Customer-Centric Retailing Looks Toward Same-Day Delivery
By Hannah Ash, contributing writer
Fancy.com, CDS partnership is reflective of a trend to offer greater flexibility, choice
In a move to offer shoppers in select cities guaranteed same-day delivery, Fancy.com has partnered with Complete Delivery Solution. CEO of Complete Delivery Solution, Aaron Wright, announced that the partnership signifies, “a very, very exciting step into providing same-day delivery for online retail.” As stores shift more and more toward the customer-centric retailing model, omni-channel strategies such as online ordering, store pickup, and same-day delivery are poised to expand in the current year and beyond.
Some large retailers also offering same-day delivery options to select markets include Amazon, Nordstrom, and Walmart. Ebay has teamed up with local retailers and major players such as Home Depot, Toys R Us, Best Buy, and Macy’s to offer consumers same day shipping through its Ebay Now service (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57608592-93/ebay-to-expand-same-day-delivery-to-25-cities-in-2014/). Though all of the current same-day shipping initiatives presently center on certain cities with access to major distribution centers, expansion across the country is probable. Bridget Fahrland, VP of client strategy at e-commerce design and technology firm Fluid Inc, forecasts, “In 2014, we’ll see more same-day delivery services provided by the big guns — Amazon, Google, eBay and via start-up services such as Instacart, Munchery, and Blue Apron.”
In a step to further monetize the brick and mortar, major shopping mall operators such as Simon Property Group, Westfield, and Macerich all rolled out same day delivery service during the 2013 holiday season through Deliv, a California-based courier service. Michael Kercheval, president of the International Council of Shopping Centers, suggests that shopping malls are leveraging online shopping with showroom inventories: “It is very likely that the shopping centers and retailers [will provide] the fastest distribution of goods to consumers in the future.”
Initiatives such as Fancy.com’s partnership with CDS are reflective of the overall trend toward implementing omni-channel retail strategies to offer today’s shoppers greater flexibility and choice. According to analysts at the IDC Retail Solution’s "IDC Retail Insights 2014 Predictions: Worldwide Retail" webinar, channels such as same-day delivery are here to stay: “By 2016, 50percent of national retailers, will invest in distributed order management, enterprise inventory visibility, and workforce management to enable same day fulfillment.”
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