By Glenn Taylor, Associate Editor
In his keynote speech at the Manhattan Momentum client conference in Orlando, Fl., Manhattan Associates CEO Eddie Capel cited the recent financial woes hitting major retail players as yet another sign that the “traditional commerce model is under pressure.”
Even as this pressure builds, retailers have the opportunity to rise to the occasion by offering personalized fulfillment, which is driven by:
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- A holistic understanding of the consumer;
- Full utilization of network inventory; and
- Flawless, efficient execution.
“From your call center associate to your replenishment driver in the distribution center…From your micro marketing whiz in the store to your pack station operator,” Capel explained. “All of these individuals should have full access to who the customer is, where the sellable units are and best-in-class fulfillment tools.”
Retailers such as ASDA, Bed Bath & Beyond, Michael Kors, Pet Supplies Plus and Target exemplified the continued theme of personalized fulfillment throughout the conference, with representatives from each team sharing examples related to their supply chain, order management and warehouse management operations.
ASDA Meets The Customer At All Stores With Click-And-Collect
I had the opportunity to speak with Paul Anastasiou, Senior Director of Business Development at ASDA, regarding the UK retailer’s parcel delivery service, toyou. Using its physical stores as a collection point, the retailer offers a buy-online, pickup in-store service to consumers as part of its George apparel brand. Additionally, Asda has partnered with numerous third-party online merchants, so they can extend their fulfillment options to brick-and-mortar — something they wouldn’t have otherwise.
“In the UK, collection is just about to explode,” Anastasiou said in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Today, our George.com business has 70% of its online orders collected in our own stores through the toyou solution. The market is warming up to click-and-collect, but it generally ranges from 10% to 20%, so we know there’s an opportunity to really get after the inherent weaknesses that exist within home delivery. This is all about the parcel waiting for you, and not you waiting for the parcel.”
Since ASDA has more than 600 locations across the UK, consumers throughout the country can pick up their orders at a time and location that aligns with their needs. Of course, the move also benefits the retailer partners that have the opportunity to grab more online sales, as well as ASDA, which now has an opportunity to boost foot traffic in stores.
Pet Supplies Plus Optimizes Inventory Across DCs And Stores
In one of the event’s presentations, Jeff Suttle, VP of Strategy at Pet Supplies Plus, chronicled the retailer’s implementation of inventory optimization (IO) to bolster its omnichannel offering.
Before transforming the organization, Pet Supplies Plus onboarded seven buyers who were in charge of purchasing merchandise and organizing it by vendor. The move to an IO system enabled Pet Supplies Plus to build out a seven-person “jack-of-all-trades” replenishment analysis team that organized products by category and held responsibility for forecasting and managing inventory.
“The buyers were a cross between a merchant and a purchasing agent,” Suttle said during the presentation. “Because we’re part franchise and part company stores, we operate our distribution center as a wholesaler, so the buyers initially served as little more than a sales staff that negotiates to put deals together. When we transferred to an IO, we were giving that process back to merchants who knew the product very well. We had the same number of members on the team, but it was organized differently so that different roles and skill sets were required.”
Since making the switch to IO, the average distribution center fill rate has been 95%, outdoing the average pre-IO distribution center fill rate of 93%.
