BT for Retail
Supply chain solutions for
omni-channel success
“While customer experience rightly
gets a lot of attention, the forgotten
front of omni-channel retailing is the
supply chain. It is here that retailers
can do much more to deliver what
it promises – to their customers and
their bottom lines.”
Gary Sharp,
VP Retail and Supply Chain,
BT Global Services
2
How can retailers improve
profits in the current climate?
Retailers need to drive revenue by
attracting new customers, retaining
existing ones and selling more to them
through more channels. And that’s true
whether the customer is a consumer,
wholesaler, franchisee, concession
or other partner.
Growth may come from international
expansion into emerging markets – where
operational ability and speed to market
are crucial. Or from improving operational
efficiency in mature markets – and here,
technology is the key.
‘Omni’ means everything,
and it’s everywhere...
The popular strategy for achieving this goal is omnichannel retailing. It’s a simple idea: customers see you as
one brand, so act the same way everywhere. But putting
that into practice is a bit more complex.
Click & collect, for example, sounds attractive and
customers love it. But knowing where all your stock is
across a distributed set of outlets, and then managing
transfers and returns efficiently, can be very costly if it’s
not done properly.
...so you need to get a lot of things right
The to-do list for omni-channel supply chain
managers is not short:
• achieve accurate inventory visibility across the
whole supply chain
• maximise on-shelf availability
• sweat the inventory
• understand where cost is incurred
• create efficient stock pools to support click & collect
• manage reverse logistics cost-effectively
• reduce phantom inventory with automated
stock-checking
On top of this, own-label clothing retailers have to
manage the whole product lifecycle from design and
sourcing, right through to assigning stock and customer
order fulfilment.
3
Retailtopia: what supply chain success looks like
We asked a panel of industry experts to investigate
how retailers need to evolve their supply chain
operations to meet the challenges of omni-channel
retailing. The findings highlighted the importance of:
1. Visibility
sharing data across a supply chain can improve visibility,
accuracy and ultimately profitability
2. Collaboration
sharing physical infrastructure with other companies’ supply
chains can reduce costs without impacting service
3. Knowing the cost
Chair James Spittle FCILT,
chairman, GS1 UK
David Wild,
non-executive director, Premier Foods,
former CEO of Halfords
Neil Ashworth FCILT,
chief executive, Collect+,
former supply chain director, Tesco.com
and Woolworths
the cost of processing returns is not well-understood and can be
2-3 times outward fulfilment
Dean Wyatt,
VP business development retail UK,
DHL Supply Chain
4. Reverse logistics
Milton Guffogg,
chief operating officer, GA Europe
returns processing can eat up 35% of transaction profit, especially
for clothing retailers where returns rates are highest
5. Turning it around
returns should be treated as conversion opportunities, and the store
seen as a service point
It’s clear that services to enable collaboration and improve supply
chain visibility are going to be of huge strategic value to omnichannel retailers in the future, as they can help reduce operational
costs and drive down the cost‑to‑serve.
4
The Retailtopia panel
Tom Barry,
managing partner, H&B Europe
Professor Alan Braithwaite,
CEO, LCPS
Chris Poole,
global customer service development
director, Diageo plc
Supply chain solutions for omni-channel retailers
BT has a range of products and services
to help retailers address the challenges
of omni-channel operations.
All retailers
BT Global Trace
Secure sharing of data across the whole supply chain
to give accurate near real-time end-to-end visibility.
• TNT saw a 17% improvement in operational
efficiency when it implemented BT Global Trace
for its customer Ericsson
BT Warehouse Trace
Best practice warehouse management with a highly
adaptable, cloud-based architecture.
• delivers a 53% increase in order picking accuracy 1
BT Asset Trace
Manage reusable transport items (RTIs) and mobile
assets to gain visibility and optimise utilisation.
• get a 40% reduction on loss of equipment
and under utilisation of assets 2
BT Inventory Trace
Count, manage and track inventory to maximise
availability and minimise costs.
• benefit from a 30%+ increase in stock availability 3
BT Trace for Retail
An item-level RFID solution that increases
sales and improves customer service.
• gain an increase of up to 20% in sales 4
Fashion, apparel, and general goods retailers
Mercatus
Built for omni-channel trading, Mercatus provides
a single source of product data and delivers a single
view of inventory across all channels. It focuses on the
internal part of the supply chain, from warehousing and
logistics to stock allocation, replenishment and customer
order fulfilment.
Momentis Fashion System
A product lifecycle management software system for
own-label clothing retailers covering design, sampling,
quotation, sourcing, pricing and margin.
Sources
1: HighJump, 2: Omnitrol, 3: syncron.com, 4: Motorola
5
A complete portfolio of
retailer-specific services from BT
STORE
DIGITAL
CUSTOMER
EMPLOYEE
Networks for retailers
Integrated Store
CRM best practice
Store mobility
Mobile point of sale
FrescaCommerce Platform
CRM loyalty programmes
e-learning
Managed payments
E-commerce site design
Contact centres
Workforce optimisation
Digital marketing
Social media
Integrated Store
Conferencing/video
3G rapid site
Online marketing
Clienteling
Unified communications
BT Managed Store
Email marketing
E-gift cards
CCTV security
Mobile vouchers
Field force automation
Retail traffic analytics
Built on an unrivalled breadth and
depth of network infrastructure
and communications expertise
BT Connect
6
BT One
BT Contact
BT Compute
BT Assure
Networks
that think
Communications
that unify
Relationships
that grow
Security
that matters
Services
that adapt
Services to
connect you
to employees,
customers
and the world.
Collaborate
more efficiently
with employees,
suppliers,
customers and
business partners.
Complete contact
management
solutions for
organisations
aspiring to world
class customer
service.
Powerful
security and risk
management
products to build
a sustainable
business with
added security
and resilience in
every process.
Enjoy the benefits
of a high-security
data centre to
improve agility,
flexibility and
resilience, and
save money while
strengthening
your capabilities
by simplifying
your IT estate.
With great supply comes great demand
Consumers increasingly expect
24/7 access to channels and instant
information on stock availability. But
this puts huge pressures on the supply
chain. We can help you fulfil the promise
of omni-channel retailing with a range
of products and services designed
specifically for retailers.
Snapshot: omni-channel in action
Aurora Fashions manages Coast, Oasis and
Warehouse, some of the UK’s most respected
women’s fashion brands. The group has over
760 stores in the UK and a total portfolio of over
1,250 stores in 38 markets across the globe.
Aurora Fashions recently launched Anywhere,
Everywhere, a strategy in which all selling channels
– both on and offline – are integrated so that
order fulfilment across all channels is realised from
one stock pool.
Stock records are now updated in real-time and
kept consistently in sync between hundreds of
stores, a central distribution centre (DC) and
28 digital commerce channels.
This delivers more availability without increased
inventory costs by sourcing products across
the stores and DC in real-time. The ability to
dynamically fulfil orders from across the entire
store network has reduced product fragmentation,
internal stock transfers and markdowns.
“Anywhere, Everywhere gives every store the
opportunity to boost sales by fulfilling web orders
and enables even the smallest stores to have access
to the brand’s full product range, even much
sought after limited edition pieces.”
Mike Shearwood, Chief Executive, Aurora Fashions
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We can help you fulfil the promise
of omni-channel retailing
We’d love to discuss with you how our supply chain services could
help you realise what omni-channel retailing has to offer – for your
customers and your bottom line.
To arrange a demonstration or pilot of any of the BT Trace products
or Mercatus, please contact your BT account manager.
For more information on BT for Retail
visit www.bt.com/retail
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