What does omnichannel mean to you?

Retail Assist is continually approached to support retail brands’ omnichannel aspirations and operations, but what is omnichannel?

Omnichannel is a real-time, channel-agnostic visibility of inventory across the supply chain using a central stock pool, complemented by a single view of the consumer as they simultaneously shop across various channels, with the ability to fulfil demand anytime, anywhere.

As supply chain software specialists, we understand that the term “omnichannel” means many different things to retailers, and so tailor our solution, Merret, accordingly. We have 21 “omniscenarios” that we can currently offer as standard.

Whilst one brand may see omnichannel trading as the ability to perform operations such as ship-from-store to maximise the financial potential of stock inventory, another may view omni-ability differently in terms of what they can offer the customer: online orders returned in-store, for example. This is why we scope out our customers’ exact business requirements when they need support to implement omni.

Retail Assist’s end-to-end supply chain solution, Merret, has been developed to deliver the following omnijourneys, to fit our customers’ business needs:

As you can see, there are two main ordering options (online – encompassing mobile, tablet, desktop ordering; and in-store), two fulfilment options (from the warehouse; or from stores), and two delivery options (direct to the customer – home delivery; or to a collection point – for example a store).

Having the ability to fulfil orders regardless of channel, due to a single view of stock, is one of the biggest benefits of Merret cited by our customers.

Latest statistics from our Merret customer, Oasis, reveal that since fulfilling orders through Ship-from-Store, 20-30% incremental web sales have been achieved. Making in-store inventory available to online customers is critical to support increased demand with more opportunities to sell stock at full price – Merret’s central stock pool facilitates this, as in quadrant 1 and 2.

Click and Collect also presents great opportunities to drive sales, as New Look reports: a quarter of its Click and Collect customers make additional purchases when collecting in-store. During seasonal periods, these average an extra £27 per transaction.

Merret drives all of the processes you can see in the infographic, which when written out take the product through the following “omnijourneys” from point of order/sale to point of delivery:

• Order on Web, Fulfilled from DC, Delivered to Home Address
• Order on Web, Fulfilled from Single Store, Delivered to Home Address (Ship from Store)
• Order on Web, Fulfilled from Multi Stores, Delivered to Home Address (Ship from Store)

• Order on Web, Fulfilled from DC for Customer Collection (Click and Collect)
• Order on Web, Fulfilled from Collection Store for Customer Collection (Click and Collect)
• Order on Web, Fulfilled from other Stores for Customer Collection (Ship from Store & Click and Collect)

• Ordered in Store, Fulfilled from DC, Delivered to Home Address
• Ordered in Store, Fulfilled from Store, Delivered to Home Address
• Ordered in Store, Fulfilled from other Stores, Delivered to Home Address (Ship from Store)

• Ordered in Store, Fulfilled in Store (traditional bought over counter)
• Ordered in Store, Fulfilled from DC for Customer Collection
• Ordered in Store, Fulfilled from other Store for Customer Collection (Ship from Store)

Different omnijourneys have different levels of complexity, but the sophisticated engineering of our supply chain solution means Merret doesn’t see it this way.

Omnichannel retailers who have a fully integrated front and back end and an integrated organisational structure are twice as likely to deliver double-digit growth, according to latest research. Want to talk more about how we can implement your vision of omnichannel? Just email info@retail-assist.co.uk to start the ball rolling.