Destination Christmas – How online shopping has changed the warehousing and forklift industry

The way we spend has dramatically changed over the past decade with more and more consumers choosing to do their Christmas shopping online. The combination of a struggling High St and just how annoying it is to spend your Sunday traversing the masses up and down Oxford St has led many traditional shoppers to spend their hard earned cash in a more convenient manner
Over 15-20% of retail sales are online now, the market is huge – for instance, Amazon received 5.5 million orders on Black Friday while at the same time John Lewis managed to sell a tablet every second during a record setting £179 million day.

This has predictably placed a lot of strain on the warehousing and logistics industry with orders far exceeding what was initially anticipated. The only way for warehouse managers to keep up with the booming online market is to be innovative. An average Amazon order has to be processed within two hours. That’s a very short timescale when you consider that you have to receive the order, locate, box and distribute the package before the process can be completed.

In this situation speed is of the essence. The solution is Impact Handlings Pallet Mole forklift, recognised as one of the fastest warehouse forklifts in the business – it can reach speeds of up to 10 mph. Not exactly the same pace as a Lamborghini but it is impressive when you take into account that it’s a little forklift.

Impact Handling has been providing the industrial sector with commercial warehouse distribution solutions for the past thirty years. Impact have offices up and down the country with a core presence in the midlands.