Is Communication the Key to Success in OmniChannel Retail?

I just finished reading Paul Murphy's blog post over on Fourth Source and he raised a few excellent points about the costs, concerns and challenges facing retailers who try to go omnichannel. While the article is focused on the UK, who have long been ahead of North America in online shopping, he raises some points that enterprises on this side of the pond could pick up on and use to win.

According to his post, 56% of John Lewis shoppers chose collect their orders in the store. Providing the inventory count is correct, it shouldn't be a big issue right? But shoppers are impatient people, so it's now on the store to know who the customer is when they get there and have the order somewhere that it can be picked quickly and easily. This would also be a great opportunity to personalize the experience, as you know a bit about the customer when they come to get their items.

Paul also points out that email may not be the best way to reach a potential customer to re-market to them or let them know their order is ready.

email open rates for the retail sector currently are 23.6%, making them too unreliable for this application. SMS by comparison has an open rate of over 95% and is available

 With the advent of cheap cloud messaging services like Twillio, SMS or MMS is a viable & cost effective way of reaching consumers. The key here though, will be to ensure the messages are timely, useful and written in a way that they feel personal. The text message stream is more sacred the inbox in my opinion.

Subscription Fashion Services, the New Monster to Kill Retail

Business bloggers are always looking for a new monster to call out for sneaking around in the shadows and looking to kill old school business. This article on business insider points the finger at the new wave of subscription fashion services as the boogie man that will take a bite out of big retail.

The article also argues that kids these days are "addicted to promotions" that are available through loyalty programs, points cards and other avenues. This one takes the cake for me thoough:

A recent report by Morgan Stanley shows that millennials are spending more on expenses like rent, cellphones, and personal services than young people a decade ago. This leaves less money for buying clothes.

While this is true, I think that it points the blame at the real issue facing North Americans and is disposable income. Are the kids addicted to promotions and cheap subscription clothing services, or victims of inflation and the high cost of modern life? 

Fashion Business for the "I want it now generation"

I was just reading this article over at Apparel Magazine where they just labeled the kids the "I want it now generation". While I think that Kevin is taking some liberties to try and make a good headline (because who doesn't want it now?) some of his thoughts on where the business side of fashion needs to move are quite on point.

If you follow business supply technology, you'll already know that omni-channel is the buzzword de jour. It refers to the ability to view your entire business and it's distribution systems through one platform. Great in theory, hard to implement and maintain. Without laser accurate inventory, it's very possible that your omni-channel strategy will result in customer dissatisfaction.

Some stats from Kevin's Article:

50 percent of all consumers consider store pickup options important when shopping online, and 41 percent would like alternative delivery options available upon request....only 23 percent of retailers have a buy online, pickup in-store program in place and just 20 percent have implemented a reserve online, pickup in-store program.

So people want it, but most companies aren't there yet. Not surprising. Consumer technology moves a lot faster than corporate infrastructure a lot of the time. To run a truly omni-channel fashion business you'd want to have a great ERP system for apparel companies.

How long will it take before omni-channel is truly adopted? It's hard to say. Big companies are starting to make the switch. Ann Taylor has done it, and it has come at the cost of some of their physical stores. Macy's is trying to do it but has had issues making it work for customers.

It's not easy.

But as more fashion companies and large retailers take the leap they will iron out the wrinkles, which will trickle down to smaller apparel and non-apparel businesses.