IDC Retail Insights: Worldwide Retail Product Sourcing, Fulfillment and Sustainability Strategies

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Meet the Experts

Photo of Jordan K. Speer
Jordan K. Speer

Research Director, Worldwide Retail Product Sourcing, Fulfillment and Sustainability Strategies

Photo of Leslie Hand
Leslie Hand

Group Vice President, IDC Retail and Financial Insights



IDC Retail Insights: Worldwide Retail Product Sourcing, Fulfillment and Sustainability Strategies advisory service arms retail companies with the specific knowledge necessary to globally select, deploy, and optimize a long list of retail-specific technologies and processes including product development and sourcing, demand forecasting and management, last-mile order/inventory management and orchestration, omni-channel fulfillment (including ecommerce, stores, micro-fulfillment, warehouses), sustainability/ESG, returns/repair/recycle/rentals, and track and trace (RFID/blockchain/IoT). Forward-looking research, combined with fact-based analysis of successful implementations, provides clients with practical ways to better manage product assortment and demand trade-offs, improve product performance, and better fulfill consumer need while minimizing cost, thereby growing customer loyalty and brand strength. This service examines the impact of technology investments and process initiatives on the performance of retailers to enable better investment planning and application of technologies that drive value from product concept or source through the consumer purchase and including post-consumer processes. Specific coverage is given to the drivers, benefits, processes, and applications necessary to achieve objectives.


Approach


This service collects relevant market data through in-depth interviews with industry experts, retailers, wholesalers, and technology vendors, complemented by secondary research from conferences, publications, and third-party news sources. IDC Retail Insights analysts develop unique and comprehensive analyses of this data, focused on providing actionable recommendations. To ensure relevance, our analysts work with subscribers to identify and prioritize specific topics to be covered in research reports.


Topics Addressed


Throughout the year, this service will address the following topics:

  • Product development and sourcing
  • Demand forecasting and management
  • Operational workflows and productivity
  • Last-mile order/inventory management and orchestration
  • Omni-channel fulfillment, including ecommerce, stores, micro-fulfillment, warehouses
  • AI for end-to-end planning and execution optimization
  • Sustainability/ESG
  • Circular economy: returns/repair/recycle/rentals
  • Track and trace (RFID/blockchain)

Key Questions Answered


Our research addresses the following issues that are critical to your success:

  1. How are retailers investing in technology to support creating differentiated assortments?
  2. How are retailers diversifying sources of supply to better serve operational and sales objectives?
  3. How are retailers enabling last-mile fulfillment, inventory management, and product flow/placement to maximize customer satisfaction while minimizing cost?
  4. How advanced are retailers in the application of IoT and other advanced technologies to solving real-world inventory accuracy and operational workflow issues?

Who Should Subscribe


The IDC Retail Insights: Worldwide Retail Product Sourcing, Fulfillment and Sustainability Strategies service is ideally suited to support the needs of senior omni-channel, innovation, strategy, supply chain, product development, retail brand business, and IT executives responsible for ensuring successful delivery of products from concept or source to consumer. Technology suppliers to the industry focused on retail enterprise applications that enable improving the performance of retail products and operations from concept or source to post-purchase will also benefit from this service.