Modern supply chains help retailers please fickle customer

27 Sep '12

7 min read

Combined with more global reach – as materials and finished garments are procured from regions of low-cost production – and the expansion of logistics service providers, goods can now be made cheaply, at a distance and brought in to developed markets for sale. The extended supply chain now drives the wheels of modern consumerism.

Consumers now engage with a retail brand through a broad array of means. Whereas now a consumer has a number of channels which include: websites, catalogues, telesales, facebook fan pages, affiliates and call centres. Even if the customer ends up buying from the high street store, initial information may well have been gathered from first from the retailer’s website or facebook page.

Revealing the challenges faced in overcoming these complex demands, Mr Black informs, “To meet these increasingly complex demands requires creating a single view of the world that can be facilitated by a ‘Distributed Order Management’ solution, which provides flexibility in the way supply chains are able to execute fulfilment.

“For instance, when an order comes in, you don’t necessarily know where to ship it from. You may have multiple nodes in your network where that inventory could come from, and the decision of where this order should be fulfilled from is based on a great number of factors including cost, time, inventory positioning and optimisation of future orders.

“The cheapest way of fulfilling an order may not necessarily be best overall for the company and new technology helps to decide that. Fashion retailers are faced with both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge comes in the form of needing to ‘see more’, moving beyond the simple view of inventory held in high street stores or at the distribution centre, and widening the field of vision to encompass all the channels through which the company interfaces with the consumer”.

Consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their approach to shopping – researching on the web in advance of purchase, using smartphones for making comparisons in store, ordering online but expecting to pick up in store, and even buying online and wanting to return items to a high street store. This demand for high levels of service and excellent value, regardless of the sales channel means retailers are expected to offer consistency in range, availability and service across the entire sales network.

Consistency is essential as consumers only see one brand. Poor availability or service through the website, for instance, may negatively impact brand perception and damage sales on the high street.

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