It wasn’t too long ago that adopting an omnichannel fulfillment strategy seemed out of reach for many retailers. The complexities involved with shipping from physical stores, in addition to warehouses and distribution centers, presented a host of challenges. Most retailers didn’t have the ability to see what inventory was available in real time across the fulfillment network and then ship those products quickly and cost-effectively from the best possible location. Because of those limitations, they were reluctant to put flexible store fulfillment programs in place.
Devang Patel, chief technology officer, Radial
In the last several years retail giants like Amazon and Walmart have raised consumers’ expectations by making two-day or even same-day free delivery a reality. Those efforts have pushed retailers to follow suit to stay competitive.
“Retailers are getting savvy about finding options that allow them to ship from their stores—creating wider networks, rather than relying on the older model of only shipping from distribution centers,” says Devang Patel, chief technology officer at Radial, a global omnichannel technology and operations provider. “They’re also finding ways to do that while reducing the shipping or
carrier costs.”
Modern Omnichannel Strategies
The retailers that are succeeding today are incorporating modern omnichannel strategies into their operations, which include order management systems that provide accurate, real-time inventory and order visibility through highly scalable application programming interfaces (APIs), Patel says. “Inventory planning relies on optimally fulfilling orders from a specific location that can get the order to the customer in the fastest and most cost-effective way possible,” he says. “But retailers can only do that if they can see all of their inventory at any given time across their entire operation through various demand generation systems such as their ecommerce store, apps and the online marketplaces they sell on.”
Intelligent order routing is an important part of that process, Patel says. Traditionally, most order management systems have a basic configuration of proximity—meaning a product ships from the location closest to the customer. “But intelligent inventory routing capabilities allow retailers to adjust the system to ship products from a location that might be more optimal for other reasons,” he says. For example, if there is a high stock of the particular product in one location vs. others, it would benefit the retailer to ship from the location with the over-stock to avoid markdowns.
Modern, cloud-based omnichannel technology is helping retailers successfully adopt these strategies faster than ever without the enormous total cost of ownership and resource commitments of on-premise software, he says. “Radial, for example, offers a multitenant SaaS platform in our private cloud,” he says. That makes it possible to configure its offerings to fit the retailer’s specific needs and provide them with ongoing support.
Hibbett’s Omni Transition
Athletic apparel retailer Hibbett turned to Radial to transition from solely a brick-and-mortar retail operation to an omnichannel business including ecommerce. Hibbett used Radial’s technology to facilitate routing orders between its distribution centers and more than 1,000 stores in 35 states, as well as to dropship its growing product assortment.
Ninety days after implementation, the retailer generated 5% of its total revenue online. It also met its three-year revenue target by the end of the first year. Hibbett couldn’t have achieved this level of success without modern omnichannel capabilities, Patel says. “Omnichannel is a reality,” he says. “Retailers should be looking for a partner that provides modern architecture that can scale and expand with the market.”
Radial’s integrated commerce strategy is focused on providing a fully integrated platform consisting of configurable order management, omnichannel capabilities, payment processing, tax and fraud management, drop-ship, global fulfillment services, and transportation to large and midsize retailers globally.
Next-level innovation that Radial is focused on is machine learning-based advanced analytics across multiple domains, helping retailers to optimize their business through prescriptive analytics.