target audience: TECH SUPPLIER Publication date: Mar 2023 - Document type: IDC Survey Spotlight - Doc Document number: # US50486123
Consumers Want Inventory Information Up Front: Can Your Supply Chain Make and Keep the Promise?
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Abstract
This IDC Survey Spotlight answers the following question: How likely is it that you would choose to shop elsewhere if a retailer does not provide visibility into the available inventory, costs, and location (pickup, and at which stores, versus delivery) before you buy?
Consumer expectations for information and service now extend to earlier (and later) stages of their shopping journeys. Today's consumers want information about inventory, fulfillment offerings, and delivery times early in the order cycle and nearly half of them will go elsewhere if they don't receive it. As such, it is important to make an accurate promise from the moment a customer lands in your order channel about what and how they can receive product.
In making the promise, retailers must consider the end-to-end omni-channel order life cycle and a wide range of factors that contribute to its complexity, including inventory availability and location, fulfillment and delivery options, shipping distance, labor availability, opportunity cost, future demand, markdown risk, and much more.
By balancing expectations and resources, retailers can build loyalty and ensure that the customer receives the right product at the right price at the right time while also ensuring that the business can operate sanely, sustainably, and profitably.