At this year’s Retail Business Technology Expo, BT looked at how retailers need to evolve their supply chain operations to meet the challenges of omni-channel retailing.

The company launched an exclusive report, Retailtopia2, produced by a panel of respected figures spanning supply chain, logistics, consumer packaged goods manufacturing and retailing. The panel was chaired by supply chain industry figure and GS1 UK chairman, Jim Spittle, FCILT.

The panel included: Tom Barry, managing partner, H&B Europe; Milton Guffogg, COO, GE Capital; Neil Ashworth, CEO, CollectPlus, ex supply chain director, Tesco.com and Woolworths; David Wild, ex CEO of Halfords, ex-president of Walmart Germany, former supply chain director at Tesco, non-exec director at Premier Foods; Marcus Hickman, director, Davies Hickman Partners LTD; Gary Sharp, vice president, UK business development, retail services and supply chain, BT Global Services and Josh Pert, CEO, BT Expedite & Fresca.

Spittle introduced the panel, saying: "Today we want to discuss the integration between technology and consumers and the impact this will have on multi-channel retailing over the next 10 years and the role of the supply chain. Consumers are much more knowledgable now and retailers need to anticipate what they want rather than respond to it. The supply chain, from start to end, plays an integral role and retailers need to get onboard if they are to compete in the this volatile market."

Wild noted: "If you want to win in retail, you have to understand your customer. Retailers need to recognise that consumers have product information and access to price comparison, they need to embrace that change is accelerating. Supply chain delivery must be geared towards customer requirements, cost effectiveness and availability. Retailers shoud use data to ensure that if a customers wants to collect a purchase or have it delivered to their home or a collection point, that can be done.

"Returns are a difficult issue when it comes to e-commerce. But if you are a multi-channel retailer with physical stores, returns represent the opportunity to make a sale. Bricks and mortar retailers need to ensure they are offering a great level of service, engaging consumers when they come in-store. A siloed approach won't work, departments need to work collaboratively across the offline and online worlds to give the consumer what they need."

Ashworth added: "Retailers, for the first time, have the opportunity to be proactive. It used to be when building a supply chain that history was the best indicator of the future. Retailers didn't use insight but hindsight. Today Big Data allows retailers to take information from various sources and create signals of pure demand. They can create a supply chain to respond to and maximise full value sales. Retailers can move from hindsight to insight and then foresight."

Sharp continued: "Big Data helps improve the effectiveness of the supply chain. It allows us a look at what's happening with consumer buying behaviour. Due to smartphones a great deal of this buying behaviour comes well before they touch the retail physically. They seek advice from friends on social media, forums and chatrooms and this is starting to shape demand."

Guffogg said: "It's very important that your data is accurate, otherwise it's not practical or affective. Retailers need to understand the costs all the way through the supply chain. Returns for example is an area that still proves difficult for onlne retail. Sorting that returned merchandise and getting it back into the supply chain is a real challenge."

The panel also discussed the difficulties of personalisation at the point of delivery and the challenges of creating an efficient collection point in-store. The idea of embracing showrooming - some panel members believed the store will become a customer experience centre for the online environment and that the role of the store in the next five to 10 years will be to give advice to consumers and demonstrate products. Therefore stores need to be a fun and engaging environment to be in.

Share Story: