With the dawn of the new decade, retailers throughout the world are realizing the profit potential of going beyond their main channel of distribution and making products available through additional channels outside of their core competency. Overcoming the challenge of merging these different fulfillment channels—web, catalog, and brick-and-mortar—are the latest set of supply chain execution systems that create operational efficiencies via a single inventory process. The improved speed, accuracy, and ease of scalability of these systems yield significant cost savings and opportunities for business growth that can benefit any retailer of any size.

In the case of retailer Sur La Table—which operates 76 stores throughout the United States, as well as selling via catalog and the internet—its new supply chain execution system yielded accuracy improvement to 99.53 percent, a 20-percent increase in space utilization, and monthly reductions of $5,000 in energy costs and $2,000 in lift equipment rental fees.

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