As consumers become more accustomed to shopping across online and offline retailing channels, multichannel retailers need to take a harder look at deploying technology that supports cross-channel order management and fulfillment, says Janet Sherlock, a retail analyst at research and advisory firm AMR Research Inc.
“Every retailer will need to have the capability of taking orders from anywhere and fulfilling from anywhere—if not now, then at some point down the road,” she says. “They should look at their technology base and see how it fits into that vision.”
As shoppers shop across web, store and contact centers, retailers with cross-channel order management systems can get a universal look at customer interests and shopping behavior. When retailers combine cross-channel order management with the ability to fulfill orders from any channel, including stores and warehouses dedicated for either stores or the online channel, they can maximize their ability to match customer demand with available inventory, Sherlock says.
At the very least, retailers should consider systems that support the ability of shoppers to return to stores items purchased online, she adds.
A recent study by AMR, however, noted that only 7% of retailers have deployed the infrastructure to provide customers with a true cross-channel shopping experience.
One reason for that low percentage is the cost of deploying new cross-channel technology, and Sherlock cautions that retailers should also be careful not to rush into a cross-channel environment with substandard systems.
If a retailer feels pressed to offer in-store pickup of online orders to let customers avoid high shipping costs, for example, it would be counter-productive to quickly deploy a stop-gap system that didn’t effectively integrate the online order management with a store fulfillment system, she says. In that case, it may be better to promote free shipping instead of in-store pickup until the retailer can afford to deploy a more effective system for in-store pickup, she says.
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