Retailers in the non-food sector, are set to invest some £5bn ($7.7bn) in making the transition to omni-channel over the next five years. A study by LCP Consulting, Retail Supply Chain Management: The Omni-channel Revolution, suggests that the "omni" revolution is accelerating with retailers, now spending on average the equivalent of three percent of annual turnover on the change.
Jim Wicker, President of JW Logistics, talks about changes in the retail industry that are increasing the focus on last-mile logistics and the challenges this poses for both retailers and their transportation providers.
Release of the second UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper: A Customer Experience Study analyzes omnichannel retailing and shows consumers want more choices when it comes to shopping online, more control over when their purchases will be delivered and a convenient returns process. They're also using social media to shop for the best deals and expect more shipping options from e-tailers.
Eight months into a controversial customer-tracking mobile trial, Nordstrom has halted the effort. Although Nordstrom took a lot of criticism for the mostly misunderstood program from consumer media, it's not clear whether the project ended as a result of the criticism or the trial had simply run its course.
Typically bound by short-term leases, displaying products made by others, and run by first-time entrepreneurs with limited capital, shopping mall carts and kiosks have long been considered an unsophisticated small-business underclass. More recently, however, these small-footprint retailers have come to be seen as possessing surprising potential.
The myth of showrooming - the suggestion that tons of shoppers are flooding stores to only use them as a physical showroom as they had always intended to purchase the product at Amazon - lives on. But a survey conducted in late April by Bizrate Insights is helping to add a little clarity. First, showrooming really doesn't happen very often. But more interestingly, when it does, it's more likely to be within the same chain. That's a problem all right, but the name of that problem isn't showrooming. It's internal politics.