The high-profile success stories aside, many companies struggle to run their omnichannel operations at a profit. We asked the experts for some advice. Omnichannel distribution was one of the hottest trends in the retail sector this year, with companies across the industry rushing to combine their e-commerce fulfillment operations with those for brick-and-mortar store sales. Retailers have adopted a wide variety of approaches when it comes to omnichannel fulfillment. Some fill orders placed by online customers by pulling items directly from retail shelves, others run separate fulfillment operations for e-commerce and store replenishment orders, while still others combine these operations, using a single DC to fulfill e-commerce orders, replenish retail stores, and ship wholesale orders. Despite success stories at companies like clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch and department store chain Dillard’s Inc., not all omnichannel operations are revenue rockets. In fact, many companies struggle to run their omnichannel operations at a profit. "Omnichannel is absolutely being done, although it’s taking up lots of resources and probably not being done as profitably as many of us would like," said Jason Denmon, apparel and specialty retail industry leader at the distribution consulting and design engineering firm Fortna Inc. So what can retailers do to change that? We asked some experts for their advice. TARGET YOUR EFFORTS The first step in fine-tuning an omnichannel operation so that it runs more profitably is to identify which fulfillment flow the company wants to optimize, Denmon said. No single company can do it all, so it helps to target investment in one place, such as tracking truck routes within its own fleet, choosing a reliable third-party logistics (3PL) partner, or shipping parcels with an overnight carrier. "Some firms do ‘buy online, pick up from store’; some do ‘buy online, ship from store.’ You need to […]