93% Of Retailers Are Transforming Their Supply Chain To Enable Real-Time Retailing! Retailers recognize the importance of offering customers a seamless shopping experience and they are focused on transforming their supply chain to meet the needs of a buy anywhere/anytime customer. According to BRP's 2014 Supply Chain Benchmark Survey, progressive retailers are shifting their business organization and supply chain away from distinct shopping channels into a seamless, unified, customer-facing experience to meet the expectations of today's consumer.

1. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
1©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
Transforming the Supply Chain
(based on results from BRP’s 2014 Supply Chain
Benchmark Survey)

2. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
2©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
“First mover advantage is still
available in the game of unified
commerce. Most retailers have
started down the road, but very few
have created a true unified commerce
model.”
- Ken Morris, Principal at Boston Retail Partners

3. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
3©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
Key Findings
 93% of retailers are making unified
commerce a top priority
 22% have merged cross-channel efforts into a
single organizational
structure
 75% have inventory
available for
fulfillment to all
channels
54%
39%
7%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
In the planning stages Currently implementing
solutions
No current plans
Adoption of Unified Commerce Model

4. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
4©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
Key Company Initiatives
 Unified commerce is top of mind with
emphasis on seamless experience across any
channel and ability to buy, return and ship anywhere
62.5%
58.4%
29.2%
Enable seamless customer
experience online and in the store
Grow online sales base
Buy anywhere, get anywhere, return
anywhere
Top Corporate Initiatives
(% indicating it is one of top 2 initiatives)

5. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
5©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
Supply Chain Support
 As organizations put more corporate emphasis
on unified commerce, the supply chain clearly
has to respond to meet these demands
29.2%
20.8%
16.7%
12.5%
12.5%
8.3%
Increase Unified Commerce capabilities
Improve in-stock position
Increase visibility for customers
Increase visibility and collaboration with
suppliers
Improve forecast accuracy
Reduce inventory
Top Supply Chain Initiatives
(% indicating it is a top initiative)

6. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
6©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
Technology Investment
 Hosted infrastructure and cloud-based
solutions continue to expand as retailers
embrace the cloud as part of their IT tool kit
32.1%
28.6%
21.4%
Supplementing current capabilities with specific SaaS offerings
Managed hosting of current applications
Internally developed applications hosted in an internal data center
Current Enterprise IT Infrastructure and Application Strategy
(% indicating it is one of top 3 strategic areas)

7. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
7©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
Channel Growth
 Most retailers now anticipate greatest sales
growth through online sales
32%
21%23%
52%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Online Brick-and-mortar stores
2014
2013
Top 2 Areas of Sales Growth Focus
(% indica ng source of greatest sales growth)

8. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
8©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
Supply Chain Objectives
 Retailers are satisfied with their progress
in reaching their supply chain objectives
44%
52%
52%
56%
74%
48%
44%
44%
37%
22%
7%
4%
4%
7%
4%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Proactively leverage knowledge of
exceptions to communicate status
Allocation of inventory regardless
of location
Customer shopping experience
(accurate in-stocks and fulfillment
Merchandising and allocation
decision support
Fulfillment, service, and cost
Satisfaction with Supply Chain Objectives
Satisfied
Dissatisfied
Not applicable

9. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
9©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
New Supply Chain Metrics
 In a unified commerce world, the
traditional measures and metrics of supply
chain performance need to
be completely
revisited and a new
evolving set of
metrics adopted
9.1%
13.6%
31.8%
27.3%
27.3%
9.1%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Fill rate
In-stock
Cost per unit
Top Supply Chain KPIs
1 2

10. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
10©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
Transportation and Logistics Events
 As consumers are demanding real-time
inventory in all channels, it is critical that
retailers are able to provide accurate and
timely information
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Supplier DC, Supplier locations and stores
Returns
Vendor dropship
Store in-transit
Inbound in-transit
Direct channel
Retail DC
Store
Fulfillment Center
Emphasis on Inventory Accuracy and Real-time
within Supply Chain
Very important
Important

11. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
11©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
Key Findings
 Focused on unified commerce
• 93% are adopting a unified commerce model
 Cross-channel inventory fulfillment
• 75% can fulfill inventory
across multiple channels
 Corporate initiative
• 63% identify “enable seamless
customer experience online
and in the store” as top initiative

12. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
12©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
“Just as technology has provided continuous
connectivity and responsiveness to the
consumer, it also provides the tools to
create a robust, responsive and information-rich
supply chain. With advanced networks and
sophisticated software and analytics, the
technology is readily available to enable unified
commerce. Now is the time to align the people and
processes with the technology to make real-time
retail a reality”
- Ken Morris, Principal at Boston Retail Partners

13. Comprehensive Retail Consulting
13©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
Download the Supply Chain Survey
Download the full report at:
http://bostonretailpartners.com/resources/2014-supply-chain-benchmark-survey/