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Retailers investing heavily but see no profits: JDA Study

By Bhawana Anand | Vjmedia Works | April 20, 2015

A new JDA study prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) finds that despite increasing investments in omni-channel sales capabilities, only 16 per cent of retailers and consumer goods manufacturers are fulfilling profitably.

A new JDA study reveals an enormous amount of money, energy and time retailers and consumer goods manufacturers are spending to improve their omni-channel sales capabilities. However, the JDA report also reveals an unexpected fact that despite these significant investments, only 16 percent of companies say they can fulfill omni-channel demand profitably today.

This finding and others are highlighted in The Omni-Channel Fulfillment Imperative, a new report prepared for JDA Software Group, Inc. by PwC. This study is based on a global survey of more than 400 retail and consumer goods CEOs from around the world, conducted in late 2014.

The reason behind the eroding retailers' margins is the high cost of fulfilling orders. Around 67 per cent of respondents reported that these costs are growing as they increase their focus on selling across channels. Survey respondents reported their highest costs associated with omni-channel selling as:

  • Handling returns from online and store orders (cited by 71 per cent of respondents)
  • Shipping directly to the customer (67 per cent)
  • Shipping to the store for customer pick-up (59 per cent)

The CEOs in the JDA study recognize that they need to continue investing in business improvements to enhance their omni-channel performance. However, reducing the associated logistics costs is not their primary focus. When asked to rank their top initiatives for improving business operations, CEOs' number-one choice (57 per cent) was spending capital on creating new customer experiences. Similarly, when asked to rank strategic growth enablers for the year, reducing/reformatting physical store footprints to focus on expanding the ecommerce business was the top choice at 53 per cent.

"Every time retailers receive an online order, they have a number of options to fulfill that demand. They can pull the product from a local store, send it from a centralised warehouse or ship it directly from the supplier. JDA's new study demonstrates that most retailers lack the insight to make these decisions in a profitable manner — and are not sufficiently focused on this critical capability gap,” said Kevin Iaquinto, Chief Marketing Officer, JDA.

"They need intelligent logistics and fulfillment solutions that can reveal the hidden costs, and the customer service trade-offs, associated with every delivery option. In addition, to truly win in the omni-channel marketplace, retailers need the upfront demand forecasting tools to make sure products are already distributed across all locations in a manner that supports profitable delivery”, he added.

High priority

While they might not be focused on actions to create profitable fulfillment and delivery schemes, the JDA study leaves no doubt that CEOs are aware of the importance of profitable omni-channel fulfillment to their future survival. About 71 per cent of respondents said omni-channel fulfillment is either a high or a top priority. And these CEOs are planning to invest an average of 29 per cent of their total capital expenditures for 2015 on improving their omni-channel fulfillment performance.

The fulfillment capability most cited as needing attention was transportation and logistics, named by 88 per cent of CEOs as a priority for the future. The second capability CEOs will focus on is improving inventory availability to fill orders, cited by 85 per cent.

"Having products available, then finding the most profitable way to deliver them —are critical activities that lie at the heart of supply chain excellence,” noted Iaquinto. "The CEOs in the JDA survey clearly understand the challenges they have ahead of them with regard to fulfillment, and they know they will have to innovate if they are to be profitable while meeting customer expectations across channels. The good news is that advanced technology can help retailers and consumer goods manufacturers' master omni-channel fulfillment. However, until companies fully leverage these solutions, they will fail to realise positive financial returns on their omni-channel investments.”

Tags : JDA study PwC
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