This year's
The conference provided valuable insight on the state of the supply chain, and on strategic considerations from retailers about which aspects of consumer expectations are fungible and which are underpinned by a permanent shift in behaviors.
Returns are costly, and the customer is now picking up part of the tab
During her presentation,
The average cost of an online return is approximately 21% of the order's value, per a
During one of the breakout sessions,
Customer expectations may not be as fixed as thought
Selling customers on the necessity to help offset returns ran adjacent a broader discussion around how and when to revisit the consumer expectations. Retailers are finding that in many situations the consumer don't care as much about speed as they do receiving what was promised, and being informed about progress. That means delivering on communication and offering consistency in execution.
As the race to deliver at speed hits a limit, some retailers are having trouble justifying the additional cost associated with trying to make their entire catalog available for same-day or next-day service.
The bottom line in our view is that it's critical for retailers to understand consumer expectations and respond quickly to trends, whether than means reallocating inventory or changing policies. There was some talk at the conference around leveraging machine learning and AI to get improve on this facet, but most companies still seem to be in early stages of testing out this technology.
The era of whatever you want as soon as you want may be over
As retailers face bloated inventories, several sessions focused on inventory levels and inventory allocation, acknowledging the way decisions here are a key lever whether the market is on an upswing or downswing. While some sales will be forfeited if an item is not immediately available, the costs of overstock need to be balanced.
Given the increased cost of capital, carrying too much inventory can be significant drag on performance.
The executive vice president of supply chain at
Customer satisfaction and loyalty depends on culture
Finally, RILA was notable for engagement from female leaders, especially as retailers focused on the need to engage, develop, and diversify their talent stream. Some retailers use tools like Butterfly.ai to facilitate feedback and get buy-in from employees, but all were focused on culture at a time when customer satisfaction and informed decision-making rest on the soft skills of those at each touchpoint through the retail lifecycle.
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