| | July 2015 7instrumented shopping. Retailers will explore and test location based marketing schemes that are actually synchronized with loyalty programs with very transparent and clearly communicated program benefits. The second order of business, fulfilling customer needs, is potentially even harder to accomplish because it requires optimizing and orchestrating product availability and product movements to align with customer demand to receive goods anywhere and anytime, while being ever mindful of cost. An efficient and effective supply chain will need to address additional complexities that omni-channel retail presents including the following:· How to factor online sales that are picked up in store in forecast and replenishment models· How to recognize sales that are impacted by assets, people and systems, in multiple channels­for example store and ecommerce· How to ramp up for ship from anywhere including same day delivery without being crushed by increased costs while waiting for demand for these services to scale· What policies and processes need to be created to manage the returns flow of goods· How to obtain a holistic and deep understanding of the customer that incorporates in aisle shopping behaviors as well as those online· How to measure and manage marketing success, and optimize budget to omni-channel programs In 2014, retailers will evaluate new ways to fulfill consumer need, and we expect supply networks and collaborative relationships to significantly improve their ability to do this profitably. Retailers will need to maintain an omni-channel war room, or at least an omni-channel task force, in order to keep pace with the strategic moves of the competition.Underlying these needs is a need to have common core customer and product demand analysis among channels. Analytics platforms can now access more data and perform analysis in a fraction of the time required previously, essentially making real time or at least closer to real time analysis possible. This is revolutionizing a retailers' ability to integrate analytics into core processes that directly impacts how well they perform customer specific marketing, assortment and supply planning, and even brand development. We reached a tipping point in 2013 in "doing omni-channel", and this has created higher demand for prescriptive roadmap development and packaged and/or tightly integrated solutions. By that I mean retailers, particularly those that are not omni-channel leaders, progressed far enough to realize that omni-channel is not a matter of simply adding mobile POS or enriching eCommerce. In fact, serving omni-channel customers requires that retailers not repeat patterns of the past, but instead create brands that integrate mobile, social and analytics into everything they do. The retailer of the future will allow cloud, big data, mobile and social to facilitate and enable a technological transformation that is truly built for these times. Retail organizations will also change the way that they consume IT services. New positions including Chief Experience Officer, Chief Omni-Channel Officer and Chief Digital Officer, along with pre-existing Chief Operating Officers and Chief Marketing Officers will bridge the divide between IT and the business. These individuals need to work together to develop strategies to serve the customers well, enabling new levels of interaction. But these leaders will also need to navigate the new technologies and services available, and in some cases, take giant leaps forward in order to succeed.The questions that arise and the opportunities to improve everything from brand perception to business process and very specific tactical decisions are seemingly unlimited when retailers can get past the notions of what worked in the past. Commerce and fulfillment are two of the biggest technology investment areas for retailers today
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