Retailers are considering a slew of initiatives for maintaining historic early growth rates as eCommerce business slows – putting increased pressure on fulfillment solutions that historically have not enjoyed the same level of attention and investment as front-end systems. In order to understand the “state of the union” for multi-channel fulfillment, we initiated this Multi-Channel Fulfillment Benchmark Study.

Inventory and order management topped the most valued technology enablers for survey respondents, but many of the desired technology solutions, like “one view” of the customer, require the same integration that plagues multi-channel improvements.

For retailers that made early investments in multi-channel technology enablers, what was – and still is today – an advantage will rapidly turn into a curse if solutions have not been implemented for future flexibility.