Fulfillment Doesn’t Have to Be a Painful, Costly Endeavor for Brands

As brands make investments to accelerate their direct-to-consumer efforts, some are finding the fulfillment process to be costly and logistically challenging. But there are technologies and “tactical approaches” that brands and retailers can take to improve efficiencies and drive sales. Stephan Schambach, founder and chief executive officer of NewStore, feels the pain of companies struggling with fulfillment. He said today’s shoppers “have been trained to expect goods to be purchased easily and shipped quickly, and at a reasonable cost. It’s the Amazon effect.” To make it work, Schambach said brands and retailers should be shipping goods directly from stores. To succeed, though, they “must have accurate inventory and modern technology that makes shipping from store easy.” “Leveraging stores as fulfillment centers is not a new concept,” Schambach told WWD. “It’s been a topic of discussion for more than a decade, however, it’s still a major challenge for retailers. Traditional point of sale [POS] systems are clunky and difficult to use, and historically haven’t been connected into order management systems [OMS]. This makes it extremely time-consuming for stores to be leveraged for fulfillment. Legacy systems simply were not designed for omnichannel.” Fulfilling online orders from stores makes clear business sense, according to experts, because it

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