This RISNews Trendagram features research on where retailers and B2B companies stand with respect to order management, orchestration and fulfillment across channels, as well as a Q&A on omnichannel order management with Alora Chistiakoff from Lightwell. Learn more in our report, Surviving Omnichannel Order Complexities at http://resources.lightwellinc.com/surviving-omnichannel.

1. 13%
65% 56%
T R E N D A G R A M
FLEXIBLEFULFILLMENTOMNICHANNEL FULFILLMENT IS A SOPHISTICATED
ORCHESTRATION OF INVENTORY
Retailers say their
organizations are up-to-
date with multichannel
fulfillment technology (1)
B2B and B2C
companies bypass
their own distribution
centers and ship
direct-to-store via
others, while 61% report
having direct-to-home
delivery models (2)
Holiday shoppers who plan to shop online say they will
take advantage of retailers’ BOPIS or ship-to-store options (6)
Consumers say an important differentiator
when selecting a retailer is the ability
to find out if an item is in stock before
going to the store, while 46% say
the ability of an employee to solve
an out-of-stock issue via mobile
device is important (5)
Multichannel retailers provide customers
the ability to look up in-store availability
for products – however, only 15% let
customers refine an online search to
show only in-store product availability (4)
Sources: 1 – RIS News, “25th Annual Retail Technology Study;” 2 - Aberdeen Group, “Prescriptive Optimization: Linking Costs and Events for Improved P&L;”
3 - CFI Group, “Omni-Channel Insights;” 4 - NRF-FitForCommerce, “The 2015 Omnichannel Retail Index;” 5 - IBM Commerce (IBM Institute of Business Value),
“2015 Omni-channel Order Fulfillment;” 6 - NRF, “National Retail Federation’s Holiday Consumer Spending Survey;” 7 - Forrester, “Why Every Online Retailer
Should ‘Ship-From-Store’”
SPONSORED BY:
6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 R I S N E W S . C O M
“Our interviews with retailers revealed
that when online stores are able to sell both store
and online inventory, a profound uplift in online
revenue in the region of 10% to 30%
can be achieved (7)
Multichannel retailers offer “buy in
store, ship to home” service, yet just
28% of these retailers offer buy online
and pick-up in store (BOPIS) (4)
Consumers report
the items they seek
online as “out of stock” or “back ordered”
between 10-20% of the time (3)
Consumers say an important differentiator
show only in-store product availability
50%
13%
65%
46%
56%
Retailers already
have or have plans to
upgrade to in-store
shipping and fulfillment
within two years (1)
80%
29% Retailers will begin an
upgrade to order management
systems within 12 months (1)
77%
77%
46%
60%
06.TrendagramLightwell_1215_3.indd 1 11/19/15 3:11 PM

2. OmnichannelOrderOrchestration:
IncreaseVisibility,Efficiency,andCustomerSatisfaction
Q
What are the chal-
lenges to fulfilling
orders across mul-
tiple locations?
There’s rarely one single
source of truth for inven-
tory information. Store
inventory is in the POS,
warehouse in a WMS,
drop-ship inventory in pur-
chase orders, and more.
All of these pieces must
be brought together into a single source,
such as an order management system.
Retailers need real-time visibility. A
warehouse might not be able to fulfill an
order during a morning wave, but could
put everything in place to ship later that
afternoon. Should the company ship the
order out from the closest distribution
center in the afternoon or send it in the
morning from a location farther away at
a higher shipping cost? A sophisticated
order orchestration platform is critical to
automating this decision.
Q
How can retailers confirm and
communicate accurate delivery
information?
Setting clear expectations about
delivery timelines necessitates a high
degree of confidence about the location
of all inventory, as well as any special
shipping requirements.
Any mature distribution center has
well-understood metrics regarding stan-
dard turnaround times. These numbers
can be built into order management sys-
tem workflows to provide a projected es-
timate for handoff to a delivery service.
Once the order leaves the distribution
center, integration and communication
between the order management system
and third-party shipping and delivery
partners can provide accurate status in-
formation.
Q
What factors must a retailer con-
sider to ensure delivery commit-
ments are met?
Retailers should have four key
components in place:
1. Detailed, accurate and real-time
inventory orchestration capabilities
2. Deep integration with shipping
providers
3. Robust communication services to
provide meaningful updates to the
customer with end-user control over
the messaging
4. Seamless integration into the
ecommerce platform for maximum
visibility and customer self-service
Q
How can retailers improve poor
integration between systems,
inventory, and customer data to
create a seamless omnichannel
shopping experience?
Legacy systems, including traditional
ERP, were not designed or implemented
to support today’s 24/7 customer expec-
tations. Real time inventory visibility
requires a robust middleware layer to
help with the transformation and move-
ment of data for multiple systems (OMS,
WMS, POS, etc.). Without this, scalable
omnichannel capabilities may be im-
practical to manage.
Q
How can retailers reduce costs
and orchestrate complex order
fulfillment processes across their
network of customers, partners,
and suppliers?
The key is an order management sys-
tem, such as IBM Sterling Order Man-
agement, that can automate numerous
processes and rules, while presenting
inventory information in real-time to all
of the right systems.
Capabilities should include sharing
inventory across channels and locations;
drop shipping from partners; fulfilling
web orders from stores; and direct-to-
consumer shipping from the closest pos-
sible location. With bundling capabili-
ties, retailers can manage components
that may be assembled on-demand for
customized finished product. These
capabilities reduce inventory carrying
costs, shipping costs, return rates, and
service costs—improving profitability
and customer satisfaction.
Lightwell (www.lightwellinc.com) helps organizations enable seamless omnichannel commerce
and fulfillment, improve integration and collaboration with partners, reduce cost and complexity,
and increase customer satisfaction. Through innovative services and solutions, as well as part-
nerships with IBM and other leading technology companies, Lightwell empowers organizations to
achieve exceptional business results through technology.
S P O N S O R E D C O N T E N T
Alora Chistiakoff,
Director of Commerce
Services, Lightwell
07.TrendagramLightWellQ&A_ris1215_v3.indd 1 11/19/15 3:12 PM