In the beginning there was Amazon. The e-commerce giant, founded in 1994 and operating in Italy since 2010, has revolutionised not only spending habits, but also the logistical procedures to accommodate this radical change in behaviour. The drop shipping method therefore began to be applied at our latitudes too, well assimilated over the years also by local companies, including customisation companies. “We have been adopting this practice for several years,” explains Stefano Di Saverio, Managing Director of Abruzzo company Silicon, “which allows us to ship directly to the end customer using the bill from the purchasing agency. There are various advantages: clearly, if instead of triangular between Teramo, Milan (home to many agencies) and Rome, you make a single Teramo-Rome shipment, you reduce both costs and CO₂ footprint, plus delivery times.” Not to mention that Silicon, a pioneer of imports from China, has an approved customs point at its headquarters, a factor that significantly speeds up goods receipt phases, avoiding the queues that often arise at ports or airports.

Professional Pins too offers “tailor-made” deliveries, which makes B2B and B2C services available to its clients to collect their promotional badges at collection points affiliated with couriers. Luca Renzoni, owner of the company in Pessano con Bornago (Milan), explains: “This way, the customer doesn’t have to stay at home or at the company for the delivery to arrive, but can simply go and pick up the shipment at the collection point.” Not to mention that Professional Pins is about to install a small locker outside its headquarters, which will allow clients to pick up their order even outside opening hours, through a unique collection code.

Delivery represents the last mile of an order, and customisation specialists have prepared for it by introducing innovative processes in recent years, also making use of new technologies. “Our system gives us access to all orders in progress,” confirms Luca Renzoni, “as well as the ability to create shipments, choosing the best courier from the various ones we are subscribed to and printing the adhesive label directly on the package, to avoid the use of traditional (and not very sustainable) adhesive label holders for inserting printed sheets.”

Digitalisation has also changed the face of warehouses, rationalising their spaces and tracking their stocks: that’s what happens in Grumello del Monte (Bergamo), where CTP used moulding to transform semi-finished products into items (also) for promotional use, sometimes scented. An automated warehouse capable of handling 1,300 pallets was activated here one year ago, where ready-made, logoed goods are stored together with all semi-finished products and consumer items, except for raw materials and fragrances. “In addition to the software that handles the entire accounting component (invoicing, order entry and confirmation, etc.), we have software dedicated to all the items,” explains Carla Pagani, the company’s quality manager, “in terms of both product sheets and orders and mould and injector archives, etc. Then there’s the actual management system, which handles all the production and therefore unloading the warehouse.” That’s a crucial resource not only from a strictly logistical point of view, but also from that of supply chain transparency, which is imperative to say the least: “Since CTP is certified,” Pagani confirms, “we are regularly audited and the management systems mean that we are able to provide complete traceability, both downward and upward.”