TruckandTrackSpring2020

Truck and Track Spring 2020 www.truckandtrack.com 16 TELEMATICS Retailers are pushing hard to achieve a ‘frictionless’ customer experience – but in too many cases, the emphasis is on the initial interaction with the rest of the experience woefully inadequate. What is the point of embracing seamless click-through options on Pinterest or Facebook, when the delivery experience is flawed? Or investing heavily in a frictionless in-store experience that leverages ‘pick and go’ technology to avoid queues yet offering no easy way to return goods? Too many frictionless investments are ignoring one of the fundamental truths of modern retailing: customer experience needs to be consistent across all sales channels, from in-store to telesales and online. Frictionless retailing is not just about leveraging innovative technology to make it easy for customers to spend their money once: it is about ensuring the entire, end to end experience is frictionless, seamless and enjoyable to make it easy for customers to spend again and again. Andrew Tavener, Head of Marketing at Descartes Systems UK explains why retailers leveraging virtual real-time stock and delivery capacity information to continuously optimise the delivery model are fundamentally changing the customer experience while also reducing costs and improving delivery productivity. Flawed Fulfilment Models In-store and online purchase experiences have undoubtedly improved in recent years, as retailers have invested in any number of innovative solutions to achieve a high quality initial customer interaction. Yet delivery horror stories are still endemic. From the parcels left in wheelie bins and emptied before discovered by the customer, to deliveries that arrive on the wrong day, with no notification, and the ’signed for’ items left on the doorstep. Nor is the option of click & collect meeting customer expectations with one in seven UK customers clicking but never collecting their deliveries from a store, due to the quality of experience. And, of course, returns – a process that is hugely expensive for retailers to offer and often inconvenient for customers. While some retailers will admit their in-store experience needs further improvement, far too many abdicate delivery responsibility because they use a third-party logistics (3PL) provider. That simply is not good enough – for today’s consumer every aspect of the experience will reflect on the retailer. A company that fails to effectively manage its delivery model, whether handled internally or via 3PLs, yet is investing in a ‘frictionless’ customer experience is essentially misunderstanding the concept of seamless, frictionless retail. Add in endemic driver shortage and the emerging challenges of diesel vehicles being banned from city centres during daytime hours, as well as rising customer expectations regarding retailers’ environmental commitments, the entire delivery model will need to become more intelligent and effective. For frictionless retail to succeed, retailers need to take ownership of every step of the experience from the initial interaction all the way through to delivery and, if required, return. Virtual Real-Time Model Imposing control over customer fulfilment will require a significant mindset change in many cases, but retailers have the chance to leverage strong buying power to drive better delivery performance. What standards of delivery are important to the brand? What Service Level Agreements are required to reinforce the quality of frictionless experience customers expect? Critically, can the retailer continually track and monitor in virtual real-time to enforce the quality of delivery experience? The importance of virtual real-time information has gained ground in recent years. Retailers increasingly recognise the value of a complete and up to date picture of the current stock position – across distribution centres, warehouses and stores – to better understand fulfilment options. But that is just part of the picture. To achieve frictionless fulfilment across all channels retailers also Achieving an end to end Frictionless