Deploying the Ironclad Store Experience

For today’s shoppers, digitization has made the world their oyster. Consumers have more information at their fingertips than ever before, from mobile apps and self-checkout to digital order pickup and connected associates, and their expectations have changed. When they see a product on a website, they want to know whether it is available — in real time. In short, the customer is in control. Welcome to the omnichannel experience 2.0, which moves beyond merely integrating selling channels, to retailers creating truly unified commerce customer experiences regardless of the purchasing channel. Read on to learn what retailers need to bulletproof their store experience. This new phase includes a collection of multiple processes that businesses need to incorporate to engage and convert consumers. It starts with retailers having insight into real-time inventory to glean what products are available and when customers can pick them up. From there, in-store retail associates can leverage smart devices to easily access shopper data and fulfill orders from store shelves, while shoppers can receive inventory updates in real time. This level of unified commerce is orchestrated by integrated business planning and operations, inventory visibility, and powerful AI/ML analytics technologies. Today, if you’re a retailer and don’t utilize the technologies needed for the modern retail store, you will quickly move to the back of the pack. This is critically important now as we come out of the global pandemic. Retail is growing at levels not seen in over 20 years, according to the National Retail Federation. Retail sales grew by 7% in 2020 and by over 14% in 2021. This year, NRF is forecasting that sales will grow by between 6% and 8% to more than $4.9 trillion. Here are some of the technologies needed to run the modern retail store. Inventory Accuracy As more and more customers adapt to buying products online, but picking them up in-store, retailers in turn must think about how fast they can process orders. If promising orders will be ready for pickup in a two-hour window, retailers also need to consider the availability of store labor and whether they have the capacity to process the orders, as well as understand how many other orders are happening in real time. They must balance those promises with inventory accuracy, which industry observers say has been a real struggle, typically with 70% to 80% accuracy. Omnichannel Order Fulfillment Retailers often use disparate platforms that can’t provide a single view of inventory, which hinders BOPIS capability. They need technologies that not only enable this, but also the ability to show customers what fulfillment options are available and once they purchase, when a product is ready for pickup. Further, when the customer arrives, or even as they are heading to the store, a store associate should receive a notification on a mobile device so they can prepare to greet the shopper with their digital order. Omnichannel fulfillment was a goal for Petco, the largest U.S. retailer of pet products and services, with 1,500 locations. In response to emerging customer commerce needs, Petco wanted to provide accurate and reliable inventory availability levels to both online and in-store consumers. Now, with inventory availability and omnichannel fulfillment capabilities, Petco’s inventory, fulfillment, and customer location data have been unified in a single platform to create customer-centric, personalized digital commerce. This has resulted in higher conversion rates, reduced levels of abandonment, and increased shopper satisfaction. Next-Gen Store Fulfillment Labor shortages continue to sting retailers, yet customers’ expectations for speedy e-commerce order fulfillment are still growing. Retailers need to find that magic recipe to keep fulfillment time and costs down, while still working with the labor they have. This requires warehouse-like operations in the store that are agile and scalable and meet today’s market demands in areas such as task management, inventory accuracy, pick/pack/stage/ship activities. Further, when rethinking these operations, look for platforms that also offer capabilities for operating with greater speed and efficiency. Technologies should provide a flexible approach for a wide range of applications through domain-centric microservices. With scalable, adaptive fulfillment services, retailers will gain: Inventory visibility for end-to-end fulfillment process (receiving -> outbound shipping) The ability for intelligent task optimization for timeliness, productivity, and labor across all stockroom & inventory activities Integration with parcel and last-mile delivery providers and receipt of final delivery to keep customer promises Curbside, same-day, and batch order picking with quick, high-volume options to enhance the customer fulfillment experience Demand Planning and Category Management Customers often have different needs and different buying behaviors. That can make demand planning, fulfillment execution, and category management across different markets very complex. Consequently, accurate inventory positioning has become very important. At Sally Beauty, for example, the retailer acutely felt the shift in consumer behavior during the pandemic with its BOPIS rate growing 30% very quickly. The company needed rapid inventory movement, as well as flexible fulfillment capabilities like ship-from-store. Accurate inventory positioning tools help minimize costs and maximize service by understanding omnichannel demand, which gives Sally Beauty the ability to position its inventory appropriately. The company is also utilizing a platform for planning capabilities to consolidate and synchronize demand signals, as well as external variables across two businesses and multiple sales channels. Fulfillment planning capabilities are helping Sally Beauty make profitable, flexible decisions by considering channel- and market-specific demand signals, customer service targets, inventory locations, safety-stock policies, and other constraints. Technology with category management capabilities is enabling Sally Beauty to create intelligent, informed merchandising plans that drive revenue growth by leveraging customer insights, maximizing the selling space available and applying robust analytics. Advanced Technologies are a Differentiator It’s safe to say the pandemic has forever changed the way customers interact with retailers and they expect a seamless and personalized experience regardless of where they choose to shop — in-store, online, or from a mobile device. Customer journeys are increasingly non-linear, and the ability to drive value and convenience across paths to purchase has become a strong differentiator. Creating a unified omnichannel customer experience can help retailers gain insights into their customers and more easily provide an optimized shopping experience that is consistent across channels. Unified commerce platforms “allow retailers to offer their customers a more personalized shopping experience,’’ according to an RIS Targeted Research report. “As more than half work toward offering their customers an integrated shopping experience across available channels, personalization capabilities shouldn’t be ignored.” Continuous advancements in technology mean it is vital for retailers to upgrade unified commerce capabilities. The RIS report finds that retailers are indeed responding, with 67% starting or complete major upgrades to capabilities related to data-driven insights and 63% starting or complete upgrades to unifying customer views across channels. Yet, more retailers need to heed the call. Only 3% of respondents in the RIS report say they are currently providing “truly unified experiences,’’ and less than a third (30%) describe their organizations as being “very” or “extremely” invested in the unified commerce space. A third (33%) do not have single views of their customers available to them, but most retailers overall (61%) consider a 360-degree view of customers an important unified commerce platform benefit. The future of commerce is about retailers having the ability to meet customers where they are and delivering shopping experiences that are seamless, personalized, and convenient. As technology continuously evolves, they must too.