Seamless operations key

By Marvin Lazaro -- Home Textiles Today, 1/22/2001 12:00:00 AM

NEW YORK -Retailers who attended the NRF's "Strategic Imperative: Serving the New Customer In Any Channel" seminar were advised that those able to operate multiple selling channels seamlessly will be the ones who are ultimately successful.

Dozens attended the seminar and listened to an anecdotal presentation by Chris Markesky, managing director for Sapient's Marketing Services Group, as he imparted the steps retailers need to climb in order to be successful at cross channeling; establish each channel, harmonize all of the channels, and let the channels optimize one another.

Markesky said retailers must accomplish seven things to successfully cross channel: organizational change for channel harmony; consolidation of customer information; real-time inventory online; channel agnostic customer service; channel agnostic merchandise returns; pricing and promotional consistency; and understand the value of each individual customer.