Omnichannel and single view of inventory – Better together

CitiXsys has released its latest report on habits, expectations and frustrations of shoppers in Australia and New Zealand.

The first suggestion is the need to have a single view of inventory. purchase online and pick up in-store, or Click-and-Collect as it’s known, is a growing trend. Over 40% Australians and 37% of New Zealanders surveyed reported they had ordered online for in-store pickup. Now, to effectively offer such a service, the retailer needs seamless integration between the online and in-store systems, a solution only possible with a single view of inventory.

When retailers need to be wherever and whenever a customer needs them be, the need to have omnichannel retail systems synchronising data across all touch points is imperative.

The concept of syncing data generally refers to having multiple databases that talk to each other to stay up to date. What if you could do away with individual databases and move to a single database design?

The answer is simple. The data can only ever be up to date. In today’s omnichannel retailing environment, having a single database view is imperative for ensuring the best customer service. This means that no matter where and how your customer chooses to reach out to your business, there is a seamless brand presence across all channels.

For example, if a customer purchases a product from your online store and then decides to return it to their local physical store, the identification of that sale and processing of the return is expected to be seamless in the mind of the customer.

With a single view of inventory between online and instore technology systems, the retail staff are empowered to provide the best customer service possible.

The team at CitiXsys have built the iVend retail solution around this concept. In doing so, we have created a seamless retail technology solution that enables effective omnichannel retail management that brings the shoppers dreams to life.
Over the coming weeks, iVend Retail would be sharing with more omnichannel retail insights that have come out of this research study. For those wishing to read the entire report, it can be viewed here.