Page 11 - Logistics News July 2019
P. 11

Thought Leadership




          4.  Shipping: Packaging and transporting the       companies will begin to orchestrate the
            products.                                        customer experience by pairing channels to
          5.  Last-mile delivery: Taking the product to the   make a consumer’s experience easier.
            end-customer, the return of shipments.             An article from ET Retail suggests that in the
          6. After-sales: Customer care, consumer services.  future, bots will be the default channel by which
                                                             we will place our orders. The bot will let the
          How can companies go the omnichannel way?          consumers know that it has put in the order for
          Tracing the customer journey: Figuring out the     daily/weekly grocery supplies from the preferred
          customer journey is critical to going omnichannel.   online grocer using the rate of consumption,
          How do people fi nd your company? What              historical data, quantity left over in the cupboard
          channels are they using and how are they using     and smart refrigerator to calculate the order. In
          them? How do they interact with your brand?        many cases, the online grocers will automatically
          Understand your customer: Know their               work out the weekly order based on predictive
          preferences, shopping habits, purchasing           analytics using the consumption and shopper
          destination, the frequency of purchase and         data, and inform the bot the ETA of the courier/
          presence on the internet.                          drone. Basically, all our mundane tasks of
          Figuring out the logistics: Companies need to sort   ordering groceries and daily use products will be
          out their logistics requirements fi rst, do they need   taken care of by our bots.
          to outsource the delivery vehicles? How will they    The article goes on to suggest that even
          take care of the reverse logistics?                the smart commute that the customers will
          Integrate your approach: Organisations need to     use will have interactive TV displaying all the
          be consistent with their communication, look and   retailers selling the products that the customer
          feel, and customer experience across all channels.  wants to shop, their USPs and benefi ts, and
                                                             the best deals available that day for a specifi c
          Benefi ts of omnichannel fulfi lment               customer based on proximity and preference
          At its core, a good omnichannel fulfi lment process   using big data and IoT! Once the customer
          should ensure that all orders are executed after   chooses the retailer he or she wants to visit,
          evaluating all possible channels and supply        the smart display will enable the taxi to drive
          sources. Centralised data should lead to a better   there and will let the retailer know in real time
          demand forecast that will reduce wasting of        that the customer is on their way to them, the
          inventory or overproduction of goods. Providing    ETA, interest in the products that day, etc. So,
          diff erent buying channels and having channel      while a lot of our shopping in 2030 may still be
          specifi c communication leads to better customer    impulsive, predictive analytics will ensure that
          experience and increased customer retention. The   there is a fair bit of planning around this done
          organisation can also gather its learning from one   by the machines around us.
          channel and use it in another to provide a more
          fulfi lling experience to the customers and improve   Key fi ndings
          overall effi  ciency.                              •  The advent of e-commerce has shaken the
          •  Reduced inventory costs with accurate inventory   retail space; to facilitate faster gratifi cation
           management.                                        to customers, retail companies are trying to
          •  Increase in revenue with new market              shorten their distribution processes by going
           opportunities.                                     the omnichannel way.
          • Improved customer experience.                    •  With customers using multiple channels for
          • Decreased shipping costs.                         shopping, brands need to be present where
          • Minimising labour costs.                          their customers are.
          • Cross channel insights.                          •  Understanding customer journey and
            In addition, a recent study by HBR found that     behaviour, and integrating the channels to
          omnichannel shoppers spend 4 percent more,          provide the essential customer ‘experience’ is
          on average, during in-store shopping trips and      the deciding factor of omnichannel retailing
          10 percent more online than customers who only      success.
          used a single channel.                             •  Data-driven analysis that uses artifi cial
                                                              intelligence to predict upcoming trends might
          Future of omnichannel                               be the future of omnichannel retail.
          Expect enterprises to move from a ‘multi-          •  In the future, retail will shift from using
          channel’ model to a ‘channel-less’ model as         multiple channels to a channel-less experience,
          omnichannel retail becomes more and more            where it will be virtually impossible to separate
          seamless. Rather than adding more channels,         the diff erent mediums of retailing. •


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