Reducing the Friction in Omnichannel Fulfillment

摘要

Omnichannel seamlessly integrates multiple sales, service and delivery channels. The majority of omnichannel retailers can be categorized as either those that originated with physical locations, or those that began online. A key theme in the evolution of omnichannel has been brick-and-mor-tar retailers drawing on existing assets to create competitive responses such as buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS); fulfillment of e-commerce orders from store, and curbside pickup. The challenge for omnichan- nel retailers of traditional pedigree is the increased cost of these competitive responses. Consider, for example, curbside pickup. According to an informal survey, grocery order pickers can pick between $370 and $620 worth of product per hour. Assuming a loaded wage rate of $18 and pick efficiency at $620 per hour, the cost of picking an order is 2.9% of sales. In comparison, Kroger's 2019 operating profit was 1.8% of sales. Grocery order picking is inefficient because grocery stores are optimized for the end customer, not the grocery picker.