Why Retailers Are Missing Omnichannel Opportunities

Omnichannel is a buzzword in retail, yet a majority of retailers don’t have anyone heading up the efforts to actually implement the multichannel sales approach, according to a new survey from order management solutions provider Shopatron.

The survey, according to Chain Store Age, reported that 71 percent of retailers said they do not have a position at their company to oversee their omnichannel efforts, which could be hindering their efforts to assist customers obtain a more seamless experience across the retailer’s shopping channels. The survey also revealed that retailers haven’t implemented an enterprise-grade order management because of the costs, lack of resources and the lack of options to integrate it with their current systems.

In that same survey, 59 percent of retailers said they didn’t have plans yet to implement omnichannel solutions that would enable order fulfillment options like ship-from-store or in-store pickup. This could be because another survey revealed that 41 percent of retail fulfillment partners saying they’d buy less from a brand that offered “direct-to-consumer,” and 23 percent said they wouldn’t buy from those retailers at all. In contrast, 57 percent of the retail fulfillment partners surveyed reported they would like for brands they stock to sell on online marketplaces like eBay if the orders were routed to their store for fulfillment.

“There is a very significant opportunity for retailers and brands to offer direct-to-consumer order fulfillment options,” said Shopatron CEO Ed Stevens. “For brands, it is an easy way to drive online sales, and for retailers it is the perfect opportunity to strengthen their relationships with customers because you are getting their online orders to them quickly with the possibility to have a paying customer in the store,” Stevens said. “Retailers need to know that they are at a critical point where they need to commit to omnichannel, now. It’s no longer in-store or online, it’s in-store with online.”