New York – Jan. 15, 2007 – As retailers review the success and speed bumps of the 2006 holiday season, Sterling Commerce has released the results of a recent survey showing the importance of cross-channel efficiencies in accommodating increasing customer demands. The survey, conducted earlier this month, found that 80 percent of respondents felt it was important to have a choice of shopping online, in a store or by telephone when choosing a retailer. The survey also found that 90 percent of respondents said it was important to be able to return merchandise to a physical store location regardless of how they purchased the item.
Sterling Commerce shared the findings of the survey at the National Retail Federation (NRF) Annual Convention and Expo in New York this week. Sterling Commerce is located at booth #1913, and more information on the company and survey is available at http://www.virtualpressoffice.com/kit/stercomm.
“Because of the ease with which an increasing number of retailers are allowing consumers to interact with them across channels, consumers are developing extremely high expectations,” said Robert Garf, vice president at AMR Research in the September 2006 report, “Retailers Invest to Efficiently Fulfill Cross-Channel Customer Demand.” “As a result, there are operational challenges that have serious competitive implications for retailers and their suppliers. Retailers must close the gap between importance and performance in order to improve the overall customer experience.”
While many retailers have an online presence, not all multi-channel retailers have found a way to synchronize their often disparate order and fulfillment processes. Customers experience an inconsistent shopping experience and retailers are at risk of damaging their brand image. Many retailers are still struggling to provide a seamless customer experience where a customer can elect to buy, pick-up and return anywhere. In fact, only 22 percent of the survey respondents said it was very easy to return catalog or online purchases to a store.
Providing a cross channel return option can not only positively influence the initial buy decision, but the store return can easily translate to an exchange or, even better, an incremental sales opportunity. Fifty-five percent of respondents said that when they return an item they are likely to get a replacement for their returned item and would spend time looking around the store to see what other merchandise is available. Seventy-eight percent of respondents said they were somewhat likely to purchase additional merchandise during a trip to a store to return an item.
“Achieving cross-channel excellence is the next evolution in multi-channel retailing, and is a difficult process to execute well because it often crosses internal organizational and process silos,” said Steve Poplawski, retail industry executive at Sterling Commerce. “Retailers look to Sterling Commerce to simplify cross-channel execution because only Sterling Commerce can deliver the solutions needed to help retailers optimize the customer experience and drive operational excellence across the end-to-end supply chain.”
Sterling Commerce solutions for retailers include an end-to-end order capture/management solution that allows retailers to provide a differentiated cross-channel customer experience by enabling consumers to buy, pick-up, and return anywhere. The company’s best-of-breed supply chain execution suite drives operational excellence by enhancing visibility, optimizing execution, accelerating exception recovery, and dramatically improving the management of inventory, transportation, and distribution assets. All Sterling Commerce solutions are based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and leverage the company’s unparalleled experience in data integration and network management to streamline implementations, drive speed-to-benefit, and enhance adaptability for future change.
Survey Methodology
The survey was conducted on behalf of Sterling Commerce by the Opinion Research Corporation in January 2007. Using random-digit-dialing techniques, telephone interviews were completed with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 U.S. adults 18 years and older. The survey has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points, at a 95 percent confidence level.