Omni-channel shopping has become an integral part of our lives. Gone are the days when the focus was solely on becoming omni-channel or providing omni-channel options to demanding customers. Now, the conversation has shifted to optimization. Retailers must enhance their inventory and fulfillment decisioning capabilities…

In the retail industry, on-time in-full (OTIF) isn’t just a target — it’s the value system at the heart of retail that keeps the industry alive. When orders are delivered on time and in full, the fulfilled promise doesn’t just build trust with the customer;…

The competitive landscape keeps getting tougher for retailers. That’s especially true as industry giants grow and grab more market share. How can retailers survive, and even thrive, in this environment? And how can they do it without the massive resources of a large retailer? One…

Historically, the retail industry has talked about experience through one lens and one lens only — the customer’s. And for good reason, too — customer experience (CX) is a known driver of customer loyalty, one that is sometimes more powerful than brand or price. While…

What a great week at Shoptalk 2024 in Las Vegas! The vibe at Shoptalk was festive with a crowd of 27,000+ people at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. Overall, the event was a big success. Shoptalk is one of the more enjoyable conferences in…

In 2023, the major trends that impacted supply chain planning ranged from geopolitical conflicts, inflationary pressures, a recessionary environment, and extreme weather patterns associated with climate change. Last year demonstrated the sheer range and complexity of the macro forces impacting toplines, increasing costs, and eroding…

It may come as an unpleasant surprise that competing KPIs are destroying value across the supply chain. However, the short-sighted fixation on resolving specific, isolated challenges leaves retailers blind to the reality that approaching supply chain challenges with a synchronized “end-to-end” strategy unlocks unseen potential…

In our exploration of end-to-end retail integration, we’ve laid out a sensible grocery retail roadmap for getting there, what it looks like in other verticals when done right, and errors to avoid when making the transition. We’ve also explored how a « microservice” approach to achieving…

Ability to scale remains the keystone to holding together retail’s effort to transition its architecture for the modern era that pits cost against customer expectations. The retailers modernizing toward that end-to-end integration will be those best aligned with that new paradigm. Faster fulfillment, more optionality,…

Online and offline, simple and sophisticated technologies continue to shape and reshape the contours of consumer engagement. That’s before you even factor the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in retail. In Beyond the Aisle blog post, we unpacked the theory, and a 10-phase roadmap for…