IT Vital For Enabling Multi-Channel Retail Supply Chain

Ovum believes that technology has a vital role in enabling the multi-channel retailing supply chains that retailers seek, based on a new Asia-Pacific focused report, “Enabling the multi-channel retail supply chain.'

Multi-channel retailing is a business imperative for all retailers in Asia-Pacific and globally. However, there still remains much confusion about how to actually implement a multi-channel operation that’s efficient, effective. The supply chain, or back-end, plays a major role in ensuring that customer satisfaction is maximised while profitability targets are met but too often the associated business processes remain fragmented and perform poorly. “For retailers to succeed in their multi-channel operations, they must have a properly implemented end-to-end supply chain,” said Adam Jura, Senior Analyst, Ovum.

To meet the challenges of the various supply chain dynamics associated with different retail channels and ensure that the customer experience is maximised, retailers need to focus on what Ovum defines as the composite-channel: a unifying view of multi-channel retailing that provides for a seamless customer experience across multiple channels.

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Visibility into multi-channel supply chains and associated operations has been hampered by a siloed approach to both organisational structure and IT capabilities.

Similarly, ensuring that enterprise applications are well integrated to support multi-disciplinary business processes is of critical importance. Retailers need to view their application environments as an integrated solution to support the business needs of composite-channel retailing.

“In Ovum’s opinion retailers should therefore focus their attention on improving data quality across multiple channels through a master data management (MDM) strategy,” said Jura.

Internet penetration has been a key indicator within the retail industry for several years now, as it is considered a feed-in driver for investment in multi-channel retail strategies that include an online operation. It clearly illustrates the dual internet economies within the APAC region.

“These results have important implications for retailers within the region, as consumer demand for the online channel is only going to increase,” said Jura.