Exclusive: eBay Enterprise: Retailers enter new fulfillment era

Chain Store Age recently spoke with Stefan Weitz, head of product and strategy at eBay Enterprise, about the changing nature of omnichannel retail and what it means for fulfillment strategies.



How important is it for today’s retailers to have omnichannel fulfillment capability?

We are seeing omnichannel fulfillment as absolutely critical. In the consumer’s mind, the concept of “channels” is completely blurring. The concept of placing an order on a retailer’s webstore is being pushed aside. Commerce is being integrated into social media outlets. There are rumors of Facebook putting commerce capability into Messenger.



The industry is entering an era of ubiquitous commerce. Consumers can conduct transactions anywhere. Retailers need to be saying to themselves, “How can I take orders from anywhere and make sure I can fulfill them?” Delighting the customer comes at a high cost, both on the internal fulfillment side and on the shipping side.



What is driving the cost of delighting the omnichannel customer?

Customer expectations are at an all-time high, partially because of the great job Amazon has done. The complexity of the systems needed to deliver an effective omnichannel customer experience are at an all-time high.



To deliver that experience profitably, retailers need to have a dozen different systems. Once you get an omnichannel order, you need to figure out the best sourcing point for that order. It might be the distribution center, the store or a drop-ship provider.



What factors should retailers consider when deciding on fulfilling from a store?

When determining whether to fulfill an order from a store, retailers should think about all the unique variable of that order. For example, will the item be placed on markdown soon? What is the likelihood of an item being returned, and how and where would that return be processed?



If you do fulfill from a store, you need to make sure you’re optimizing the retail associate’s experience and not wasting their time. Focus on implementing store fulfillment solutions that don’t require a lot of training and use intuitive features like pictures of items and store maps.



How will the new omnichannel fulfillment model affect the design of the physical store?

“Omnichannel” means a product can be shipped from anywhere. Stores may wind up having a smaller back room and function as more of a showroom. Customers can come in and experience what they want on the store floor with help from associates, and then have the item shipped from anywhere. It could mean having an item shipped from a store on the other side of town that same day.



The store physical imprint could become very creative. Retailers will have to rethink how they perform in-store pickups and returns to make the process more seamless. There may be dedicated spaces where you walk in and simply get the product and walk out without having to wait in a checkout line.