BY VICTORIA KICKHAM, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
RETAIL FULFILLMENT
Strategy
MEETING CONSUMER NEEDS IN TODAY’S RETAIL ENVIRONMENT IS
becoming increasingly challenging, especially for organizations rooted in brick-and-mortar operations. As they struggle to address changing consumer shopping
preferences—driven in large part by the “Amazon effect”—many are finding that
they must rethink in-store operations in order to provide a seamless experience for
shoppers, whether those shoppers choose to buy online, shop in the store, or some
combination of the two.
“There is this expectation for immediate gratification, and Amazon is pioneering
ways to deliver it. Meanwhile, retailers are re-evaluating how they can respond to this
need as well,” says Karen Bomber, director of retail industry marketing for Fort Mill,
S.C.-based Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions, which provides hardware
and software solutions for retailers. “Consumers don’t care if they got the product
online [or] at a store; they just want a single, unified shopping experience. Retailers
are trying to manage through this expectation.”
One of the biggest challenges retailers must manage is the changing work require-
ments of in-store associates. No longer there solely to meet the needs of traditional
The evolving retail store
Retailers adapt
in-store fulfillment
processes to meet
customer demand for
convenience and
faster delivery.
