Omni-Channel Retailing is a subject we are go to be hearing a lot about in the coming years. This is the first of two blogs on this topic. In the first blog I will provide an oveview of what the term means and then outline the implications for shippers, retailers and consumers. In the next blog I will outline the implications for freight transportation companies and logistics service providers.
It is helpful to define some terms to understand what is taking place. The chart below and some of the content in this blog are taken from an article entitled Omni-Channel Supply Chains Designed for a Retail World without Boundaries by Randy Stang, Vice President of Customer Solutions for the Retail Industry team at UPS. The chart captures the various retail models visually.
Over the past decade, retailers have been migrating from the basic Single Channel model of store to consumer retailing to the utilization of multiple modes (e.g. store and e commerce). Multichannel 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. Transacting includes browsing, buying, returning as well as pre and post-sale service.
As the name implies, Multichannel retailing involves serving customers through a discrete set of distribution options. Pioneers of multichannel retailing include Macy's, Next PLC, John Lewis and Neiman Marcus. The pioneers of multichannel retail built their businesses from a customer centric perspective and served the customer via multiple channels before the term 'multichannel' was used.
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