap has worked with several different RL companies such as Liquidity Services, Zapps Wholesale, and Global Resale, and while each is unique, we were able to help them find a dimensioner to help optimize their operations.
For example, Liquidity Services, a company that ensures other companies’ surplus is sold through the right channels to the right buyers for the highest recovery value, have been able to optimize its operations thanks to our FS Parcel Flex and FS5000. They wanted to standardize the processes of capturing dimensions and weight and taking photos of their products to provide more information to people interested in their auctioned goods, and our dimensioners served them perfectly.
A very similar case was Zapps Wholesale, a liquidation company that helps businesses boost their profits by buying clean untouched merchandise directly from the big box retailers. They used to take photos and measurements to then upload them and post them on their website manually, which took a lot of time. Now, they use our Image Station to take pictures and the FS5000 dimensioner to get measurements of their products, and thanks to our systems integration, they post them directly on their website along with an identifier that is uploaded to the system automatically, saving them time and money in the process.
We have also worked closely with Global Resale, a company that helps turn technology asset recovery from a risky, expensive process into a growth driver for their partners’ businesses. The FS Parcel Flex and the Image Station have helped them make their process much more consistent and reliable. Our products have also allowed them to improve the way they present freight data to their customers since they now integrate the photos of the freight with their reports, so if a customer wants photos, it’s there at their fingertips. Global Resale also uses FS warehouse app for inventory tracking, which helps them monitor their assets, take pictures with the app, and check the items out of the warehouse.
Are you ready to integrate a dimensioner at your reverse logistics company? We can help you find the right match. Reach out and get a quote today!
1. A brief description of each company and its’ reverse logistics process:
They all 3 are in the same general field as far as doing reverse logistics for retailers and manufacturers and work in asset recovery solutions or reverse supply chain for different customers product refurbishment, sales, value recovery, rebranding, and e commerce support.
Liquidity Services (LS)
Liquidity Services leverages a wide range of strategies to ensure companies’ surplus are sold through the right channels to the right buyers for the highest recovery value. Larger, more clients. We run an auction platform, and we know we can sell things and get more interest if we have photos and details like weights and dimensions. We were manually taking all these photos and capturing dimensions and weight. We had poor data quality, all sorts of different images that all depended on the height of the person taking the pictures, how good they were at pointing the camera and cleaning the camera. It was very inconsistent, and we were trying to find ways to save labor in that space. We knew that automatically taking photos and capturing dimensions and weights would help us not only save labor but also improve the quality of the information about the auction lots.
Zapps Wholesale (ZW)
Zapps Wholesale is a liquidation company that helps businesses boost their profits by buying clean untouched merchandise directly from the big box retailers. They use reverse logistics when they buy then sell it by the auction and by the truckload. Same thing as liquidity. Handle all types of products depending on the client. Reverse supply chain: refurbishing, rebranding, asset recovery, return items that can be wholesaled in a secondary market.
Global Resale (GR)
Global Resale helps turn technology asset recovery from a risky, expensive process into a growth driver for their partners’ businesses. Take computers at the end of business’s lives and refurbish them and put them back on the market. Focus more on technology. GR has a nicher market because they focus on tech, and computers.
The goal was to take work out and reduce headcount, and to provide some automation around freight receiving primarily and freight shipping. It automates the whole capture of weights and dimensions and photos. The photos make our whole process much more consistent and reliable. When it comes to us facing our customers and enabling some self-service, it’s changed the way we present freight data to our customers in a good way. It provides consistency. We actually now integrate the photos of the freight with our reports, so if they want photos, it’s there at their fingertips.
2. Which Product(s) each is utilizing:
- Liquidity Services: FS Parcel and FS 5000
- Zapps Wholesale: FS 5000 – uses them to take photos and put them directly on their website to sell these products. Also using the Image Station.
- Global Resale: FS Parcel, Image Station and FS 360 Mobile app for inventory tracking.
3. The type of benefits they are receiving:
They are using the images is one of the most important things. The pallets the customers can see what’s on them in LS and GR so they can see what’s on the pallet they’re bidding on and the dimensions. GR uses a warehousing app that helps them keep track of their assets and take pictures with the app and check the items out of the warehouse. They match the auction ID with the pallets. To LS and ZW, it helps them with their profits because they used to take pictures and dimensions manually with a camera and had to upload them and manually post them which took a lot of time.
Now it takes 3 pictures and posts them directly along with an identifier (auction ID) that is uploaded to the system automatically. They can now process pallets faster and eliminate people that were in the middle before.
In each example, a reverse logistics process is important to establish and follow.
