Carrier

3 Key Takeaways on Best Practices for Omnichannel Tactics in Retail

Featuring Forrester’s eCommerce and Omnichannel Expert, Sucharita Kodali

Digital business is here to stay. The proliferation of eCommerce through web, social media, text, and email have accelerated customer expectations for seamless fulfilment strategies that bridge brick-and-mortar stores with digital touchpoints.

There is no doubt that you are looking for ways to alleviate the mounting pressure to scale to the increasing consumer demand for seamless omnichannel fulfilment. That’s why Parcel Pending by Quadient is expanding our Open Locker Network, an automated fulfilment solution operated through centralised locker locations. Our Open Locker Network consolidates package pickup, deliveries, and returns to alleviate the rising costs associated with package fulfilment and create a convenient way for shoppers to interact across digital touchpoints.

We invited Forrester’s eCommerce and omnichannel commerce expert, Sucharita Kodali, Vice President and Principal Analyst, and parcels industry veteran, Gary Winter, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Quadient, to discuss best practices for optimising business operations and consolidating first and last mile deliveries.

Here are some key takeaways from the webinar:

  1. Options are necessary to contend with the high cost of home deliveries. “Free ship to home offerings holdback a more lucrative omnichannel transaction,” according to Kodali. “Alternatives that drive additional footfall to the store such as BOPIS/C&C or clustered pickup and deliveries into lockers are ideal for creating cross-sell or upsell opportunities that increase attach rate.”
  2. Returns are a point of competitive differentiation and can drive conversions for retailers. “Making returns convenient for consumers through a network of physical stores that have agreed to handle returns is one way to score points with shoppers,” offered Winter. “Another way is to centralise returns for multiple brands right into a locker where carriers can pick them up at the same time they’re delivering packages into lockers. This method centralises first and last mile deliveries for convenient customer returns while driving down shipping costs and greenhouse gas emissions.”
  3. When looking at what has the biggest impact on profitability, poll results showed that webinar respondents felt they needed to automate the fulfilment of workflow processes to drive down costs. A close second was reducing last-mile deliveries.

It’s clear that in order to have an effective omnichannel strategy, retailers and carriers need a strong fulfilment strategy.

When retailers, carriers, and an agnostic solution provider like Parcel Pending by Quadient come together, it’s possible to streamline business operations by facilitating a cost-effective and convenient method to automate package fulfilment with our secure, smart locker solution. This brings added footfall to the retailer and gives carriers the advantages of significantly reducing stops, achieving cost savings, lowering environmental impact, and centralising, returns with drop off lockers, and pickups to convenient, secure, accessible locker locations.

Parcel Pending by Quadient’s expanding global Open Locker Network creates a better customer experience for consumers, promoting a more streamlined way to access out-of-home deliveries eliminating the extra pickup points that add to greenhouse gas emissions and higher fuel costs that come with home deliveries.

Learn more about Parcel Pending by Quadient’s secure, open locker network, here.


Written by Diana Gruhn
Vice President, Product Marketing

Diana Gruhn is the Vice President of Product Marketing at Parcel Pending by Quadient, the brand that connects people with their packages through a secure, convenient, global Open Locker Network. A highly acclaimed product marketing executive, Diana has spent more than 20 years leading the go-to-market strategies for cloud-based cybersecurity solutions. She now leverages that experience to help businesses and the communities they serve find cost-effective, convenient, and sustainable ways to centralize first- and last-mile deliveries.

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Diana Gruhn Vice President of Product Marketing

Diana Gruhn is the Vice President of Product Marketing at Parcel Pending by Quadient, the brand that connects people with their packages through a secure, convenient, global Open Locker Network. A highly acclaimed product marketing executive, Diana has spent more than 20 years leading the go-to-market strategies for cloud-based cybersecurity solutions. She now leverages that experience to help businesses and the communities they serve find cost-effective, convenient, and sustainable ways to centralize first- and last-mile deliveries.