SUPPLY CHAIN
“Retailers will want the ability to transfer demand from online to stores during peak season ”
NIKKI BAIRD VP STRATEGY , APTOS
across their entire supply chain . Only this wide-angled view will help them to detect early on the broader shifts in consumer behaviour that supply must adapt to , and enable , automated decision-making to meet the demand quickly .
“ Many are restricted in these efforts by siloed data and legacy processes , such as manual restocking and batch ordering , which can be slow , inflexible , and error prone .”
Technology alone is not sufficient to give retail supply chains the flexibility they need ; the ways that demand must meet supply are also vitally important .
One effect of the monumental shift away from brick-and-mortar shopping towards ecommerce and omnichannel is that warehouse capacity has become sorely limited , with demand far exceeding supply .
And building new storage capacity is far from straightforward , because facilities need to be close to major roads or airports , meaning available land is either in short supply or cost-prohibitive . Add to this the fact construction costs are extremely high right now and it ’ s easy to see why retailers are seeking new tactics to satisfy demand .
Stores taking on distribution centre role in omnichannel world One such tactic is to use existing stores as warehouses , says Nikki Baird , Strategy VP at Aptos , a retail technology specialist that provides omnichannel solutions .
Baird says back-of-stores can be used to fulfil click-and-collect orders , as well as orders that are shipped from the store , to speed up customer fulfilment .
46 August 2022