In a study conducted in December, 59 percent of retailers said they did not have plans to deploy new order fulfillment solutions like ship-from-store or in-store pickup. The study also revealed that 71 percent of retailers reported that they do not have a position in their company with “omnichannel” in the title. What’s more, many retailers have put off implementing an enterprise-grade order management system because of the high investment costs, lack of integration with existing systems and the lack of time and resources dedicated to deployment.
According to a recent EKN Research report, Second Annual Future of Stores Benchmark, retail stores need to move from a destination of commerce to a hub of omnichannel customer engagement. The report states that the lack of process integration, limited software capabilities and limited inventory visibility are the top three challenges retailers face in offering store fulfillment of online orders.
The study also revealed that 41 percent of retail fulfillment partners would reduce their buying from a brand they stock in their retail channels if the brand offered “direct-to-consumer,” and 23 percent reported they would stop buying from the brand all together. However, 57 percent of the retail fulfillment partners in the study said they would like brands that they stock in their retail channels to sell on eBay and other marketplaces if the resulting orders were routed to their store for fulfillment.
