ABSTRACT
The key to enabling omni-channel retail is a supply chain that provides complete visibility of all inventory and investments, including goods that are in holding across all channels, in transit, or at consolidation points. The pace of change and the urgency to sell products online have resulted in some bad decisions such as accepting poor terms, little or no visibility of how products are sold, and limited collaboration between manufacturers and retailers. Seamless omni-channel cannot be achieved by retailers or manufacturers alone, as it sometimes requires close collaboration between the two, and the constant sharing of information, as in the example of a manufacturer drop-shipping an order from a retailer directly to the consumer. Traditional forecasting relied on historical data, but the trend towards collaborative forecasting has been "turbo-charged" as a result of omni-channel with the increasingly challenging nature of predicting which channel consumers will utilize.
