Forwarder Brian on discount display building, animation figures and ICT

14 September 2017

Animation figures and kids, a golden combination for retailers. The onesies, pyjamas and other garments on which they are printed can be seen everywhere. Also in supermarkets, where one of our clients delivers this type of product. Recently, import freight agent Brian had to put together 725 action displays with merchandise for them. He talks about how these displays eventually end up in hundreds of supermarkets, and how ICT provides clients with structure and overview with this.

Ready-made in-store displays

Assembling displays is a service that you perhaps don’t immediately expect from your freight forwarder. In fact, this type of work is often organised through us, just like, for example, price tag replacement or product labelling. Import forwarding agent Brian therefore has a lot of experience with this kind of value added service.

Brian: “Orders for ready-made action displays in supermarkets come to me at regular intervals. This customer has a lot of merchandise, which is sold in supermarkets. This time it was for various clothing articles from Minions and Paw Patrol. It was also a nice story to tell at home, as my kids are big fans of them.”

Assembling displays requires a whole series of actions. From folding plates to putting the display together and filling it with merchandise. All 725 pieces were put together in our warehouse. Subsequently, they were distributed nationwide among the distribution centres of the supermarket chain. With this, every display was packed in a cardboard cover to prevent damage.

Displays in the making

All order details in a digital oversight

Many clients make use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). With this order details are exchanged in realtime between the client and freight forwarding agent, from the moment of shipment from land of production to delivery at a distribution centre. But clients can also, for example, input how many pieces are needed at a particular delivery address, on a particular date. This creates an overview and structure. For the delivery of merchandise discount displays, use will also be made of EDI.

Brian: “Assembling and delivering so many displays would quickly become unmanageable without ICT. Emails on transport agreements and planning, to details on products and displays. Fortunately, this is all now reflected in one digital overview. So my client is always up-to-date and I am also.”

ICT not only gives structure to the project, it ensures a smoother flow. All information can be immediately input and followed online so things were always clear.

In the end, all built displays for the offer period were quickly and successfully placed in 725 Dutch supermarkets. And the Minions and Paw Patrol garments? They flew out of the shops in a short time, as expected.