“Amazon has already beaten most retailers on price and selection. The third battleground is location, and the smart retailers are not conceding that,” said Tom Allason, founder of startup Shutl, which helps retailers deliver online orders from stores.
This article talks about how big-box retailers are looking to take on Amazon - if only a by a little bit - by shipping products from store in order to reduce shipping and warehouse maintenance costs and move excess/unsold inventory. As someone who is largely interested in the retail industry, I wonder if these retailers have a chance at truly succeeding here considering the fact that you can get pretty much anything from Amazon.
Ship-from-store will indeed help stores sell more (I'd figure it'd be mostly unwanted inventory) and generate more profit from inventory movement, but I dont see how this will be a gamechanger for the industry considering the costs to implement this new product flow might make it all break even in the end. Investments would be necessary in creating this omnichannel (buzzword!) operation - supply chain/order management technology, employee training, delivery systems at each locale - and I wonder if it's all worth it.
For someone who likes metrics, I'd be curious to see how retailers would consider a sale - would it be online or in-store if it flows through this new shipping trend? How are employees incentivized? How do you measure omnichannel execution?
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