How Customer Feedback Helps Retailers Do This

Today, retailers must accommodate a wide variety of customer demands: customers who “pre-shop” for merchandise online before they ever enter a store, customers who want one-day or even same-day delivery, and customers who want more personalization, a larger assortment, a more fulfilling experience and non-stop entertainment, according to a new report from BRP. Customer-led demand is driving retailers to transform their business to be more customer-centric.

For retailers, it is imperative to take a customer-centric viewpoint. To innovate the customer experience, they must transform their disparate systems, processes and organization into one cohesive environment with the ability to offer customers a seamless shopping environment across any channel and the capability to deliver merchandise immediately – wherever it is needed. 

BRP conducted its 2017 Merchandise Planning Benchmark Survey to explore the current state of retail planning and to identify and understand retailers’ priorities as they strive to meet the needs and demands of today’s consumers.

To prepare for today’s new retail model, retailers need to:

Align the organization

58 percent of retailers currently have an integrated planning organization across channels

Integrate planning processes      

64 percent of retailers have integrated their business planning processes across channels

Implement the right technology

33 percent of retailers have implemented new omnichannel demand planning systems within the past two years

Prioritize customer insight

42 percent of retailers incorporate real-time customer feedback into their in-season planning

Take action

19 percent of retailers must overcome IT/business resource constraints to advance their planning activities