FULFILLING STORES’ SEAMLESS POTENTIAL
Chain Store Age spoke with Vikas Aron, director of product management for Manhattan Associates, about how the store has become a vital point in the modern supply chain.
How does having an accurate view of store-level inventory enable effective omnichannel fulfillment?
More and more retailers are leveraging their physical locations as fulfillment centers, with store associates acting not only as sales clerks but also as fulfillment specialists. The advantages of handling fulfillment from the store are many. Stores can be used to increase speed to the customer, and ship-from-store can be a relief valve to siphon orders that the fulfillment center cannot handle during peak selling events.
Used strategically, store fulfillment enables creative digital selling strategies to drive store sales and inventory turns. The secret is having an accurate view of store-level inventory. From a customer perspective, accurate inventory leads to a better shopping experience by offering convenience to your customers, while avoiding the headaches of canceled orders and shopper frustration.
How do mobile-enabled devices aid in-store picking?
In-store pickup is on the rise, but retailers are still struggling with the challenges of long wait times at the counter, items not being ready for pickup and confusion among store associates. By using a single mobile-enabled device, store associates can now stage pickup orders by assigning unique location IDs, significantly reducing customer wait times. Additionally, our pick-to-slot feature directs associates to sort items into different totes for each order in the batch, reducing time to pack and ship items.
Today’s retail associate needs to be part shopkeeper, part fulfillment specialist and part customer service agent. With mobile devices and software solutions, smart retailers are arming store associates with the information they need to bridge the digital divide between their customers and associates.
How can mobile push notifications help store associates execute store fulfillment tasks?
Store associates aren’t necessarily looking at their devices all the time. With push notifications, they don’t have to be actively checking their device or have the app open in the first place to know that there is an immediate action.
This streamlines high-priority tasks like expedited orders or online pickup orders. It really is as simple as tapping the app and completing the task.
What are the benefits of linking inventory and fulfillment operations?
Consumer expectations are placing increased pressure on retail enterprises to fulfill higher order volumes at faster speeds. Manhattan Associates strongly believes that everything the store associate needs to do has to be performed on one single application, especially for inventory and fulfillment.
These are very interrelated tasks. Having an application that can do both results in better fulfillment experience and more informed customers. Our store inventory and fulfillment solution equips store associates with the tools to improve visibility and productivity for faster delivery of a fulfilling customer experience, no matter where the purchase originates.
How does Manhattan Associates technology assist retailers with omnichannel fulfillment?
Store inventory operations have traditionally been associated with POS or merchandising applications. This worked fine because there wasn’t a need for stores to process online orders. Once online orders were introduced, store execution became complicated, and we realized that retailers needed to have an accurate view of store-level inventory to be successful with omnichannel fulfillment.
That’s why our store inventory and fulfillment solution is part of a broader Manhattan Associates omnichannel operations platform. It provides best-in-class capabilities for managing store inventory, executing in-store pickup and shipping orders from the store, with no latency and no additional integration required. In a nutshell, this solution helps retailers offer a frictionless experience for customers as they move between shopping channels. That’s why our clients chose Manhattan Associates to be the core foundational building block for their omnichannel strategy.