Thanks to Walmart and Amazon shoppers expect free home delivery of online orders. They also expect to buy products online and pick them up in stores. And soon, they will expect same-day pick-up with a time guarantee, thanks to Best Buy. Much is a stake in this battle, and it all boils down to perfecting cross-channel fulfillment.
The online channel has remained a bright spot of growth during the current downturn. But to satisfy customers retailers need to upgrade their fulfillment capabilities and tightly integrate them across channels.
To find out how retailers plan to achieve this goal RIS conducted a poll at the end of September. Here are highlights from the study “Cross-Channel Fulfillment,” which was posted in the November issue of RIS and can be downloaded by clicking here.
Key Takeaways
Elimination of siloed inventory systems is a major concern in retailing, and within a few years the vast majority of retailers will be using centralized, cross-channel inventory management systems. Here are some key datapoints from the study:
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Innotrac Corporation (Nasdaq: INOC), a leading full-service provider of product fulfillment, order processing and Customer Care services for direct-to-consumer marketers, today announced that Innotrac and Ann Taylor Stores Corporation (NYSE: ANN) have agreed to a multi-year extension of the fulfillment services agreement for AnnTaylor.com and Loft.com.
“Ann Taylor Stores Corporation has been a valued Innotrac client for almost 10 years, and we look forward to continuing to support the growth of their online initiatives,” said Larry Hanger, Senior Vice President Client Services, Innotrac.
Innotrac provides fulfillment services for Ann Taylor Stores Corporation from their Chicago area facility.
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Aero Fulfillment Services has expanded their client base by answering the requests, challenges, and demands that new clients have put to them. This year, Armstrong World Industries has taken advantage of Aero’s customized marketing operations and fulfillment solutions to measure and improve inventory accuracy, increase efficiency, and lower costs.
Headquartered in Lancaster, PA, Armstrong World Industries is a global company with annual revenue over $2.5 billion. Armstrong initially began their search for a fulfillment service company to accommodate their varied programs offering samples and literature to a wide spectrum of users, from Consumers to Distributors to Internal Support. Through strategic account management and the power of aeroNavigator(TM)–Aero’s proprietary Tier 1 technology–Aero was able to build the comprehensive solution Armstrong needed to gain easy access to order, inventory, and customer management.
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When looking to outsource fulfilment to a third party, you don’t have to use the fulfilment services offered by your ecommerce portal, says Go Fulfilment, specialists in UK and European e-fulfilment.
Destination websites that offer services packaged that offer distribution services don’t always fulfil the needs of online sellers and for some they can be very limiting. Brand recognition is important to growing businesses, and many online shopping sites that offer fulfilment services often have restrictive packaging options. Some online shopping sites’ fulfilment services limit shipping to the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan and the United States and for each country a seller wishes to ship to, they must set up an individual account. If sellers are looking to ship outside of these regions and if brand identity is important, it is useful to know there are other fulfilment and distribution houses that can fulfil these requirements, these services work with all the major online shopping sites, so there is no loss of market.
Regional fulfilment companies offer flexibility for businesses wanting to use an outsourced fulfilment house. Fulfilment companies, such as Go Fulfilment, only require sellers to have one account to manage and have the capability to ship internationally. Sellers are not limited to which countries they can ship.
Brian Taylor, CEO of Go Fulfilment says “Sellers can feel confident using fulfilment companies to distribute their goods as they have experience and knowledge in dealing with customs offices. Goods can be distributed much more quickly, ensuring a good relationship between the seller and recipient.”
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