E-tailing update: Thinking fulfillment strategies

In my column for the July issue of SCMR, I noted that I’d begun writing about e-tailing and retail e-commerce two years ago, “mainly highlighting struggles that brick-and-mortar retailers have had competing against the likes of Amazon.com.” Amazon succeeded in being the “Walmart of the Internet” by innovating a supply chain designed from the ground up to dominate large-scale on-line, unit-based, home delivery fulfillment. In my July 2014 column, I discussed the late deliveries that bedeviled the 2013 holiday season and in March 2015, I discussed the issues brick-and-mortar retailers were experiencing. This column provides an update on how that innovation is progressing and discusses fulfillment strategies retailers might pursue.

The year in review Over the past year e-tailers have been exerting significant pressure on traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. For some, poor financial performance is being blamed on the growth in online ordering and erosion in their share of the overall retail market. Below is a review of my own experiences, as well as the trade press publications on e-tailing:

My wife placed our first on-line order from Walmart for pickup and was given an estimated date when it would be ready for store pickup, and to expect an e-mail. As I was driving near the store on the estimated date (without access to my e-mails) I decided to see if it was ready. I got to the pickup area where boxes were disorderly arranged and asked the woman in charge if my order was there. She checked all the boxes and eventually decided that it was not. I asked if it was coming the next day and all she could say was to wait for the e-mail. Clearly, that store’s pickup service lacked a strong order tracking system.

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