It’s clear that retailing is not all about the shop window — perhaps especially in the world of online retailing.

With the excitement in the Middle East around the acquisition of Souq.com by Amazon, the capacity to scale a business significantly and enhance customer experience becomes the real challenge. Digital supply chain management can help manage the process — because online shopping is all about quick (and even instant) gratification.

So, it is not enough to sell the item, it needs to be picked, packed and dispatched immediately, and then tracked and traced in real time, all the way to the customer’s door. Amazon can do this incredibly quickly in the UK — order in the late evening and delivery early the next morning. The challenge will be to replicate this performance in the Middle East.

This really is the science and art of online retailing — it’s as much about the back end as the shop window.

There’s no denying that we live in an increasingly digital world. Everything we want or need can be obtained with just a click of a button or swipe of the finger. But as technology advances, consumers gain more and more power — and with more power comes higher expectations for a great customer experience.

As online shopping continues to grow at a rapid pace, retailers’ supply chains are forced to keep up with demand and provide unprecedented levels of convenience to help businesses drive customer loyalty and achieve consistent revenue streams.

Retailers can no longer rely on traditional or outdated supply chain processes if they want to stay competitive with e-commerce giants. That’s why many of them are beginning to shift their focus and give their supply chains a high-tech makeover.

According to the recent Zebra Retail Vision Study, 72 per cent of retailers plan to reinvent their supply chains with real-time visibility enabled by automation, sensors and analytics. In regards to automation, 65 per cent of retailers plan to invest in inventory and supply chain automation by 2021.

Because multichannel shopping has become the norm, inventory accuracy is more critical than ever as products from both brick-and-mortar and digital channels flow through the supply chain. Studies show superior omnichannel support requires 90 per cent inventory accuracy or greater, but the retail industry is not where it needs to be.

As an industry, retail inventory accuracy falls much lower at around 65 per cent.

To improve accuracy, many retailers are budgeting for digital upgrades that enable automated, real-time inventory visibility via Internet of Things (IoT) technologies such as RFID. Using RFID platforms increases inventory accuracy to 95 per cent, while out-of-stocks can be reduced by 60-80 per cent with item-level RFID tagging.

So, it’s no surprise over 70 per cent of retailers plan to provide, or are currently providing, item-level RFID technology.

Along with RFID, retailers are also turning to analytics to enhance visibility as well as inventory demand and forecasting.

According to Zebra’s study, 75 per cent of retailers plan to invest in predictive analytics by 2021. If retailers can determine what’s selling and what’s not, they can better manage inventory to keep customers happy and avoid stock-outs and overstocks.

The study indicates one of the key sources of customer dissatisfaction today is out-of-stock merchandise, and McKinsey & Company found reducing stock-outs and overstocks can lower inventory costs by 10 per cent.

Retailers are also migrating from siloed supply chain processes to unified commerce models. These models ensure end-to-end, digital and brick-and-mortar enterprise visibility of store associates, shoppers and merchandise. Taking this approach allows stores to double as distribution centers, getting customers what they want and in their hands faster — which means no longer having to solely rely on warehouses to get the job done and providing a better overall shopping experience.

The writer is Retail and Hospitality Director — EMEA, Zebra Technologies.