Nearly a year after the pandemic has started, the new normal has been established and some aspects of it may very well be here to stay even when it ends completely. While it was wildly popular pre-pandemic as well, omnichannel retail has become the obvious thing to do. With the change in customer shopping habits due to hygiene concerns, the ease of online shopping, and the lockdown restrictions, the retail industry’s operation had to keep up with new challenges. These changes made retailers rethink and reprocess their operations. While some stores opened their online channels, some of them tried the latest integrated technologies to merge online and offline stores.

The new understanding of using channels connected, omnichannel, brings productivity in every corner of the operation. Now the stock availability of any stores can be displayed from store associates which improve customer satisfaction and also the needed product can be fulfilled from other stores available according to the determined business rules. On the other hand, smart order routing activities, product status, online and offline stock balance can be monitored in real-time from a single point to provide better performance tracking of the entire operation. However, while these challenges and innovations that the retail industry and customers face improve the stores to keep up with the new retail era, it also addresses another significant aspect of the shopping experience; the deficiency of delivery, and return processes. Omnichannel management systems also help retailers to adopt the buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) and the buy online, return in-store (BORIS) models to cope with delivery and return processes allowing customers to purchase and return anywhere they want with utmost efficiency and customer satisfaction in these times when customers have the concern of doing safe and quick shopping.

When it comes to BOPIS, customers can choose where to pick up the product and to be sure that the item they’d like to purchase isn’t out-of-stock, so that they don’t waste time coming to the store for an out-of-stock item. This ensures giving shoppers a more seamless experience that allows them to easily purchase products and pick up on the same day at their convenience. This will go a long way in creating lasting customer loyalty and from the retailers’ side, it drives in-store traffic.

While retailers provide customers the flexibility of returning the product, they are also fretting about the loss of revenue. BORIS creates an easy process to improve customer satisfaction and also creates opportunities to upsell. Driving the customer traffic to the store may direct them to discover new products they may not have thought about purchasing before.

With BOPIS and BORIS omnichannel fulfillment solutions, retailers have the ability to offer consumers multiple ways to fulfill orders, driving in-store traffic, and increasing revenue. In an age where customers are not willing to spend more time in-store due to health concerns and prefer completing purchases without waiting for delivery to address, Shopi’s Omnichannel Cloud solutions can reshape the traditional retail operation and replace a system that meets both retailers and customers need.

References

https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/retailers-and-shoppers-are-all-about-bopis-and-boris/