MULTICHANNEL
11
STOCK VISIBILITY PROVES MULTICHANNEL KEY R
etail Technology spoke to leading multichannel vendors to understand the key issues faced by multichannelretailers
moving forward into 2011. “Retaining customers and improving online
marketing effectiveness are the number one priority for online retailers,” said Andrew McGregor, chief executive at commerce solutions provider eCommera. David Hogg, retail and consumer packaged
goods executive at IBM’s Sterling Commerce, said: “With retailers now selling across such a broad variety of channels, not only is there a greater variety of product categories to control, but each product within a category has it its own unique replenishment profi le characteristics.” As a result, he said major retailers must
now cope with customer orders and provide them with multiple fulfi lment options rather that the traditional and simple bulk supplier order management used to replenish their stores. To achieve this, retailers should not underestimate the importance of re- engineering their supply chain and inventory management practices to deal with the e-commerce, cross and multichannel retail
revolution.The order and fulfi lment processes that lie behind a retailer’s website, warehouse or the store room of a shop, will impact as much on a customer’s overall experience as their front-of-house sales experience. Keith Sherry, BT Global Services supply chain solutions general manager, pointed out that retailers could benefi t from observing the benefi ts Amazon have gained from spending around 19% of their gross profi t on technology, rather than the average retail
industry spend of 2.7%, as calculated by Goldman Sachs.
“This technology has enabled Amazon
to have full visibility of their stock and thus allowing them to ensure excellence in customer experience and management of customer experience, by fully understanding stock availability at any given time.” But when there are multiple channels to
market and these include the physical retail outlet, Sherry argued that the only effective
ASOS LAUNCHES FIRST EUROPEAN INTEGRATED FACEBOOK STORE
ASOS.com, the UK’s largest independent online fashion and beauty retailer, is unveiling the fi rst European fully integrated Facebook Store.
The new integrated Facebook application,
developed by the ASOS User Experience team in partnership with mobile technology company Usablenet, combines shopping and social media and extends e-commerce functionality to the ASOS Facebook community. The integration is designed to allow
customers to safely and securely shop the entire ASOS product range through the Facebook Store, using their existing ASOS login, and take advantage of all account facilities such as order tracking.With 11 million unique visits per month and a following of close to 400,000 on Facebook, ASOS will offer all customers the opportunity to buy, save, share and comment on items without needing to leave the social networking site.
way of truly understanding the absolute instore stock availability is using item-level radio frequency identifi cation (RFID) tagging. “It is critically important for a whole host of reasons to the retailer: to ensure suffi cient stock and to support advertising and promotions. The retail apparel manufacturers and retailers are ahead of the curve, clearly recognising the benefi ts,” he added. “Deploying an RFID inventory management system typically raises sales by 5-10% and sometimes by far more.”
“I’m delighted to announce the arrival of our Facebook Store; another fi rst from ASOS, and another way for our customers to tailor their ASOS shopping experience,” said James Hart, e-commerce director at ASOS. “Millions of our users already interact with ASOS through Facebook, commenting on, sharing and discovering new items. Many of those go on to buy something on one of our sites. Our Facebook Store will allow them to do this directly through Facebook.”
Advanced Systems - Cloud Technologies - On-line Settlement - Contactless Payment
Management - Margin Control - Business Analytics - Loss Prevention
Automation
- Promotions and Vouchers - Cash Management - Central Replenishment
ACCORD® - SUCCESSFULLY DRIVING OVER 2000 UK STORES JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 RETAIL TECHNOLOGY
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40