Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 42

TECH TRENDS

ENABLING A SEAMLESS
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
KEY TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS FOR OPTIMIZED
OMNICHANNEL COMMERCE INITIATIVES
BY MICHAEL TURCSANYI, President at OrderDynamics® Corporation
THE TERM omnichannel has no shortage of definitions based

throughout their organization. In addition,
on who you ask and their role within a retail organization. At they haven't had to accommodate various
the heart of the debate, omnichannel means delivering a buy fulfillment needs of customers (in-store
anywhere, fulfill from anywhere, return anywhere shopping ex- pickup, ship to local post office, same-day
perience. Consumers expect a seamless shopping experience shipping, etc.). As retailers adopt a focus and
that unifies all retail channels to make every purchase jour- willingness to achieve omnichannel, execuney more convenient and transparent. Over the last few years, tion is an obvious challenge, particularly beleading retailers have further explored methods to align shop- cause of the limited functionality of legacy
ping experiences with initiatives such as shipping Web orders retail systems within its infrastructures.
from local stores, showing store level inventory online, and allowing Web purchased ENABLING ONLINE SALES
items to be returned to any retail store.
29% - The percentage of Canadian consumers
who say that they could not order online from
In Canada, the omnichannel movement
their desired retailer because the option was not
still hasn't hit critical mass. In fact, in a reavailable.
cent Forrester Research consumer survey,
The State of Canadian Online Retail-2013,
29 per cent of consumers could not even or82% - The percentage of retailers around the
der online from their desired retailer. Conworld who agree that a Retail Order Management
System would play an important role in the execusumers' expectations have undoubtedly
tion of their omnichannel strategy. However, only
evolved. While some Canadian retailers
half of retailers currently have one in place.
are already executing advanced initiatives,
for others omnichannel execution remains
something of a mystery. Why is this the case? It is largely Fit for Purpose Omnichannel Technologies
As consumers continue to drive the omnidue to aging retail technology systems and the limitations
of these systems, as they were never meant for omnichannel channel movement with heightened expectaretailing. Perhaps more importantly, it is clear that there is a tions around convenience, fulfillment, customsignificant lack of understanding for the role new commerce er service, and more, existing retail systems
technologies play in enabling, and also optimizing a long are being extended to perform functionality
well outside of core abilities and purpose.
term omnichannel commerce strategy.
There is no doubt that consumer expectations represent a Temporary "fixes" in the form of in-house prohighly disruptive shift in retail. But, this is constant. How- gramming and inefficient manual processes
ever, the rapid evolution in omnichannel retailing has ex- are becoming the go-to strategy retailers are
posed a major gap in the functionality of aging retail systems adopting to achieve some omnichannel caand infrastructure. Best-of-breed Enterprise Resource Plan- pability as fast as possible. But as many retailning (ERP) and Point-of-Sale (POS) systems from several ers are quickly discovering, these short-term
years ago weren't designed to facilitate omnichannel staples fixes aren't good enough, and in some cases
like in-store pickup, ship-from-store, and a single view of are hurting in-store and online customer exthe customer. In the past, retailers haven't had to concern periences, causing them to question whether
themselves with transparency of available-to-sell inventory omnichannel will work for their business.

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