Retail IT White Papers

One retail fulfillment center needs to count pallets of merchandise stacked to the ceiling to meet the surge in online orders that has come during the pandemic. Another needs to keep workers socially distanced. And with more shopping moving online every day, all retailers need real-time updates on consumer habits that seem to be evolving rapidly.

What worked yesterday will not necessarily drive success today. It will almost certainly not ensure a fruitful tomorrow.

The growth of omnichannel fulfillment programs such as buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup of online orders has been a retail industry trend for several years now. That trend reached a tipping point in the last 12 months, as the COVID-19 pandemic led consumers to seek out safer, contactless shopping experiences. Equally embraced by consumers and retailers alike, and for many of the same reasons (e.g., cost savings on last-mile order delivery), BOPIS and curbside have transitioned from nice-to-have to must-have services for brands with physical storefronts.

Omnichannel order management systems (OMS) help retailers manage and fulfill complex customers' orders efficiently in an omnichannel environment to improve the customer experience. An omnichannel OMS provides unified visibility of enterprise inventory from warehouse, distribution center, store, and in-transit locations while performing complex order routing to enable efficient order fulfillment from the optimum location.

Can it mitigate the impact of change? Can it drive unlock new efficiencies? Can it generate unprecedented value? Always relevant when evaluating contact center technology, these three questions took center stage amid the events of 2020. The best technology would have helped companies smoothly transition to remote work and digital-first communication. It also would have helped companies elevate their experiences — and reduce agent and customer effort — even in the face of such uncertainty.

This report includes data on consumer sentiment for commerce trends in fulfillment, omnichannel, Amazon, and more. Consumer insights into the COVID-19 pandemic are also included.

One retailer needs to set up curbside pickup in a day. Another is doing ship-from-store but needs real-time data on the number of units of specific items at each store. Others are deciding whether to keep merchandise at shuttered stores or send them back to distribution centers. Those are among the challenges retailers are facing during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. They are not easy to face alone. 

How the peak shopping weekend shook out during this unique holiday season. Find out how a later Amazon Prime Day coupled with merchants earlier holiday discounts impacted the kick-off to the holiday season. Also, an analysis of discounts offered by DNVBs and a look at why supply chain snafus have complicated retailers' overall holiday plans. Plus, an in-depth look at how fulfillment operation improvements will outlive the pandemic and a real-world test of how retailers' curbside operations fared during the Cyber 5.

The COVID-19 pandemic created significant challenges for retail, and one that is likely to have long-term effects is to persuade consumers to return to stores. Concerns over the potential for infection have left many consumers feeling uncomfortable in stores. Retailers must take meaningful steps to earn the trust of patrons whose values and behavior have changed.

For two decades, the PC has reigned supreme over all POS solutions, operating as point of sale terminals that sit on counters and control various peripherals. However, the need for PC-centric solutions is waning as a more flexible POS model emerges Leveraging cloud and mobile technologies, this model supports thin client and IP-enabled components such as cash drawers and printers.