Study of supply-chain challenges and technologies involved in Omni-channel retailing

Abstract

The boost in technology and digital services has led to the emergence of consumers that demand convenience and flexibility to buy products/services through both online and offline mediums. To address the evolving consumer needs, retailers moved to multichannel retailing, enabling their products/services to reach consumers through multiple channels that could be accessed through various devices and platforms. This gave rise to supply-chain challenges related to distribution, inventory management, data management, etc. Today, the retailing industry is moving towards Omni-channel retailing, which aims to integrate all the channels and create a seamless and uniform buying experience for all sets of consumers. There exists a need to understand how the retailer could adopt a supply chain that is both accurate and efficient in helping deliver their products/services through multiple channels. This study presents a broad overview of the Omni-channel retailing and identifies the associated supplychain challenges. Further, this study broadly covers two essential aspects concerning the Omni-Channel Supply chain, namely, technologies involved and various distribution models that could be employed. The technologies explored have been analyzed from the context of the operational challenges that OmniChannel retailing presents and how these technologies contribute to mitigating these operational challenges. The distribution models are discussed in-depth to highlight various forward and backward distribution models the business could adopt and its associated advantages and challenges. Additionally, a few practical examples of companies incorporating these models have been studied in the distribution strategy context.