The retail supply chain as it currently exists was designed to support a cost structure and a business model that is rapidly becoming obsolete: a store-only model. Given the supply chain’s relative isolation from omni-channel transformation to date, are retailers aware of the pressure that is building? Do they have a plan to address it? What might that plan be?

Highlights of what we learned:

• Retailers understand that omni-channel customer behaviors are bringing new pressures on supply chain, but they have not fully connected the dots between their business challenges, like the changing pattern of consumer demand, and how their digital strategies impact these supply chain-driven challenges, for example, as digital channel growth remains a high priority.
• Retailers are reaching for the brass ring when it comes to their opportunities: targeting fulfillment from the most profitable location as their primary omni-channel fulfillment opportunity. However, without increased visibility across their network, their ability to achieve this goal is doubtful.
• While retailers acknowledge that major changes need to come to supply chain, they are not necessarily best-positioned to invent a new supply chain model, particularly when it comes to cross-functional involvement. For many retailers, there may be too much marketing involvement and not enough from the CFO.

This report is free to the community — only registration is required. The report contains the aggregated responses of 84 retail respondents, along with 18 charts covering business challenges, opportunities, organizational inhibitors, and technology investment plans.