Retailers have come a long way to keep up with the rapid challenges due to the pandemic, and high inflation rate and still keep evolving with the flow. However, at some point, customers want more. Customers ask retailers to be more knowledgeable about their orders, get their online purchases right away as they are lack of patience than ever before.

That is being the case, retailers need to be take a holistic approach over the entire operation and go through each process until the order is received by the customer. However, there are some main obstacles that retailers may miss out. Let’s take a look at what are the three challenges that retailers must overcome in order to meet custumer demand, compete in the retail environment and still be profitable.

Costly Fulfillment Methods 

Let’s assume that a customer places an order and the retailers get notified. How the process work? In traditional and most common way, the order is fulfilled from the warehouse or from a distribution center without considering the current situation of that particular place in terms of busyness, distance and even the stock quantity. The operation until the order is delivered to shipping provider is run with manual actions which may cause frictions that ends up with lack of customer satisfaction and profit loss. However, in a world that an order management system is used, with an omnichannel approach, the order is fulfilled by business-spesific rules to find the most efficient way to fulfill an order and not only from a depot but from any stores available.

Lack of Technology 

It gets complicated when multiple methods and shipping providers are involved. Most of the retailers don’t have control over their shipping providers to choose the most optimal way to make deliveries. This is how it is handled;  retailers choose and integrate different methods including same-day delivery, standard delivery, etc. once and let customers choose. In this case, retailers can get help from a technology to make the right decision by considering the cost, distance and the most optimal way to deliver the order to customer’s doorstep.

Poor Communication

Customers have no patience for delayed orders and according to Deloitte’s latest research, 70% of customers are less likely to shop with a retailer again if an item is delayed and that is being the case, retailers should be more cautious while tracking and informing customers about where their order is placed and what is the exact time of delivery. It’s hard to track and handle tons of orders from different sales channels in real time without having a robust system. What retailers can do is get access to the entire lifecycle of orders accurately and give the right information to their customers whenever and wherever they want.

Shopi’s Omnichannel Order Hub solution is the perfect fit for retailers who suffers these challenges and face friction about their order lifecycle on a daily basis. With the shipment module, retailers can manage each and every order, in which conditions they will be shipped, and with which shipping provider by setting their own business rules and making it run in seconds. Today, it’s time for retailers to keep up with their customers’ demand, and thanks to Shopi, not only do customers get what they need but also helps to increase operational efficiency. To find out more about our solutions, please feel free to contact us!