Study: Most retail companies lack omnichannel titles

San Luis Obispo, Calif. -- Despite all the buzz around omnichannel, 71% of retailers do not have a position in their company with “omnichannel” in the title, according to a survey by distributed order management solutions provider Shopatron. What’s more, many retailers have put off implementing an enterprise-grade order management system because of the high investment costs, lack of integration with existing systems and the lack of time and resources dedicated to deployment.



The survey reveals that retailers still have a ways to go with regards to omnichannel integration. Despite getting a lot of attention, ship-from-store and in-store pickup may not be on most retailers’ short-term to-do lists. In fact, 59% of the surveyed retailers said they did not have plans to deploy new order fulfillment solutions like ship-from-store or in-store pickup.



In other findings, 41% of retail fulfillment partners would reduce their buying from a brand they stock in their retail channels if the brand offered “direct-to-consumer,” and 23% reported they would stop buying from the brand all together.



However, 57% of the retail fulfillment partners in the study said they would like brands that they stock in their retail channels to sell on EBay and other marketplaces if the resulting orders were routed to their store for fulfillment.



“There is a very significant opportunity for retailers and brands to offer direct-to-consumer order fulfillment options," said Shopatron founder and CEO Ed Stevens. "For brands, it is an easy way to drive online sales, and for retailers it is the perfect opportunity to strengthen their relationships with customers because you are getting their online orders to them quickly with the possibility to have a paying customer in the store,” Stevens said. “Retailers need to know that they are at a critical point where they need to commit to omnichannel, now. It’s no longer in-store or online, it’s in-store with online.”