The State Of Cross-Channel Retail Logistics

January 2012 Integrated Solutions For Retailers

By Sahir Anand, VP and research director and Kevin Permenter, esearch associate — supply chain, retail, and banking, Aberdeen Group

Today’s supply chain professional must balance the need to reduce inventory with the need to react to demand in a timely manner.

Retailers must be able to quickly restructure or transform supply chain execution (source-deliver processes) in response to an evolving global, multichannel supply chain scenario.

In the last few months, the retail economy has finally seen glimpses of a revival in consumer spending. Inbound freight traffic has increased at the same time. However, many companies still don’t have the ability to respond to dynamic multichannel demand cycles, which is a challenge for at least 40% of retailers in an increasingly global supply chain scenario. This is further complicated by the increased globalization within the retail supply chain. In fact, nearly half (47%) of retailers are engaged in both domestic and international shipping. Demand has been so uncertain in the last 18 months that the volume of inventory in the retail supply chain and channels has either been too high or too low.