There is no doubt that in recent years digital transformation in retail has accelerated at pace. Technology has advanced significantly and with brands now moving into their busiest season, consumers will continue to opt for convenient shopping both online and on the high street for the ideal purchase.
In the shift to what some are calling ‘phygital retail’, retailers are combining the best bits of physical stores and digital retail to create a hybrid shopping experience for customers in line with changing demands.
Having to respond to the change in consumer behaviour has also created a new opportunity to reassess how these brands are doing business. Physical locations will be critical to building and maintaining the flexibility demanded of retail supply chains, with stores now serving as fulfilment centres or distribution points. This way, they can enable the delivery of excellent shopping experiences.
Top Trends in Retail Digital Transformation and Innovation
In the last year, with rapid digital transformation in mind – especially regarding physical locations – Gartner has identified seven key trends that retail CIOs must recognize and understand when advising the business on technology investments. According to Gartner, the pandemic has dramatically increased these technologies’ importance to retailers’ efforts to meet and exceed customer expectations. These are:
- Touchless interactions
- Fulfilment execution
- Algorithmic merchandising optimization
- Associated enablement and effectiveness
- Collaborative ecosystems
- Cost optimization
- Values-driven consumption
How to excel in Fulfillment Execution for retailers
The significant rise in e-commerce during the past year, as well as increasing consumer demand, has made excelling in fulfilment execution a top priority for retailers. According to Gartner’s final mile survey, just 18% of those asked reported fulfilment accuracy rates of 95% or higher. Gartner also says that half of the online orders are now handled by a store, through either click-and-collect or store fulfilment (ship-from-store).
Shoppers want to search, transact, acquire and consume products and services safely and easily across an entire ecosystem. This means that retailers need strong store teams and robust technology to create a fluid customer experience while simultaneously managing costs.
As a result, it is recommended that CIOs take action and improve the management of on-hand inventory, avoid ‘dead’ inventory and reduce waste by leveraging RFID technology and optimizing customer order fulfilment by improving real-time inventory visibility.
Enabling full inventory visibility using RFID technology
Whether merchandise is located in a warehouse, a distribution centre, a physical store, or a truck, you cannot make fulfilment promises to customers without an accurate inventory picture. Having inventory silos means that items often meet a customer’s needs and timing, but they can’t be seen or accessed, resulting in losing a sale.
What should be a centralized view of all available inventory is instead currently just a keyhole view. This leads to lost sales, customers aggravated by overpromising, giving away margin due to markdowns and expedited shipping charges, carrying excess safety stock and limited ability to enter new sales channels. RFID allows retailers to have complete visibility of their supply chain from the moment they enter the warehouse until they reach the shop floor.
Create a Complete and Transparent View of Your Entire Supply Chain
So what is the answer to all these challenges? Break down inventory silos by creating a single view of stock across your entire supply chain. Stores, distribution centers and e-centers channels will no longer have their own stock pools.
By creating a single point of truth to view inventory across the entire network of your supply chain and move items between stores, distribution centers and e-commerce, you reduce the risk of losing sight of a single item. Additionally, this allows users to perfectly match demand and supply anywhere, at any time, through the use and speciality of RFID technologies. RFID provides a blueprint that works as a valuable long-term asset in withholding any discrepancies within the supply chain process, so retailers are always in control.
To be better prepared for what’s coming in 2023, retailers must continue to evolve and pay attention to the top technological trends. In the end, regardless of whether consumers shop in-store or online, one thing remains unchanged – retailers need to provide the best shopping experience they can that aligns with customer expectations, something that must take effect from the inside out.
Tom Vieweger, RFID business expert at Nedap Retail
