 | Presenting A United FrontIncreasing consumer sophistication has led to a corresponding increased demand for improved service. Buyers want a single face from the retailer: one brand, one product offering and preferably one point of contact. In effect, a unified shopping experience.
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Customers should be able to order online and pick up in - or return to - store; call one phone number or email one address for an answer to any query; and know that, whichever channel they use to make their purchases, they will go through the same process.
While this shopping Utopia provides the model most retailers aspire to, for some, it may seem difficult to achieve. But take heart! While it takes thought and care, it is not impossible to obtain an acceptable level of integration between processes and systems to create a seamless consumer experience. And, in the process, this integration can help you to develop a single marketing strategy, a single brand, and a holistic view of the customer that improves consumer satisfaction and, hence, sales.
The integration of processes is key to both marketing and operational success. If the retailer does not broadcast a consistent message, it will lose the customer. An integrated solution is about giving the customer choice.
An integrated solution means, first and foremost, consistent data and access to data - including stock availability - across all channels. So, for a retailer linking new web systems to an existing stock system, for example, a customer who orders online from the web site that says the desired item is available, but then receives a subsequent email to say it is, in fact, out of stock, will not only look elsewhere, but probably won’t come back to that retailer again.
Trying to integrate in-store inventory with that needed for other channels is almost impossible. Systems can be purchased that combine EPOS and online sales, but established retailers would potentially have to scrap their existing EPOS systems. Instead, we recommend one inventory for store allocation and another for online, call centre, catalogue, TV and other channels. This ensures, for example, an item is not offered online if the call centre agent has just sold the last one, or vice versa. Buffer zones can be set up so that if an item’s stock level falls below a pre-set number, the customer can be told it is out of stock at the point of sale, preventing unfulfilled orders.
Sharing inventory data can be done in real time or ‘near’ real time. True real time transfer of data takes three to five times as long to integrate as near real time and is three to five times more expensive.
In true real time data transfer, every time a customer orders online, the system contacts the warehouse management software which says ‘yes, I have one’ or ‘no, I don’t’. With near real time integration, the warehouse system sends a file transfer every five to fifteen minutes to update the web site with stock availability and the web site reports back, again every five to fifteen minutes, telling the warehouse system how many items it has sold. The call centre either orders direct from the warehouse management system, which creates real time integration, or through the web site, which operates in near real time.
Some integration between distance selling channels and bricks-and-mortar stores is essential, even where separate inventories are maintained. In-store staff should be able to see stock in other stores and have access to the web site. Sales staff should be able to search for an item in another store convenient for the customer, who may be returning flawed goods bought online or by phone or wishes to buy something they first saw online.
Efficient integration ensures that discounts can be handled in a way that makes sense to consumers, rather than annoy them, while at the same time allowing the retailer to promote a particular channel or get rid of stock they no longer want. For example, if a retailer wants to promote its web site and offers the same item online at, say, £5.00 less than in store, but charges £4.95 for postage and packing, consumers might feel it is not worth buying online. But offer free postage and packaging, and/or a special deal in which customers buy one item and get 20% off a second, and see how quickly web sales increase.
An integrated multi-channel solution also allows the consumer to buy from home but pick up in store, an option now offered by companies such as Woolworth, Argos and PC World; buy from home but return to store; or buy in store but have delivered to home. All of these options give the consumer the sort of happy shopping experience that will keep bringing them back for more. But equally important, by developing the integrated solution to create the unified shopping experience, the retailer also creates a unified marketing strategy which further strengthens its relationship with the customer, and, ultimately, its brand.
Consumers want the freedom of choosing how they shop, but retailers must have a way of identifying where and when items were bought and how, where and why they were returned, not only to improve their marketing success, but also to prevent fraud. To support this the retailer also needs consistent customer service policies in place to handle returns across channels.
Capturing returns data can be done by swiping a bar code on the product and/or another on the delivery note, but transfer of this type of data does not have to be in real time. It can be sent to a regional or head office overnight by file transfer or XML messaging, as long as all product codes, ways of storing customer details and so on are consistent throughout the company.
A lot of the data that can and should be captured at every stage of the purchase, in every channel, needs to be shared with other back office systems, from merchandising to warehouse, transport to accounts. But instead of trying to integrate all of the various systems together - a difficult and costly task - retailers just need one good data warehouse. All the data captured, wherever and however this is done, is stored in one place to enable any other system to go in and extract the data its users need, when they need it.
It mirrors the very multi-channel integrated solution that creates the data in the first place: one consistent shopping process, one consistent marketing strategy, one consistent brand - and thousands of happy customers who know what to expect, every time they buy something, however they choose to shop.
Nick Allen,
Chief Executive, Zendor
