Success in an Omni-Channel World - Meeting “Anytime & Anywhere” Requirements

It is easy to define omni-channel business success by desired outcomes: happy, loyal customers resulting in increased sales and profits.

What is considerably more difficult is describing how to get there and making it happen.

From the customer point of view, omni-channel means being the center of the buying experience. No matter how customers interact with a particular brand - whether online, in a store or from a mobile device - they expect the experience to be seamless.

From the retailer point of view, omni-channel is much more complex.

It means implementing a system that produces a consistently positive experience for shoppers and buyers. In practice this means providing multiple purchase and delivery options, managing channel expansion, optimizing supply chains, automating order fulfillment, and more.

The real challenge is making this all happen efficiently. It requires a thoughtful plan.

The purpose of this white paper is to provide a structure for that plan - a high level description of the steps necessary for meeting the expectations of today’s omnichannel customer.

There are three basic steps:

• Define: Research and document what the customer experience needs to be.
• Account: Identify exactly where inventory is in the supply chain and whether that inventory count is accurate and can meet customer expectations.
• Execute: Invest in the solution technology necessary to make it all happen profitably.

After describing these steps, this document will provide some real-world variations of how omni-channel solutions can be successfully implemented.