With the online user penetration in the US expected to be 81.6% in 2023, the food and beverage industry will be looking to expand its offerings and widen its customer base. But with more growth prospects, there will be challenges for food and beverage supply chains that would become a massive roadblock to winning customers.
Top 7 challenges and opportunities in the Food and Beverage Industry (F&B)
Ineffective communication system
- Challenge
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There are many gaps in the communication process that cause delay in delivering products. These delays lead to food spoilage, or damages.
- Opportunity
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Food and Beverage (F&B) companies are increasingly focusing on improving their communication processes by investing in real-time tracking technologies.
Difficulty to optimize delivery schedules
- Challenge
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The volatility in the food and beverage supply chain has made it difficult to optimize predictive delivery schedules.
- Opportunity
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Food and Beverage brands are investing in proper logistics optimization solutions to eliminate scheduling bottlenecks, and minimize delivery costs.
Complexities in inventory management
- Challenge
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Numerous inventory management complexities plague the food and beverage industry, including space management, perishability, scheduling, assembly, and delivery complexities. This results in excessive waste and massive rework, leading to a reduction in profit margins.
- Opportunity
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The demand for enhanced inventory management software has increased among F&B brands. This helps you in canning goods, food processing, and packaging products.
Increasing concerns on food shipping traceability
- Challenge
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The public has become increasingly aware of food contamination dangers in the supply chain.
- Opportunity
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Food safety experts opine that food-borne illness either begins or expands within the food supply chain. Since the Coronavirus pandemic, food and beverage brands are keen on documenting the ‘what, where, when and who’ of the supply chain. This is the best time to work on increasing your visibility and transparency.
Coping up with increased e-commerce expectations
- Challenge
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Compared to other industries, the food and beverage industry finds it difficult to keep up with the increasing customer expectations on e-commerce platforms. They need to catch up in adopting e-commerce, but this pandemic has accelerated this adoption.
- Opportunity
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This is the best time for F&B companies to gain customer attention and build a solid brand reputation. F&B brands are actively looking for user-friendly dispatch management software to reduce their delivery timelines and meet customer expectations of freshness and express delivery of food products.
Difficulty in serving the customer-preferred time windows
- Challenge
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Dealing with long-shelf and perishable items, F&B businesses find it difficult to schedule their deliveries at customer-preferred timelines.
- Opportunity
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By providing multiple time slot options to customers, letting them choose one, and serving them at their preferred time, you can win customers big and build brand loyalty. Locus’ delivery-linked checkout helps your F&B business achieve all these!
Uninformed decisions (data)
- Challenge
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Lack of data on all-mile delivery is a primary concern for F&B businesses looking to scale up their operations and elevate the customer experience.
- Opportunity
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Data is the mirror that reflects what’s happening in any business. When your F&B business uses a platform like Locus, they can quickly get timely reports with granular insights and clear the bottlenecks that stop their business from attaining revenue targets.
The Food and Beverage Industry’s problems are due to their delays in adjusting to the sudden rise in online demand and adapting to new customer preferences. Investing in a dispatch management platform is the best way to cope with this sudden rise in online demand, adapt to new customer preferences, and manage your order fulfillment effectively.
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