Omni-Channel Retail and the Supply Chain The days of going to the local department store to buy a television, view the options available, and make a purchase now seem "quaint." The emergence of the internet, smartphones, social media, and other technologies has opened a world of new options for consumers (and businesses) to review, research, and buy online with an ever-increasing array of delivery options. The emergence of e-commerce has resulted in what is commonly known today as "omni-channel" marketing, in which customers engage with companies in a variety of ways, including in a physical store or online via websites and mobile apps. This process puts the supply chain "front and center," as consumers are increasingly demanding and browsing, buying, and returning goods through various channels, not just the traditional "brick and mortar" way. To accomplish this with high levels of service while remaining profitable requires real-time visibility of inventory across the supply chain and a single view of consumers as they continuously move from one channel to another. While this is a boon to consumers, it has made the already complex global supply chain even more challenging to manage. On top of that, the 2020 Covid19 pandemic has accelerated this omni-channel retail trend, as consumers need even more ways to order and additional options for last-mile delivery, such as curbside pickup. Covid19 has exposed a lack of flexibility and readiness, resulting in shortages of everything from toilet paper and meats to personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators. It has been a real-life example of the "bullwhip effect," where variability at the consumer end of the supply chain results in increased variability as one goes upstream towards distributors, manufacturers, and suppliers. This results in shortages, misallocations, and increased costs. No longer can a manufacturer, distributor, or retailer of consumer products just "fill the pipeline" and wait for orders to come in. Now, they must anticipate various purchases and delivery items, while at the same time minimizing costs. To do this is no easy task, requiring a Lean, agile, and responsive supply chain. Until now, there was no existing "playbook" for organizations to navigate their way through this new world. This book describes the impact of omni-channel marketing on the supply chain and logistics functions, and is intended to help management meet the needs of not only today’s ever-changing world but to anticipate what may be required in the future to achieve superior customer service, profitability, and a competitive advantage.

Omni-Channel Retail and the Supply Chain The days of going to the local department store to buy a television, view the options available, and make a purchase now seem "quaint." The emergence of the internet, smartphones, social media, and other technologies has opened a world of new options for consumers (and businesses) to review, research, and buy online with an ever-increasing array of delivery options. The emergence of e-commerce has resulted in what is commonly known today as "omni-channel" marketing, in which customers engage with companies in a variety of ways, including in a physical store or online via websites and mobile apps. This process puts the supply chain "front and center," as consumers are increasingly demanding and browsing, buying, and returning goods through various channels, not just the traditional "brick and mortar" way. To accomplish this with high levels of service while remaining profitable requires real-time visibility of inventory across the supply chain and a single view of consumers as they continuously move from one channel to another. While this is a boon to consumers, it has made the already complex global supply chain even more challenging to manage. On top of that, the 2020 Covid19 pandemic has accelerated this omni-channel retail trend, as consumers need even more ways to order and additional options for last-mile delivery, such as curbside pickup. Covid19 has exposed a lack of flexibility and readiness, resulting in shortages of everything from toilet paper and meats to personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators. It has been a real-life example of the "bullwhip effect," where variability at the consumer end of the supply chain results in increased variability as one goes upstream towards distributors, manufacturers, and suppliers. This results in shortages, misallocations, and increased costs. No longer can a manufacturer, distributor, or retailer of consumer products just "fill the pipeline" and wait for orders to come in. Now, they must anticipate various purchases and delivery items, while at the same time minimizing costs. To do this is no easy task, requiring a Lean, agile, and responsive supply chain. Until now, there was no existing "playbook" for organizations to navigate their way through this new world. This book describes the impact of omni-channel marketing on the supply chain and logistics functions, and is intended to help management meet the needs of not only today’s ever-changing world but to anticipate what may be required in the future to achieve superior customer service, profitability, and a competitive advantage.

The world of retailing has changed dramatically in the past decade. Sales originating at online channels have been steadily increasing, and even for sales transacted at brick-and-mortar channels, a much larger fraction of sales is affected by online channels in different touch points during the customer journey. Shopper behavior and expectations have been evolving along with the growth of digital channels, challenging retailers to redesign their fulfillment and execution processes, to better serve their customers. This edited book examines the challenges and opportunities arising from the shift towards omni- channel retail. We examine these issues through the lenses of operations management, emphasizing the supply chain transformations associated with fulfilling an omni-channel demand. The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, “Omni-channel business models”, we present four studies that explore how retailers are adjusting their fundamental business models to the new omni-channel landscape. The second part, “Data-driven decisions in an omni-channel world”, includes five chapters that study the evolving data opportunities enabled by omni-channel retail and present specific examples of data-driven analyses. Finally, in the third part, “Case studies in Omni-channel retailing”, we include four studies that provide a deep dive into how specific industries, companies and markets are navigating the omni-channel world. Ultimately, this book introduces the reader to the fundamentals of operations in an omni-channel context and highlights the different innovative research ideas on the topic using a variety of methodologies.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Supply, Production, Logistics, grade: 1,1, IE Business School, Madrid, course: Production & Supply Chain Management, language: English, abstract: This thesis is a description of the state of the art of the Omnichannel retail strategy with a focus on the changes necessary in supply chain design. Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive overview on omnichannel retailing that can serve as a first source of information for companies thinking about adapting this strategy. There is no single external source that combines the description of omnichannel retailing with details of how to implement this strategy yet, so this thesis makes it significantly easier for retailers to familiarize with the topic and get impulses for further research. The introduction shows the developments that led to the strategic move, which eases understanding the concept and its purpose. The thesis finds that technological innovations, changing shopping behavior, increasing expectations, and intensifying online competition were the major drivers affecting this shift. It continues to describe the common omnichannel initiatives before it gets into more detail on what supply chain and logistics changes are necessary to support them. First, it shows that the application of RFID technology and IT platforms creates an end-to-end transparent supply chain, which delivers the core capability to pursue this strategy: complete inventory visibility. Second, the solutions to improve fulfillment speed are presented. Both upgrades in order processing inside the warehouse and innovative last mile solutions are discussed in detail. Describing the benefits of omnichannel retailing, the paper shows that it perfectly meets the requirements of today’s retailers. Not only does the strategy improve profitability and productivity, it also helps them meet expectations, learn more about their customers and use this knowledge to sustainably compete in the market. It also finds that there are significant challenges to overcome before reaping these benefits. Large investments and added complexity need to be faced during setup and a non-aligned organization and the inability to engage employees are major problems during execution. As the retail environment evolves at a rapid pace, the paper finally presents strategies for companies that have fully developed omnichannel capabilities. These ensure that retailers can also compete once omnichannel is the new normal.

"The days of going to the local department store to buy a television, view the options available and make a purchase, now seem "quaint." The emergence of the internet, smart phones, social media and other technologies has opened a world of new options for consumers (and businesses) to review, research, and buy online with an ever-increasing array of delivery options. The emergence of e-commerce has resulted in what is commonly known today as "omni-channel" marketing, in which customers engage with companies in a variety of ways, including in a physical store, online via websites, and mobile apps. This process puts the supply chain "front and center" as consumers are increasingly demanding and browse, buy and return goods through various channels and not just the traditional "brick and mortar" way. To accomplish this with high levels of service while remaining profitable, requires real-time, visibility of inventory across the supply chain and a single view of the consumer as they continuously move from one channel to another. While this is a boon to consumers, it has made the already complex global supply chain even more challenging to manage. On top of that, the 2020 Covid19 Pandemic has accelerated this omni-channel retail trend as consumers need even more ways to order and additional options for last mile delivery such as curbside pickup. Covid19 has exposed the lack of flexibility and readiness resulting in shortages of everything from toilet paper and meats to "PPE" (personal protective equipment) and ventilators due to a variety of capacity and inventory allocation issues. It has been a real-life example of the "bullwhip effect" in action where variability at the consumer end of the supply chain results in increased variability as you go upstream towards distributors, manufacturers and suppliers creating shortages, mis-allocation and increase costs. No longer can a manufacturer, distributor or retailer of consumer products just "fill the pipeline" and wait for orders to come in. Now they must anticipate the various purchase and delivery items, while at the same time minimize costs. To do this is no easy task, requiring a Lean, agile and responsive supply chain. Until now, there was no existing "playbook" for organizations to navigate their way through this new world. This book describes the impact of omni-channel marketing on the supply chain and logistics functions and is intended to help management meet the needs of not only today's ever changing world but to anticipate what may be required in the future to achieve superior customer service, profitability, and a competitive advantage"--

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Supply, Production, Logistics, grade: 1,0, University of Applied Sciences Fulda, language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to give an overview of challenges for logistics and supply chain management which are linked to multichannel and omnichannel retailing. For this purpose, the characteristics and forms of multi- and omnichannel retailing are described and developments and their implications for retailers are pointed out. In combination with best practice approaches in SCM, recommendations for successful omnichannel supply chains, especially for order fulfillment and distribution logistics shall be outlined. Starting with the definitions of multi- and omnichannel retailing in the second chapter, the third chapter will focus on specific challenges and appropriate implications for retailers' supply chain management that are related to multi- and omnichannel distribution. The fourth chapter will finish with a conclusion and an outlook.

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: 1,0, European School of Business Reutlingen, language: English, abstract: The aim of this case study is to identify impacts and challenges of an omni-channel business model on the retail supply chain. Based on this, recommendations and possible solutions will be presented which the retail should adapt along its supply chain in order to respond to the identified challenges.