Apparel Logistics: Managing Truckload Transportation Costs
Scott Hothem • September 8, 2015
The women’s apparel sector alone was a $116.4 billion industry in 2013, up 4% from the previous year according to Global Biz Circle. Although revenue across apparel categories is only expected to rise over the next decade, new consumer demands and increased competition is making it more challenging for apparel companies to increase profit margins.
A key contributor to these new obstacles is the explosion of e-commerce platforms. Online clothing sales exceeded $44 billion in 2014 and are projected to top $52 billion this year. A major element of the supply chain that can address budget strains and help streamline costs is transportation. Here are three keys for managing truckload transportation costs:
Isolate Transportation Costs
This is often easier said than done. As fulfillment processes become more complex, the actual cost of transportation can be difficult to identify. Shippers are often forced to revisit contract terms and look for cost-effective solutions. Looking across all of your transportation partners and options and how they fit in with your overall strategy can help to identify key differentiators and advantages that can positively impact your business.
Consider Every Transportation Variable
Every step of the transportation process from how an item enters the distribution center to how it is picked, packed, packaged, put on pallets and loaded can have a drastic impact on your transportation costs. Then beyond the doors of the warehouse factors such as carrier availability, customer requirements and the actual transit logistics need to be negotiated to create a streamlined transportation operation. The ability to optimize these variables, at least the controllable ones, will go a long way in trimming costs and expanding your existing resources.
Leverage Technology
Much like in every other facet of life today, technology is making things faster and easier than ever before. In terms of transportation this comes in the form of the TMS, or transportation management system. With the growth of cloud technology, TMS software is now becoming more advanced and affordable than ever. Updates and maintenance are no longer a burden and visibility all across the entire transportation operation is stronger than ever.
While these are only a few areas where apparel truckload transportation can be enhanced, it is important to realize that the opportunity to make improvements exists. As consumers continue to have more options and the ability to place orders from anywhere to anywhere, supply chains will face new and greater challenges. To meet these challenges, Barrett Distribution Centers creates customized supply chain and transportation strategies to meet the needs of apparel manufacturers.
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When a package arrives at someone's doorstep, the experience feels wonderfully simple. The customer opens the box, finds exactly what they ordered, and moves on with their day. If everything goes right, they may never give much thought to how that order traveled from a warehouse shelf to their front door. And in many ways, that is the point. What customers do not see are the people, decisions, and attention to detail behind that seemingly effortless moment. Before a package ever reaches a doorstep, there are countless opportunities to get something right, catch something early, or make an experience just a little better. That work happens quietly, but it has a very real influence on how customers experience a brand. There Is a Lot Behind a Simple Order An order may begin with a click, but what follows involves much more than placing a product in a box. Inventory needs to be in the right place and ready when it is needed. The correct item has to be selected, packaging requirements need to be followed, and any special details associated with the order have to make it into the final package. For some brands, those details might include a personalized message, a promotional insert, a carefully assembled kit, or packaging designed to make opening the box feel special. For others, the goal is beautifully simple: make sure the right product reaches the right person when they expect it. Customers rarely think about any of this when everything goes smoothly. They simply experience a brand that followed through on its promise. That is what makes the work happening behind the scenes so important. The Little Details Carry More Weight Than We Think Brands put enormous thought into how customers experience them. Everything from a website's design to the language used in an email can be carefully considered, yet the physical order is one of the few moments when a customer gets to hold that brand experience in their hands. A missing item or careless presentation can change that experience quickly. On the other hand, an order that arrives accurately and feels thoughtfully prepared reinforces the confidence a customer already placed in the brand. Sometimes an extra detail makes the experience even more personal. A handwritten message, branded insert, or customized package can turn an ordinary delivery into something a customer wants to share or remember. These may seem like small touches when viewed individually, but customers often build their impression of a brand through exactly these kinds of moments. Behind Every Box Are People Who Care About Getting It Right Technology plays an important role in modern fulfillment, but there is still a very human element behind every order. There are people receiving products, managing inventory, preparing orders, checking details, solving unexpected problems, and making decisions throughout the day. Much of that work will never be visible to the person opening the package, but that does not make it any less meaningful. At Barrett, we see fulfillment as more than moving products from one place to another. When a customer entrusts us with their products, they are also trusting us with a piece of the relationship they have built with their own customers. That responsibility matters. It is why attention to detail matters. It is why communication matters. And it is why having people who take pride in their work can make such a difference. Sometimes the Best Experience Feels Effortless There is an interesting thing about great fulfillment: when it is done well, customers may never notice it. There is no reason to wonder where the package is. No surprise when the box is opened. No need to contact customer service because something is missing. The experience simply unfolds the way it was supposed to. Behind that simplicity, however, are people working every day to make it possible. Your customers may never see the warehouse their order came from or meet the people who prepared it. They may never know about the problem someone caught before their package left the building or the extra care that went into getting a detail exactly right. But they experience the result. And sometimes, the things customers never see are the very things that keep them coming back.
There is a moment every growing brand hopes for. Orders start coming in faster. Your name begins showing up in more places. A product that once had a loyal following suddenly has thousands of new people talking about it. Maybe a video takes off overnight, a major retailer wants to put your products on its shelves, or a campaign reaches an audience far beyond what you expected. It is the kind of momentum businesses work years to create, and when it finally happens, there is a lot to celebrate. But somewhere between watching the numbers climb and figuring out what comes next, another realization tends to set in. Your business now has to deliver on all that attention. The customers discovering your brand for the first time do not know that your order volume doubled this week. They do not know your team is working through a record number of shipments or that inventory is moving faster than anyone predicted. They simply know what they ordered, what your brand promised, and what they expect when the package arrives. That is where growth becomes more than a sales story. It becomes a test of whether everything happening behind your brand is ready for the attention happening in front of it. Growth Changes More Than Your Order Volume When demand increases quickly, the obvious change is the number of orders coming through. What is easier to overlook is everything that changes along with them. More products need to be received, stored, picked, packed, and shipped. Inventory that once lasted for weeks may disappear in days. Customer service teams may see more questions. Packaging supplies are used faster. A process that felt effortless at a smaller scale can suddenly require much more time and coordination. None of that means growth has become a problem. It simply means your business has entered a new chapter, and the way you operate may need to mature along with it. This is often when brands begin to see the difference between having a fulfillment process that works and having one that can grow with them. The goal is not just to get through a sudden increase in orders. It is to build enough flexibility into the business that growth can continue without constantly creating another fire to put out. Your New Customers Still Expect the Same Experience There is another side to sudden growth that matters just as much as keeping up with orders. Many of the people purchasing from you during this period may be meeting your brand for the first time. That makes every order an introduction. The excitement surrounding your product may be what convinced someone to buy, but what happens afterward helps determine whether they come back. The correct item needs to arrive. Packaging should still feel intentional. Personalized touches, branded inserts, gift messaging, or special presentation should not disappear simply because there are more orders to fulfill. These details become even more meaningful as a brand grows because they help preserve the personality that attracted customers in the first place. It can be tempting to think that scale requires sacrificing some of those smaller touches. With the right preparation and the right people behind the operation, growth should create opportunities to bring your brand experience to more customers without losing what made it memorable. The Best Time to Prepare for Growth Is Before You Need To Of course, no business can predict the exact moment something will take off. That is part of what makes growth exciting. What you can do is have conversations about what happens if it does. These are much easier questions to explore when your team has room to think rather than when thousands of orders are already waiting. Preparation does not require knowing exactly what the future will look like. It means creating enough flexibility that when an opportunity arrives, your first reaction can be excitement rather than concern about whether you can handle it. Your Fulfillment Partner Should Be Thinking About What Comes Next Too As a brand evolves, the relationship with its fulfillment partner should evolve with it. A good partner understands what you need today. A great one is curious about what you might need tomorrow. That means conversations should extend beyond current order volume. Where is the business heading? Are you pursuing retail opportunities? Are new products coming? Is international expansion part of the plan? Are you expecting a major marketing campaign to introduce the brand to a much larger audience? At Barrett, these conversations matter because understanding where a customer wants to go gives our teams a clearer picture of how we can help them get there. Growth rarely happens in a perfectly predictable line, so having people who already understand your business can make those unexpected opportunities much easier to navigate. The relationship becomes less about reacting to the next order and more about preparing for the next chapter. When the Big Moment Comes, Be Ready to Enjoy It There is something special about watching a brand reach a level that once felt far away. The orders coming in represent more than numbers on a screen. They represent new customers discovering what you created, years of work beginning to pay off, and opportunities that may not have existed even a few months earlier. That moment should feel exciting. It should not be overshadowed by wondering where you are going to put the inventory, whether orders will leave on time, or whether the customer experience will suffer because demand exceeded expectations. Growth will always bring new questions, and there will inevitably be adjustments along the way. What matters is having the people, preparation, and partnerships in place to meet those changes with confidence. At Barrett, we believe fulfillment should give brands room to pursue what comes next. Because when the moment arrives and more people than ever are ready to experience your brand, your focus should be on where that momentum can take you next.
Peak season has a way of arriving slowly, and then all at once. One minute, teams are finalizing promotions and reviewing forecasts; the next, order volumes are climbing, inventory is moving faster, and customers are expecting their purchases to arrive without a hitch. For brands, September is an important point in that transition. There is still time to prepare, but the decisions being made now can influence how smoothly the busiest months of the year unfold. Peak season tends to magnify what is already happening within a supply chain. Processes that work comfortably during an average week may feel very different under holiday volume, while small gaps in communication, capacity, or planning can quickly become much harder to manage. Being ready, then, isn't simply about having enough inventory in the warehouse. It's about understanding how your entire fulfillment operation will respond when there's more pressure on it—and having the right conversations before that pressure arrives. Here are five questions worth asking while there's still time to act on the answers. 1. How Well Do You Really Understand the Demand Ahead? No forecast can predict exactly what customers will do, especially during a season shaped by promotions, changing buying habits, and unexpected spikes in demand. But there's an enormous difference between entering peak season without certainty and entering it without a plan. Historical order patterns are a good place to begin, but they shouldn't be the only consideration. Upcoming promotions, new product launches, retail commitments, marketing campaigns, inventory arrivals, and anticipated changes in order profiles can all influence what your fulfillment operation will need to handle. More importantly, that information needs to make its way beyond your internal planning meetings. Your 3PL can't prepare for a promotion it doesn't know about, just as it can't anticipate a sudden change in order volume without visibility into what's ahead. The earlier those conversations happen, the more opportunity there is to think through labor, space, inventory positioning, and potential contingencies together. Barrett's Vice President of Customer Solutions, Scott Wilkins, spoke about the value of understanding the bigger picture during a recent Inside Barrett conversation: “The more you are able to uncover from what their pain points are, what direction they want to go, what their business plan looks like, not only leads to a better solution, but it leads to more cost certainty.” Peak planning is really an extension of that philosophy. The more both sides understand about what's coming, the better prepared they can be for it. 2. Can Your Operation Absorb More Volume Without Losing What Customers Value? Handling more orders is only one measure of peak-season readiness. The more meaningful question is whether your operation can absorb that additional volume while maintaining the experience your customers have come to expect. A fulfillment process may run beautifully under normal conditions, but peak season puts every part of it under greater strain. More inventory is moving through the building, more orders are entering the system, labor requirements shift, carrier schedules tighten, and there is less room for small inefficiencies to hide. That's why capacity conversations should go beyond, “How many orders can we ship?” Can you maintain accuracy at that volume? Can orders still meet expected service levels? Is there enough flexibility if demand exceeds the forecast? What happens if a promotion performs significantly better than anticipated? Those questions aren't meant to create anxiety around peak season. They're meant to uncover vulnerabilities while there's still time to strengthen them. 3. Are You Talking to Your 3PL Enough? Some of the most productive peak-season planning doesn't happen in a spreadsheet. It happens in conversations. Your logistics partner should know what's changing within your business, just as you should understand what's happening within your fulfillment operation. Forecasts will change. Promotions will evolve. Inventory may arrive earlier or later than anticipated. None of that is unusual—the challenge comes when those changes aren't communicated until they become urgent. Mark Healy spoke about this during his appearance on The New Warehouse Podcast, emphasizing that peak planning shouldn't suddenly begin when the holiday rush is already approaching: “If we're doing a good job, we should be doing this year-round. Peak is peak, but we shouldn't just be popping our heads up.” That perspective takes some of the drama out of peak season. When customers and their 3PL are already accustomed to sharing forecasts, discussing changes, reviewing performance, and planning ahead together, the busiest months don't require an entirely new relationship. They're simply a more demanding period within an established one. And when something unexpected inevitably happens, both teams already know how to communicate and solve it together. 4. Have You Thought About What Happens After the Order Leaves the Shelf? Peak season conversations naturally revolve around volume, labor, and shipping deadlines, but customers experience something much more personal. They experience their order. For someone purchasing a holiday gift, the package arriving at their door may be the only physical interaction they ever have with your brand. How it arrives, how it's packaged, whether the right item is inside, and how easy it is to return all contribute to the impression that customer carries forward. For brands that incorporate personalization, gift messaging, branded inserts, special packaging, or kitting into the experience, those details can become even more meaningful during the holidays. They also introduce additional operational considerations that need to be planned for before volumes accelerate. Peak season success shouldn't be defined solely by how many packages leave the warehouse. It should also be measured by whether the experience inside those packages still feels like your brand. 5. Is Your 3PL Preparing With You—or Simply Waiting for the Volume? Perhaps the most revealing peak-season question isn't about inventory, labor, or forecasts. It's about the relationship you have with the people responsible for helping you manage all three. A strong logistics partner shouldn't disappear between operational reviews and reappear when something goes wrong. They should be paying attention to where your business is headed, asking questions about what's changing, and helping identify challenges before they reach your customers. Mark described that responsibility particularly well when he said: “We should be in a position as the professionals to look around corners for our customers.” That's an important distinction during peak season. There will always be circumstances no one can predict, but proactive planning creates more room to respond when they happen. A 3PL that understands your business can help you think through those possibilities before they become emergencies, rather than simply reacting once the pressure is already there. The best partnerships make peak season feel less like your problem and their problem and more like a challenge everyone is prepared to navigate together. Peak Season Readiness Starts Before Peak Season There will always be an element of unpredictability in logistics, and perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than during the busiest months of the year. A promotion may outperform expectations, consumer demand may shift, or an unforeseen disruption may require everyone to adjust quickly. Being prepared doesn't mean eliminating every surprise. It means creating an operation—and a partnership—that can respond when surprises happen. That's why the conversations taking place in September matter. This is the opportunity to look closely at forecasts, question assumptions, address potential constraints, and make sure everyone understands what's ahead. It may not be the most visible part of peak season, but it's often the work that determines how everything else unfolds. At Barrett, we believe the strongest peak seasons are built through preparation long before the busiest orders begin arriving. When customers and their logistics teams communicate openly, plan thoughtfully, and trust one another enough to have difficult conversations early, there's less time spent reacting when the pressure rises—and more time focused on what matters most: delivering an experience customers can count on.
