Survival Strategies for Struggling Retailers

In the age of the omnichannel, is there any hope for traditional retail chains? The signs aren't especially encouraging. Old-line retailers such as Sears, Roebuck & Co., Kmart Corp. and J.C. Penney Co., Inc. have struggled to stay profitable while battling competition from two directions: big-box giants such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. on one side, and the e-commerce wave, led by Amazon.com, on the other. It's the latter trend, however, that has done more to transform retailing in recent years. Today, the traditional brick-and-mortar retailer is expected to maintain multiple fulfillment streams, including ship from store, pick up in store, ship direct from suppliers and deliver to homes and businesses. What's more, all of those channels must be seamlessly blended to provide for a consistently excellent customer experience. How can they do it? On this episode, we get answers from Diego Pantoja-Navajas, vice president of product development with Oracle Warehouse Management Cloud. He stresses the need for an integrated approach to fulfillment, both from a systems and business-process standpoint. Old-line retailers that can achieve that goal, he says, stand a chance of survival after all. It's all about ''retail reinvention.''