The shift from traditional retail channels towards multiple channel strategies is an ongoing process. It has taken place over the last twenty years and is accelerating, fuelled by the rise of the internet. The dynamism of the channel landscape is continuing to create new growth opportunities for retailers.
However, while retailers have prioritized investment in customer-facing, front-end services, many have neglected the importance of optimizing back-end processes.
The reluctance to invest in these areas can lead to service failures and brand damage for many retailers. However, it highlights an opportunity for forward-thinking retailers to differentiate themselves in delivering excellence in the end-to-end customer experience.
“This report by FreshMinds is an important research report
and creates a sense of urgency for retailers to re-think their marketing plans and channel strategies. They provide some
clear guidelines and milestones for retailers to apply in
developing a multi-channel retail strategy that is effective and
practical, and can yield important “leap-frog” results. Pulling
their ideas from the best and the brightest of industry, they
have created an important research product that will certainly
drive you and your team to think differently about the future of
your enterprise marketing strategy.”
Robert Handfield Director, Supply Chain Resource Cooperative
(http://SCM.Ncsu.edu/blog), North Carolina State University:
Department of Business Management, Bank of America
Distinguished University Professor of Supply Chain Management
