• by Ray Schultz , October 25, 2018

Retailers are disappointing their customers with sub-par service, in large part because of poor operational processes, according to an advisory from HRC Retail Advisory.

Among the firms that offer omnichannel services, 100% of the firms interviewed by HRC are facing operational issues. These include: 

• Unreliable buy online, pick-up-in-store services — 66% say they are hampered by inventory inaccuracies
• A lack of analytics — Only 14% are using predictive analytics, and those that are using it are facing challenges in integrating them into their processes. Presumably, this failing hampers the sending of transactional emails.
• Shipping inefficiencies — 77% of the retailers are shipping from fulfillment centers instead of local brick-and-mortar stores. And almost 70% are unable to fill orders from one location, causing split shipments. The biggest hurdle here is identifying the most cost-effective location for shipping ecommerce orders and allocating merchandise to stores based on consumer demand

“Brick-and-mortar retailers have overextended themselves as they’ve tried to leverage their physical store fleets,” said Antony Karabus, CEO of HRC Retail Advisory.

He adds: “Very few retailers have formal scorecards to measure the performance and profitability of their omnichannel efforts, which often means they can’t effectively and efficiently take the corrective action needed to improve customer service and profitability.”

HRC spoke with C-level executives at 30 North American retail exchanges with sales exceeding $250 million and up to $20 billion.