BRP finds less than half of retailers are providing the digital capabilities customers desire.
According to a new report from Boston Retail Partners (BRP), retailers are not keeping up with customers’ digital demand. This gap between consumer demand for digital capabilities within the store and most retailers’ current ability to support this is the ‘great digital divide’ that is plaguing the retail industry.
BRP published the special report “OMS – The Brains of the Operation,” based on the “2018 POS/Customer Engagement Benchmarking Survey,” to address retailers’ need to find a solution to meet rising digital expectations.
Consumers say that digital influences up to 75% of pre-store visits and is leveraged in 46% of their in-store shopping experiences; however, less than half of retailers deliver on the most important digital capabilities that customers desire. To meet rising customer expectations, retailers can no longer rely on legacy systems that are not designed to accommodate today’s retail environment. Retailers realize that unified commerce is a retail imperative, but execution on that strategy is challenging. The answer may be utilizing an order management system (OMS) as the platform for unified commerce.
Many retailers have cobbled systems and processes together as a ‘just get something done’ approach in an attempt to deliver a seamless customer experience across channels. The unfortunate result of this quick fix approach is a ‘faux’ omni-channel model that doesn’t execute as promised and risks disappointing customers.
“While retailers understand the importance of moving to a unified commerce model, executing the strategy is challenging,” said David Russo, vice president, BRP. “It can be a daunting project when considering the scope of a commerce platform that enables and supports every customer touch point—in real-time. The answer may be utilizing an order management system as the platform for unified commerce.”
To fix this problem, retailers need to rethink old paradigms and adopt a new approach to unified commerce. To support this desired experience and increased capabilities, retailers need a robust order management solution that can serve as the anchor for the single shared shopping cart and operate as the brains of a unified commerce platform.
To download OMS – The Brains of the Operation, visit: https://brpconsulting.com/download/2018-oms-special-report
