Today, the retail market caters to the millennials, ‘digital natives’ as they are called born between 1980 and 1995. This is the population that holds the biggest chunk of purchasing power. The population that is super connected and is extremely comfortable with m-commerce and e-commerce.
This does not end here. The population is influencing other buying populations into their shopping preferences.
In this scenario, retail organizations have to become as tech-driven to serve this population. This is because this population demands an omni-channel shopping experience. A shopping experience that enables delivery of articles anytime, on-time, through anyone and anywhere. Evidently, the supply chain has to be robust to serve this omni channel shopping experience.
Legacy versus Modern Supply Chain
At the vendor end, being out-of-stock is the biggest reason to lose a customer. To prevent this, a smooth supply chain is thus the first requirement of disruptive technology. Conversely, traditional supply chains fail to serve such requirements, wherein manual processes are mostly obsolete in retail chains. Undoubtedly, using technology, retailers vie to maximize excellence of customer experience.
Today, modern supply chains that are technology driven strive to serve such requirements. So much so, these supply chain minimize or sometimes even eliminate human intervention to reduce the chances of error. Resultantly, this aids for quality compliances to translate into enhanced customer experience. For the retailer, the order is cost-effective.
On the contrary, some of the critical challenges faced by traditional supply chains to serve modern retail formats are;
- Timely delivery of goods to a technology-savvy consumer base
- Failsafe logistics until the last destination of delivery, especially for perishable items
- Globalization of shopping spaces
- Extremely dynamic market due to inputs from cultural, social, and psychological factors. Social media plays a key role for evolving buying patterns
- Data privacy, quality, security, and other compliances that steer the supply chain, and need to be satisfied
