Despite many companies making significant investments to improve their omni-channel sales capabilities, only a few can fulfil omni-channel demand profitably.
So says Kevin Iaquinto, chief marketing officer at JDA Software, commenting on the findings of a recent survey that JDA conducted in conjunction with PwC.
Omni-channel retailing, or multi-channel retailing, is the use of a variety of channels in a customer's shopping experience. Such channels include retail stores, online stores, mobile stores, mobile app stores, telephone sales and any other method of transacting with a customer.
The JDA-PwC research involved 410 responses from CEOs across the globe. The majority of the respondents identified themselves as coming from hard goods, soft goods, consumer packaged goods, e-commerce and grocery verticals.
According to JDA, although retailers are spending an enormous amount of money, energy and time investing in omni-channel retailing, only 16% of companies say they can fulfil omni-channel demand profitably today.
Some 67% of the respondents reported that costs are growing as they increase their focus on selling across channels. They cite their highest costs associated with omni-channel selling as handling returns from online and store orders (71%), shipping directly to the customer (67%) and shipping to the store for customer pick-up (59%).
"Every time retailers receive an online order, they have a number of options to fulfil that demand," says Iaquinto.
"They can pull the product from a local store, send it from a centralised warehouse or ship it directly from the supplier. JDA's new study demonstrates that most retailers lack the insight to make these decisions in a profitable manner - and are not sufficiently focused on this critical capability gap."
David Concordel, VP for retail solutions at Fujitsu, says the rise of mobile commerce is changing how people shop, forcing retailers to rethink customer engagement and orchestrate the combination of in-store and online processes.
Mobile is influencing purchasing decisions before shoppers set foot in the store, encouraging price comparison at the point of selection and accounting for an ever-growing percentage share of online transactions, Concordel adds.
"With mobile-enabled sales continuing to grow, it has never been more important for retailers to deliver high-value, robust and efficient mobile capabilities. We believe retailers can best achieve this by closely integrating functionality, device and service - regardless of platform, off- as well as online, and without investment risk."
Mike Plimsoll, industry marketing director at Adobe Systems, is of the view that omni-channel retailers benefit in several ways.
Firstly, he says, they are able to gain greater consumer insight by breaking down the data "silos" and looking at their customers' habits and trends across the entire customer journey.
"From this knowledge, omni-channel retailers are then able to create and deliver a consistent brand identity and experience across all touch points, while ensuring a personalised and relevant cross-channel experience for all of its customers."
He believes the right omni-channel strategy also provides a bridge to the next-generation of mobile and social consumer who is looking to engage with brands across these channels.
"What this, therefore, allows the retailer, is to increase the value they provide to their customers which, in turn, increases loyalty, sales and retention for their brand," Plimsoll concludes.
Share