'Logistics industry must start Facebooking!'

The logistics and supply chain sector must embrace social media in all its formats as it moves into the next era. “The use of social media as an information source is growing. At the same time consumer products are frequently discussed in these forums,” said Professor James Stock of the University of South Florida. Addressing delegates at the monthly Transport Forum in Cape Town last week, Stock said companies were often the topic of discussion. “There are 300 million tweets sent every day. In the first quarter of 2012 some 900 million monthly users expressed over three billion opinions a day on Facebook. How many were about your firm?” He said with the growing use of social media, more logistics companies needed to take this into account and acknowledge the importance of engaging with their customers in this way. “In 2012 companies experienced on average growth rate of 31% in business data volumes. As social media and the amount of data available grow, so does the need to analyse it all and ensure it is adding value to one’s company.” He said a major US furniture retailer was currently looking at improving its logistics through the monitoring of its customers’ smart phones. “The retailer has found that even though they make appointments with customers for deliveries, some 15% of people don’t keep to the scheduled appointment. If one takes into consideration the amount of time and money wasted, then it makes sense for them to look at how they can keep in touch with their customers via social media and their smart phones to ensure they are not driving out to make deliveries to customers who are not home.” Stock said while it was not necessarily an easy exercise for a company, it was important to keep up to date with not only social media but also other technology developments. “Victoria’s Secret has for instance managed to improve efficiencies through the analysis and interpretation of its data, enabling the company to identify which customers are more likely to return merchandise and also what merchandise they will be returning.” He said through the correct interpretation of data – along with the right social media approach – most businesses in the logistics and supply chain environment could improve efficiency and be more effective in the long run. INSERT 1 3 billion The number of opinions expressed on Facebook a day INSERT 2 Victoria’s Secret has improved efficiencies by using data that indentifies which customers are more likely to return merchandise and what merchandise they will be returning.