Multi-Channel Retail Supply Chain Management: Fulfillment systems in Multi-Channel Retailing - Customer Expectations and Economic Performance

Increasingly, store-based retailers are opening an additional online sales channel and becoming multi-channel retailers. The integration of these different channels raises the question how to redefine the strategic marketing elements and the operations, as the two channels have different constraints and require different competences. This multi-channel retailing has major impacts on the operations and the supply-chain management. Order fulfillment for the customers using the different sales channels is a key challenge, as customers are directly impacted from the performance of this process. In this paper, we will highlight the different strategic elements and operational challenges to be addressed by a multi-channel retailer. In order to evaluate the match between a fulfillment system and a multi-channel business model, we propose a framework analyzing the overall performance of different fulfillment systems regarding the two dimensions customer expectations and economic performance.