Between December 2009 and January 2010, Aberdeen surveyed

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2 Fast-Track Cross-Channel Gains: The Final Frontier for Customer Share of Wallet Sahir Anand, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, RETAIL, HOSPITALITY, & BANKING, ABERDEEN GROUP Chris Cunnane, SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, RETAIL, HOSPITALITY, & BANKING, ABERDEEN GROUP Between December 2009 and January 2010, Aberdeen surveyed 100 retail organizations to determine the state of cross-channel retailing. The driving factor behind crosschannel retailing is the customer, as the top two pressures facing retailers are the need to address rapid changes in customer affinity for sales channels and the need for a faster, easier and more convenient shopping experience (Figure 1). Today s consumers are more demanding than ever, and apparel retailers must be willing to adapt to their channel preferences. As the online and mobile channels continue to gain in prominence, consumers expect to receive the same brand promise and experience across all channels, making it an absolute necessity that retailers re-think their cross-channel stance. Complementary channels cannot remain isolated in silos; they must become an integrated part of the retail portfolio. In today s digital age, the bulk of consumers have replaced the mere utility of a desired product with ease of shopping and convenience. Apparel retailers know that their customers can essentially buy any product at any time through various channels. This is a driving factor as retailers continue to re-evaluate their cross-channel offerings. Satisfying the desire for a convenient shopping experience, whether in the store, online, on a mobile device, or through a call center, has become a frontand-center priority for retailers. For those retailers that do not recognize this need, and act with isolated channels of sales and service, short-term failure is in the cards. Key steps towards merging channel strategies include, but are not limited to, web and catalog product information access, inventory look-up, order placement, order history look-up, order payment, processing, shipping or delivery, in-store order pick-up and fulfillment. Key strategies for apparel retailers FIGURE 1: Cross-Channel Pressures Relate to the Customer and Shopper Experience 29% Need to address rapid changes in customer affinity for sales channels Percentage of Respondents Source: Aberdeen Group, January % Need for faster, easier and convenient shopping experience Apparel retailers must make a dedicated commitment to integrating the aforementioned business processes into a unified cross-channel retailing effort. The top strategic action identified by retailers is to identify new sales channel opportunities. Expanding operations to the online channel is a logical first step for many retailers. However, the mobile channel is gaining traction in the retail space with many organizations rolling out successful mobile retail applications, such as mobile marketing, couponing and social media applications. Examples include Ralph Lauren and New York & Company, among others. Retailers that are currently without the mobile order, marketing or related offering must seize the opportunity to grow their channel capabilities in line with the latest needs of their customer. As retailers are able to stay cutting edge, they can better relate to their customers, build loyalty and remain a top of mind source no matter the customer s sales channel preference. The second top strategic action identified is to develop channel integration plans for a unified customer experience. In order for a cross-channel strategy to be truly successful, there are a number of processes that must be integrated for all chan- MAXIMIZING ONLINE RETAILING 1

3 FIGURE 2: Top Processes for Cross-channel Retailing Best-in-class All others 50% 45% 43% 24% 21% 17% Access to web and catalog product information in store Source: Aberdeen Group, January 2010 Ability to place web and catalog orders in the stores Unified merchandising plan for all channels of operations nels: pricing, promotions, marketing and supply chain, among others. As channels act as separate entities, pricing, for example, is not uniform. This results in situations in the store where customers are utilizing a mobile device to browse prices on the retailer s online store, and leveraging online prices for discounts within the store. Consumers are also comparison shopping and looking for price matches within the store. This lack of an integrated pricing model compounds confusion over a uniform brand image and also leads to lower margin due to frequent price-match. Retailers are staring into the face of failure if these processes are not fully integrated into a crosschannel retail strategy. Aberdeen s analysis of the Best-in-Class reveals that the need for integrated operations in retail cannot be underestimated. Our data indicates that 67 percent of retailers currently lack collaborative channel operations in the areas of unified marketing, inventory management, order management and customer fulfillment. The lack of integration hurts the customer buying experience and creates a disjointed brand, which in turn impacts business sustenance. In addition, the lack of coordinated channels reduces the ability to create economies of scale. For instance, unified merchandise buying strategies across channels can lead to better pricing from suppliers. Process Capabilities Cross-channel process unification is critical for customer success. Figure 2 signifies the cross-channel alignment areas for product information access, order management and merchandising. For integrating product information and order management, on average, Best-in-Class retailers are two times more likely than all others (Industry Average and Laggards combined) to provide customers with access to online and catalog product information and order capabilities in the stores. Besides the obvious points of reference on a product to enable a buying decision, product information access provides a wider set of merchandise choices for customers if they are searching for a specific type of product (example: a specific leather purse that is available online but not in the store or special order furniture item that can be ordered through the catalog but is not available in the store). Leading apparel retailers adopt system strategies that involve Product Information Management (PIM), distributed order management, and Master Data Management (MDM) to ensure linkages between cross-channel product information and ability to place online and catalog orders in the store. Lastly, retailers need to deal with several hundred or several thousand unit-level product purchases for their channels every day. Adopting a centralized buying strategy for all channels of operations not only ensures better vendor management and optimized inventory, but also goes a long way in optimizing working capital. Currently, retailers have adopted centralized and de-centralized buying strategies. However, centralized buying does promote improved economies of scale. From a systems standpoint, a retailer does not need to make any major shifts in deploying a cross-channel merchandising management system, except for setting centralized business attributes for open-to-buy and warehouse allocation. In terms of the need for core cross-channel technology integration, the top three Best-in-Class modules include the integrated call center, distributed order management, and real-time inventory updates for all channels. Best-in-Class retailers are investing IT dollars toward business rules-based call center, online, store and warehouse order management. These retailers are also taking the cross-channel integration methodology to the next level of automation by adopting visibility and collaboration techniques that ensure unified inventory management across all channels. As a result, these companies are achieving a balance between customer expectations of inventory availability, improved sell-through and replenishment of product, and working capital optimization. More than a third of Best-in-Class companies (36 percent) compared to 22 percent of all others are incentivizing crosschannel performance emanating out of cross-channel operations at stores and within other channels. A lot more needs to be done for motivating and influencing cross-channel information, order, sales and fulfillment performance. Managers within and outside of stores are now being compensated based on the 2 MAXIMIZING ONLINE RETAILING

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5 overall satisfaction, return, cancellation, and fill rates of their customers. This is a very good sign as channels can now look at common corporate performance management objectives and shun the siloed approach to cross-channel retailing. Recommendations Whether a company is trying to move its performance in cross-channel retailing from Laggard to Industry Average, or Industry Average to Best-in-Class, the following actions will help spur the necessary performance improvements: Execute a cross-channel customer loyalty program. As a first step, apparel retailers should allow online and mobile enrollment in the customer loyalty program. Once customers are able to enroll in the loyalty program via the channel of their choice, retailers should set a timetable for full integration, starting with cross-channel reward accrual, followed by selfservice profile updates and status checks, and finally, loyalty redemption. Execute a unified marketing plan for all channels of operations. Today s consumer is looking for a unified shopping experience across all channels, from a merchandising, pricing, and marketing standpoint. Apparel retailers must ensure that their marketing messages are not telling conflicting stories based on the channel. To alleviate this problem, the marketing department should assign a dedicated position to oversee all marketing communications across all channels, ensuring they meet the retailer s brand promise. A siloed approach to marketing will only cause confusion for the consumer, and must be eradicated by a dedicated position. Improve cross-channel integration in stores at POS. Top apparel retailers can start by executing more cross-channel orders in stores by integrating the POS functions with distributed order management capabilities which enables browser functionality, order placement, inventory look-up, order processing, order history look-up, and payment acceptance for in-store pick-up or delivery. The ability to access websites, catalog, and fulfill web generated orders at POS is a capability being used by only 46% of Best-in-Class retailers, up from 34% in 2007, and 44% in 2008.This is a key integration capability for a customer-centric POS system in a retail environment that is rapidly expanding towards crosschannel selling. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Sahir Anand is Research Director, Retail, Hospitality, & Banking, Aberdeen Group. Sahir Anand focuses on technology and process management practices in retail, and the interplay between retail and consumer goods. Anand s work is related to use and adoption of technologies and processes that aid optimization and efficiencies in the multi-channel retail environment. Anand focuses on retail customer, store & field management, and employee-facing technology and process optimization areas. Anand specializes in store and headquarter-related processes such as retail and merchant processes in the areas of store operations, payments, workforce management, promotions and pricing management, marketing relationship management, inventory and supply chain processes (forecasting, order management, fulfillment). Anand brings to Aberdeen years of experience in a wide variety of industries including Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining the Aberdeen Group, Anand was a General Manager with Staples Inc., where he was involved in customer and store & field management operations. Chris Cunnane is Senior Research Associate, Retail, Hospitality, & Banking, Aberdeen Group. He focuses on research and analysis within the Retail Practice to identify the practices, technologies, and behaviors that separate best-in-class retailers from their peers. Cunnane holds a BA in Communications from Stonehill College and has an MA in Global Marketing Communication and Advertising from Emerson College. ABOUT ABERDEEN GROUP AberdeenGroup, a Harte-Hanks Company, provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions. As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role in putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen s analytical and independent view of the customer optimization process of Harte-Hanks (Information Opportunity Insight Engagement Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen or call , or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call ABOUT OUR SPONSOR Celerant Command Retail is a real-time multichannel solution, integrating all areas of a retail enterprise in one system, including POS, inventory management, sales back office, warehouse, mail order/catalog and e-commerce. Celerant s custom, sophisticated websites expertly manage and market inventory, directly from your Command Retail system, eliminating the need to re-enter data, including product descriptions, customer information and online orders. Our advantage is the flexibility of our Java platform and the tight integration, allowing retailers to manage all channels of their business with one, scalable, real-time system. ABOUT APPAREL MAGAZINE Apparel magazine has been the industry s leading publication for 48 years. It offers technology and business insight from concept to consumer, providing competitive, actionable information to executives representing the world s most successful apparel brands, retailers and manufacturers. Apparel s targeted content addresses Retail Intelligence, Supply Chain, Sourcing & Logistics, Concept-to-Spec and Fiber-to-Fabric. An Edgell Communications publication, Apparel also produces Apparel s Sourcing Summit, the Apparel Executive Forum, Apparel s Tech Conference, Apparel s Tech Conference West, numerous web seminars and research supplements, the Apparel e- Newsletter, the Apparel Executive Issues e-newsletter and apparelmag.com. Copyright 2010 by Edgell Communications Inc. All rights reserved. MAXIMIZING ONLINE RETAILING 3