The fashion retail industry has been transforming largely due to aspects like fast fashion and online retail. The transformation is mainly noticed when you see the gap between the red carpet and retail stores diminishing. The kind of outfit your favorite celebrity wore last week to a gala event will be available in online stores the following week. However, this feat was not achieved overnight but required a cohesive and rapid inventory management from retailers. The inventory analytics of a fashion retail store can rightly suggest the frequent changes in the fashion and style, but the industry-based trends are also very important to thrive in the market. To understand this massive wave of change, let’s look at the five major trends that are driving the fashion retail industry by the storm: Omnichannel Retailing The physical and virtual both storefronts of a fashion retailer carry equal value in today’s world. The customers are shopping both from the stores in their neighborhoods and online e-commerce applications in their phones. Fashion retailers have to make sure that their presence is strong at all possible sales channels to increase market penetration and brand reach. Here is where Omnichannel retailing comes into the picture. The use of an inventory management software can help establish with multiple channels easily from a single dashboard. Cross-Channel Trade The competition in fashion retail is rising all over the world and the brands that provide the best offers and features only thrive in the market. A cross-channel sale is done over both online and offline channels. In this, if a customer has purchased online and wants to exchange the product he/she should be able to exchange it on the nearby store. The inventory management software can help here as well in the integration of online and offline channels for cross-selling. Mobile Devices for Improved In-Store Experience Retailers are increasingly using mobile and other integrated platforms to improve the in-store customer experience. The IoT-enabled infrastructure and chat-based tools are used to provide shoppers with access to information, service support, and navigation assistance. According to a 2017 RetailDive study, 77% of shoppers use mobile devices to search for product information while shopping in brick&mortar stores, and only 35% are willing to consult an in-store salesperson. Brands will want to prioritize creating mobile tools for shoppers and associates that offer in-the-moment information to smoothen purchase decision. Mobile-scannable codes on the product can be used by customers to get product-related information. Store owners are utilizing Beacon & Bluetooth technology and digital signages that use data by approaching shoppers’ smartphones to create specific content messaging resulting in a more personalized experience, thus leading to more sales. Signals of the shift from e-commerce to m-commerce are bright. Big Data and Analytics Every piece of data related to customers is useful, which includes details like the number of visits in a month, amount of purchases, most and least purchased product, etc. Big Data – data obtained from millions of users in bulk – can be analyzed and used for improving the provision of the right products and services to the customers. Retailers are increasingly leveraging the power of Big Data for making accurate strategic decisions while enhancing customers’ shopping experience. Big Data analytics enables retailers to comprehend what their customers are looking for throughout their buying journey, while also predicting the customer demands so as to accordingly adapt to the market changes. Moreover, data analytics also enable retailers to determine product prices more accurately as well as predicting the right time to change the product pricing. Product Bundling The combo packs are available for everything in the market from chips and coke to shampoo and hair conditioner. The bundling of two products that are used or purchased together can help the retailers sell more, fashion retailers are also using this technique. The pairing up of matching trousers or skirts with a top-wear and offering it as a combo is a very effective technique to generate more sales. It is required that the combo offers are well advertised to reach the maximum customers and ensure maximum sales. Product Bundling has set its place as one such trending practice in the market right now. Through this strategy, profits can rise due to the collective purchase of more than one item. With the sale of more items overall, consumers enjoy decreased prices and businesses see a faster movement of inventory off their shelves. In Conclusion… The brands in the fashion retail industry have to follow current trends for staying ahead in the market and to boost their revenue. The trends like omnichannel retailing are already big in the market and can be implemented easily with the use of an inventory management software. Other trends like the use of smartphones for scanning product labels still have a long way to go, for making it to the mainstream market. Following these trends can not only help the fashion retailers in getting ahead in terms of sales but also in enhancing their brand image and customer loyalty on a large scale.
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So, you think of opening an online store, you have a website ready, your products are great, and you have also adopted multi-channel retail management software for your online retail business. That sounds; you are all set to go! What many online retailers overlook is to ensure content and information are allowed to consumers in the most convenient ways. Business owners who are unable to do so may end up losing many potential sales opportunities. This article will highlight the top 5 communication areas that online retailers should focus on and how popular software mentioned below are helping them: 1. Respond via inbound call support With multiple online retail brands offering all-in-one shopping solution, consumers won’t stick to a site for long if they are not getting what they want. This is where communication software can give you a chance to hold back those potential customers by answering their questions in minutes. Popular software that you can consider: Vivocha This software helps retail business owners to immediately communicate with online shoppers who are lost while browsing their site. Allowing a combination of VoIP (audio and video), retailers can offer assistance to customers with concerns directly from their website via Vivocha console. Vivocha’s mobile SDK also allows retailers to interact with mobile shoppers via chat or call support to ensure assistance can be offered to them at their own convenient time and place they need it. How does it help online shoppers? With an instant access to contact the brand, online shoppers may not mind sticking to the site that allows assistance with relevant products and content information from the website itself. How does it help online retailers? Allowing online shoppers to immediately connect with a direct voice can increase brand awareness, as well as, save time and increase the numbers of resolved queries. 2. Assist via Real-time Chat support Consumers don't like to struggle for long in finding information and content to make purchase decisions online. And, unable to offer immediate assistance to such customers will automatically increase bounce rate for your online retail business. Integrating a live chat support tool in your selling website will encourage online shoppers directly ping you, instead of switching over pages to find the information they are looking for. Popular software that you can consider: LiveChat This software will act a real-time support service, allowing online shoppers an opportunity to immediately start a conversation. Offering an ability to get in touch with online shoppers via your website, this communication software automatically triggers a popup chat window to prompt all those customers struggling with your site. How does it help online shoppers? Allowing online customers to gain access to products or information in real-time, will help them make smarter online decisions and purchases whenever shopping from your brand. How does it help online retailers? Having an ability to instantly connect with lost customers in the early minutes of their browsing will help retailers retain many online shoppers and encourage them to complete their incomplete actions and purchases. 3. Offer Help Desk service support Consumers who will land in your online store will have many questions in their mind while making purchases that can include, shipping details, and returns. Unable to get answers to any of their questions can encourage them to immediately exit your site and automatically creates a bad impression about the brand in their minds. Offering access to all that information that are required for making purchases can help online shoppers when in doubt, instead of having to depend on messages, calls, or even, emails. Popular software that you can consider: Freshdesk This software allows online retailers to offer an interactive knowledge-base, making it easy and quick for shoppers to spot answers to their questions from within the website. Apart from focusing content on frequently asked questions by online shoppers, retailers can allow access to product usage via tutorials, technical documentations and much more. How does it help online shoppers? Being able to look-up for required information from within the website will not only allow online shoppers to make informed decisions but also, saves them time and effort when shopping online. How does it help online retailers? With an ability to offer online shoppers a self-assisted documentations- apart from offering a great customer experience, online retailers can also reduce the amount of customer query tickets. 4. Connect with customers on social media Social media being one of the most preferred platforms for consumers to get responses from brands, unable to assist any of their concerns will have a negative impact on your online selling business. Whether you have a single or multiple social business accounts, having ability to communicate with consumers in the quickest ways will spread a unique trust for your brand in the online world. Popular software that you can consider: Zendesk Considering a potential for high engagement on social media between brands and consumers, this software allows online retailers quickly connect with online shoppers across multiple social networking sites. Also, allowing an ability to bring all your social conversations and data at one place, Zendesk makes it easy to offer personalized solutions as per the customer’s requirements. How does it benefit online shoppers? Considering social media sites like Facebook, Twitter to be one of the most used communication channels, such software infuses a blend of fun and trust among social networkers when they interact with an online brand. How does it benefit online retailers? Without the hassle of logging into multiple social media accounts, retailers can get an ability to sync all their social media conversation in centralized system and offer personalized solutions, always. 5. Send emails for incomplete actions First-time consumers who will land in your online retail store may not take action and leave your site for one of your competitors. The reasons may be due lack of information available on your website, or even, on your product purchase checkout page. Unable to keep a track on consumer’s browsing behaviour, you are automatically losing potential customers who have already shown interest in your online brand. Popular software that you can consider: Vero Known for triggering consumers back to your online site, this software allows online retailers to convert lost sales opportunities that have knocked your door. Vero allows online retailers to send Drip campaigns, allowing them to target right consumers with the right information and encourage them to take actions, instantly. How does it benefit online shoppers? Having a doubt with their online purchase decisions, being educated with the relevant information may make it easy for them to complete their actions. How does it benefit online retailers? Being able to focus on potential customer’s preferences and choices, online retailers can get a chance to increase sales opportunities with less of marketing efforts. Wrapping up Now that you know how effective can communication software is, your business growth will depend on how soon you apply them to your online retail store! Godspeed:) Since the dawn of digital, there has been a huge talk on what companies are doing for digital marketing. Whether it’s blogging, paid search or SEO, companies are using unique ideas to reach their audience with the relevant information. The content marketing trend has changed and today; we cannot deny the fact that the best vehicle for content marketing is Podcast. Podcast is an easy consumable content format which does not require any text or video like any other content formats do. It's simply an audio digital file which needs to be downloaded, and listen anytime and anywhere. That’s the reason why a large retail business group is using podcast and getting unique ideas for their online business. Here’s the list of inspirational podcasts for online retailers: 1. eCommerceFuel eCommerceFuel is the best community for online retailers where they can get tips and tricks for their 6 & 7 figure online stores from the founder Andrew Youderian. eCommerceFuel podcast focuses on tips, strategies and stories from the likes of building a store to the nitty gritty of buying and selling a business and giving marketing tips. The recent shows in trending are: Selling a Business, How to Invest & Building Community — A Discussion with Ian Schoen and Reader Questions on Product Development, Buying Sites & More. 2. EcomCrew The founders of ecomcrew - Mike Jackson and Grant Yuan have years of experience in online business. Mike keeps blogging on various topics of eCommerce and retailing and has a huge collection which can be useful for any online retailer or a novice who just started up. EcomCrew podcast is all about building a successful store, improving consumer experience, inventory control and more! A couple of interesting interviews includes Recent changes made on Amazon Review System with a special guest Jeff Cohen and SEO and Ecommerce, containing three-part series. 3. Build My Online Store Every Sunday on Build My Store Online, Travis Marziani and Terry Lin talk on vivid topics of e-commerce and online marketing giving retailers unique tips on promoting brands and products. In addition to blogs and podcasts, Build My Store Online consists of useful resources and services for online retailers. Recent Sunday episodes include Using Postcards To Increase Lifetime Value with Touchcard.co and 10 Email Sequences Your Online Store Should Have 4. Shopify Masters The experts on Shopify Masters podcasts talk about actionable strategies and marketing tips helping retailers in growing profitable online stores. Therefore, these episodes are a valuable resource for any store owner who is looking for good opportunities in online business. Take a look at couple of recent episodes: Disrupting the Market: How Lululemon’s Former CEO Boosted Stock Prices by 400% and How Bento&co Partners with YouTubers and Bloggers to Drive Sales 5. The Fizzle Show The Fizzle show is a podcast for creative entrepreneurs and honest business builders who want to earn their living doing something they care about. The episodes are full of fun, business advice, and entertainment making it enjoyable while listening. The recent episodes include: A Day in the Life of an Entrepreneur(FS166) and 3 Hard Things That TRULY Matter to Your Business (FS165). 6. My Wife Quit Her Job My Wife Quit Her Job is a website owned by Steve Chou and his wife Jennifer where they share their experiences of how they launched their online store BumblebeeLinens.com and earned $100K within a year. The podcast is an interview-based show where Steve interviews successful store owners on what they did and how did they succeed… Tune into a couple of recent episodes including How To Transition From Amazon To Your Own Ecommerce Store With Kurt Elster and How To Make 20 Million Per Year With Only 2 Employees Selling Vacuum Filters With Chad Rubin. 7. 1 Day Business Breakthrough 1daybb.com is a not just a website, it’s an experience brought by Pat Flynn and Chris Ducker who love to bring entrepreneurs together to brainstorm and mastermind to achieve breakthroughs and business growth. Each episode of podcast brings the most pressing problem of entrepreneurs in their own voice which is followed by Pat and Chris thoughts on how to overcome them. Recent episodes from 1daybb include Hotseat #25 (Carrie) - Getting Serious About Recurring Membership Opportunities and Hotseat #24 (Chris) - Promoting a Retail Location with Smart Local Marketing. Note: Retailers can go to the website and listen to the above episodes directly. 8. Niche Pursuits Spencer Haws is the brain behind Niche Pursuits who started creating niche websites using his own principles. He is also the creator of Long Tail Pro- the effective keyword tool which became the part of his business. The podcast episodes deliver practical advice and solutions for creating and running a niche e-commerce business. Two of the most trending podcast episodes include: How Hayden Miyamoto Finds and Scales High Quality Link Building Opportunities in 2016 and How Jon Haver Built an Amazon FBA and Affiliate Site Business That Shattered His $15k Per Month Income Goal 9. Etsy Conversation Podcast Etsy conversations Podcast features inspiring interviews of Etsy and non-Etsy shop owners. The podcast episodes deliver stories of successful store owners who started their business of selling handmade products. A couple of recent inspiring interviews from Etsy shop owners includes Modern Pelage - How Veronica created a business to support her personal aspirations, and more! and Tripawds- Rene and her husband share their experience of which tool they used in making their online business successful. 10. Mixergy Mixergy is a platform where ambitious upstarts learn from experienced mentors through interviews and online courses. The people who speak here are amongst the great businesspeople who take out some time from their busy schedule and teach others what they learned from their experiences. Listen to recent interviews directly from the experts’ desk and get some suggestions: How Jeff Booth went from builder to tech builder with BuildDirect and Sales tactics from a cold-calling machine. End Note: The list ended with 10 amazing podcasts but there are many other popular podcasts from different eCommerce websites which are too worth a listen. The podcast episodes can be easily downloaded for free from these websites or if you have iPhone or iPod, just subscribe to iTunes and tune into any of these podcast episodes. Happy listening! :) :) Using E-commerce technologies, online retailers have got the breathe to feature a wide range of products in their store. From normal to digital in various sizes and shapes. Now, their focus is to tweak the shipping methods and make selling better. The first question strikes the mind is how many e-shopaholics actually want instant delivery or same day delivery for ordered products? The answer is right away... Source: http://elitedaily_.com/news/business/elite-daily-millennial-consumer-survey-2015/ As per the survey conducted by Elite Daily, Gen Y forms a largest chunk of working group who have a huge buying power. Once they find the brand appealing, they get heavily connected with that brand of products. It’s also been noted, Gen Y i.e. Millennials who are the young e-shopaholics desire straight away shipping of the products they have ordered. They are impatient for their order to get shipped in a specific time period. Rest of the e-shopaholics like to wait to get the products delivered to them. If online retailers make amendments in the shipping strategies targeting only the Y generation then the rest may quit shopping from the retail e-stores and switch to better online shopping options. If online retailers make amendments in the shipping strategies targeting only the Y generation then the rest may quit shopping from the retail e-stores and switch to better online shopping options. Reason 1. Shipping companies impose high charges for instant or same day delivery compared to other shipping options. 2. The product line cuts down from 1000+ to 500 for same day delivery. 3. Swift shipping strategies limit the servicing location. Same day delivery kind of shipping strategies works well with online grocery or food ordering because grocery or food are not ordered outside the city. It’s within the reach. Just imagine! if the food or grocery are ordered outside the city, in what condition it will reach us and at what time? Gigantic online stores have come up with pilot programs which impose a raised shipping cost on an hour or same day delivery options. This shipping method is on the testing basis still, if we look at the results, the sales are like a drop in a bucket. From the customer's viewpoint, Yes! It’s a compelling strategy but for how long? The amount that online shopaholics spend on such shipping methods is pretty high compared to the other shipping methods. And, the charges vary from store to store. A few stores levy subscription charges on a yearly basis, others levy depending upon the size and colour of the ordered product. Being a crazy online shopper, which shipping strategy will consumers prefer? Old e-shopaholics would vote against same day delivery option and would prefer 2-3 days or week shipping strategies because the former shipping strategy will only fill the pockets of shipping companies and retailers. Plus, they won’t get the requisite products on the list they are looking for. What about the consumers who love to shop outside the country? Actually, the enjoyment of online shopping is when we shop from outside the country. Online stores give us 1000s of options to make our purchase easy from single e-store which we don’t find in a physical retail storefronts. A few products are such we don’t get anywhere in the physical storefronts, we have to order it online.This may take time, approx a week or 2-3 days for the products to reach us. For Example: Smartphone is a lifestyle nowadays and frankly speaking, we keep on looking for the latest smartphones, be it Android or iPhone. The devices launched by Google and Xiaomi are mostly found online. Henceforth, there is no option left for the Google and Xiaomi aficionados to place the order online and wait to get it shipped. Can same day delivery be opted for such situation? No… Let’s take a look at the same day delivery strategy from retailer’s perspective Including such shipping strategies in the e-store adds a golden feather on the retailer’s hat but do you think this will remain for a longer time period? No… Why? Time Limitation The same day shipping strategy is stringent and quick. If the ordered items are bit late to reach the customers then retailers; 1. May lose the customer’s trust and not be approached for future orders. 2. Have to do free merchandise shipping which may result into a huge loss. Here, time and location walk hand in hand. The online retailers can pack the order at the customer’s doorstep on the same day on a condition that the customer is residing in the nearby area. Here’s a perfect example which describes the above phrase Prime Now is a pilot program introduced by Amazon limited to few cities of US. Before making any purchase using this program the users have to type their zip codes to check whether the insta service is serving their city or not. The local shipping service providers do the delivery of products in an hour or two for free in the selected cities after the customers pay a yearly subscription of $7.99. Check the website to know more on how this service works: primenow.amazon.com Product Line Online retailers who adopt such strategies are cemented to a specific product line. All types of products cannot be shipped in a day’s time. It depends on the product’s durability. This affects retailers in a metaphorical way. Though they earn a good amount of profit by adopting this ultra fast shipping strategy, they outreach their customers from a variety of products resulting in a futuristic loss. Supply Chain becomes tight With the same day delivery strategy, retailers get busy organizing the order and processing them to ship. The chain gets superfast and rumpus. Such situation gets irksome and increases the chances of mistakes and conflicts, still retailers and shipping companies manage to streamline the process. Retailers have to stay connected with more than one local shipping companies to make their buzzy task easy and smooth. Furthermore, retailers who don’t procure inventory have to coordinate with their dropshippers to pick and pack the merchandise at the billing address without wasting a single minute here and there. Apart from all the negative points which same day delivery holds, there is one positive point that brings grin on the faces of online retailers: Inventory Management It is a rescuing strategy from the viewpoint of holding a huge stock in the warehouse. Retailers get relief from stocking the products for days and increasing the unnecessary expenditure. An important point to note is, retailers have to be on their toes to automate the stock level swiftly and omit the discomfort of stock outs for trending products. Retailers can easily do it by using the best Inventory Management Software tailored according to their needs. Closing Alas! Same day delivery which satisfies a group of customers by fulfilling their demand of What They want, they want it straight away has a tiny scope and may get efface in near future. The competition between the demand and supply has no end and so we may come across better shipping options in the coming days. Before the invention of Barcode Scanner, the retailers had hard times in tracking their inventory. Keeping a count on each and every item, it's availability and sold out status, really blow their heads off with pressure. Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly depending upon the size of business, the owners had to close down the stores to count the products manually. In 70’s, this mundane task got a break and the beep technology rolled into the giant stores to make the process of inventory easy and nimble. It's like Beep! The product got scanned for bill... Beep! The printed list of available and out of stock products is in… Gradually, with the advent of technology, the codes got enhanced and the beep technology (termed as Barcode Scanner) popped into small scaled retail business as well. Today we have different types and forms of Barcode Scanners, each wrapped with unique specifications helping retailers to speed up the process of inventory and relieving them from the excessive and overburden stock management. Types of Barcode Scanners:
Laser Barcode Scanners are found mostly in retail and grocery stores where these beep sounds come from wireless barcode scanner or Bluetooth barcode scanner device. It can read the barcode in low lighting from the distance of 3.5 feet. This technology has three different configurations: Rastering, moving beam and omnidirectional.
Linear Imager Barcode Scanners are better useful in reading damaged or poorly printed codes or barcodes under plastic film or covering. Even, they are found in affordable prices compared to Laser Barcode Scanners. These scanners can read the codes from near distance up to 2 feet. Ideally for retailers to make the entire inventory process seamless; from selling merchandise to processing the order and from shipping to automating the stock level.
2D Barcode Scanner has a unique feature of capturing the barcode and reading the data at faster speed than any other type of scanner. It has a flexibility to scan and read the data using smartphones and later decode the same to the retailer. These types of Scanners come in various form: Wireless Barcode Scanners(Handheld or say Bluetooth Barcode Scanners), USB barcode Scanners, Pocket-Sized Barcode Scanners and Wired Barcode Scanners. Let's take a look at some important aspects of Barcode Scanners Barcode Scanners are usually used in busy stores where the selling and purchases are made in huge scale. To keep a track of inventory, rack after rack or shelf after shelf is next to impossible and the cost to manage the stock manually can exceed the expenditure. The stores use barcode scanner during point-of sale for a quick checkout and accurate product scan. How does it help retailers to overcome the stock issues and reduce cost? 1. Accuracy We human beings are prone to make mistakes. And, this technology eliminates the human errors and give retailers accurate results of stock updates, daily sales and other reports in nanoseconds. It is swift, reliable and minimizes the costly errors of making calculation and counting mistakes to none. 2. Customer Satisfaction It hastens the checkout process which gives a customer relief from standing in queue resulting in frequent store visit and shop and increase in revenue. 3. Reorder the Stock Stock out causes a loss of valuable customer and sales which can be addressed with barcode scanning technology. Once the product is scanned for bill, the stock gets updated in real-time and in case of low stock, notification is sent to the retailer immediately via communication mediums. This helps retailers to take decisions on time and improve sales. 4. Minimize Labour Cost Barcode Scanners are easy to use and understand. It hardly takes a time to master the skill of reading barcodes using barcode scanners. Furthermore, employees don't have to get acquainted with the entire procedure of pricing and stocking. This reduces the hours of employee training and cost to train them. 5. Inventory Control Using this technology, retailers get real-time updates of stock as in which products are in stock and which are out-of-stock. This reduces the overflow of stock in the warehouse and eliminates unnecessary expense on ordering extra inventory. 6. Quality Control Barcode scanning technology even speaks! It informs the retailer which quality tests are required to check the quality of products and in case if the test fails where to report the cause. 7. Better Decision Making As it is useful in faster data collection, it helps retailer in taking better decisions to boost the sales and improve customer satisfaction. Barcode Scanning technology gives entire information of a customer's purchase and is not limited to billing and inventory only. The next time when the customer walks into the store, the store representative can guide the customer with the purchases and what combination of products will help in saving more money. This sort of deal with the customer can act as a tactful source of store advertisement. You have probably got an idea of types and forms of barcode scanners and how retailers can overcome stock issues and cost control. One more interesting tidbit about barcode scanner is, How retailers can scan better Barcodes? The Helpful Tips! 1. Maintain your distance Not too far, not too close. Make sure you are at a distance from where barcode scanner can read the codes easily and accurately. 2. Rogue Barcodes One barcode for one product, not every time! You may find more than one barcode labelled on single product. Be careful in scanning the right one. 3. Stick to a single barcode type Most of the barcode scanners may not support specific barcode symbology. Try to be adhesive with one type and forget the rest. This not only speeds up the scanning process but will help you to discard rogue barcodes if there are any in different formats. 4. Choose the right barcode label You may come across with different barcode symbology labelled on the packs, be sure that they are real barcodes and not duplicate. Though, real barcodes are expensive but they are certified which can help you to reduce the cost in future. 5. Long distance scanning Not all types of scanners are focused to scan from a distance. If you read barcodes from a distance of more than 2 feet than this may lead to poor barcode reading and you may be misguided with product content too. 6. Light Conditions Some barcode scanners need proper light to read the barcodes effectively. So, be careful when you plugin the barcode scanner device. Some scanners may not be conducive to certain lighting conditions and the read won't be that accurate. In Closing: This was a quick tour for retailers to know everything about Barcode Scanners. Today, many inventory management systems supports barcode scanning technology. Orderhive, the smartest inventory management software works flawlessly with barcode technology. Retailers can use barcode scanner while scanning received inventory, searching products and processing orders. One of the major aspects for all retail businesses, is to procure products and supply them to their end-customers. And, with the increasing popularity and growth of retail industry (including e-commerce) has automatically proved to be a boon for most of the shipping providers, too. Before the advent of technology and cloud-based software solutions, most of the retailers survived on their own distribution centers, when products were procured and supplied to customers in bulk. This old model was popular and successful for a decade, however in the year 2000, with the immense popularity of internet shopping, many retailers were forced to have a presence online to cut-throat competition among various e-commerce brands. But ,at the same time, apart from being competitive with the product pricing they needed to focus on the speed and quality of the product delivery too. This is when, shipping companies were forced to come up with a new distribution model that would allow procure items in bulk and then break down silos, so that each customer’s order can be fulfilled by SKU. However, this required a real time inventory management software solution in place to gain visibility of all your products in real-time. With the advent of internet shopping and the help of technology, fueled the logistics boom at exponential rates across the globe. How? Key retail operations that are allowing shipping companies to grow: 1- Product delivery at customer’s doorstep Internet shopping has initially captured the hearts of shopaholics by allowing them an ability to purchase for their favorite brands over the web and receive its delivery at their own convenience. This created a buzz in the online world, but at the same time retailers had to increase its supply chain, which automatically enforced shipping companies to expand their services and reach to almost any customer, anywhere. 2- Omnichannel delivery experience As and when technology evolved, customer’s demand was ever-changing and they now prefer brands that allow them with flexible delivery options. Modern customers now expect that retailers should allow them to receive product delivery in every possibility they can- that includes Same-day-delivery, Next-day-delivery, Fixed-day- delivery. With customer’s ever-changing demands with their product delivery, automatically forced shipping companies to upgrade their supply chain method, which in turn allowed them to grow by helping retailers to provide their customers with product delivery as per their requirements. According to 2014 Retail Outlook Survey by KPMG LLP- 70% of retail executives have adopted omnichannel strategies to respond to today’s online and mobile consumer. Therefore, shipping companies who are assisting retailers to provide their customers with the most seamless omnichannel delivery experiences- are gaining a huge advantage over other companies in the shipping industry. 3- Increase in retail sales A report by eMarketer, the estimated total retail sales is expected to grow by 5.5% to reach $28.300 trillion. While the above projections are encouraging for the shipping companies, it's important they upgrade to a more-robust and consistent supply chain and logistics mechanism. And, the easy availability and use of shipping management software, has surely changed the way shipping companies co-ordinate with retailers, following smooth supply chain processes. |
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