Facing pressure to manage escalating costs while fulfilling an increasing number of multichannel orders, some companies are applying the kitchen sink-strategy in the hopes of finding that one miracle solution.
Whether they are investing in new software, new technology or combining traditional approaches, the search is on for a procedure to respond to the challenges of multichannel distribution.
Two trends are to bring outsourced volumes back in-house and to perform multichannel distribution within a single facility.
Some find centralized inventory makes it easy to move products between channels, but others say that servicing multiple channels from the same facilities adds tremendous complexities to the systems.
