Can someone, anyone, provide just one example of the tangible dollar benefits of omnichannel? On 28 October last year I wrote an article in these columns. It was entitled “Why omnichannel will die” . I said that it would be a slow and gruesome death and several people commented on the article – some for and some against. More recently, a much respected colleague of mine, Graham Lack, had an article published on 1 August – “The real power of omnichannel retailing”. One of us is
horribly wrong. It is either Graham or it is me. Only time will tell.
Meanwhile we see that beleaguered surfwear retailer Billabong is turning to omnichannel retail (again) in a bid to revive its fortune.
They say they remain committed to rolling out their omni platform despite taking an $11.7 million hit after dropping their solution provider. They decided to cut their losses and dump their ‘new’ ecommerce platform provider, NetSuite, following “technical implementation issues”.
Possibly the most ludicrous notion ever conceived.
Firstly why would any company under pressure, dump its provider and write off $11.7 mill and yet continue down an unproven path in search of a goose to lay a golden egg?
And secondly why dump the provider for technical implementation issues?
All of us know that implementation issues are never one sided. The easiest cop out is to name and blame your provider and give them the flick. Inevitably the blame is shared and perhaps it is the IT executive at Billabong who was responsible for tying up the deal, who should be dumped.
Irrespective, grasping at straws when you are in ship creek, is not the smartest way to go.
How about rather doing something old fashioned like finding out what the real problems are and then fixing them!
Stuart Bennie is a retail consultant at Impact Retailing www.impactretailing.com.au and can be contacted at stuart@impactretailing.com.au or 0414 631 702
