| | AUGUST 20168CIOReviewIntegratingOmni Channel Design in RetailBy Pankaj More, CIO, Walmart IndiaWalmart Store Inc, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, is a US MNC that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores and grocery stores. Wal-Mart India Private Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Walmart Stores Inc., a retailer renowned for its efficiency and expertise in logistics, supply chain management and sourcing. Walmart India owns and operates 21 Best Price Modern Wholesale Omni-channel stores in 9 States across India, offering nearly 5,000 items in Cash & Carry wholesale format to its business members. Technology has revolutionized retail business globally as witnessed in last few years. Today's empowered customers can make choices any time anywhere using their smartphones, supported by an ecosystem of apps, online commerce and marketplaces. The network effect of digital platforms has created an opportunity for traditional brick and mortar businesses to architect themselves into omni-channel businesses.Before we get into the principles around architecting an omni-channel business it is important to understand how business models have evolved over time with digital technologies. Traditional business models have been linear in nature, by selling products/services upstream and being consumed by customers downstream. Increasing connectedness between social and business users assisted by digital platform enabled ecosystems has led to linear business models being challenged on scale, speed and responsiveness. The competitive advantage of business has shifted from owning physical resources to creating or being part of ecosystems that enable aggregation of resources and value creation through overlapping needs of customers and retailers. Value being experienced by customers has shifted from experiencing the outcome of a business process to being part of interactions. The opportunity for businesses to become omni-channel is to be more connected with their customers, employees and suppliers and harnessing those interactions to generate real time value generating experiences.Creating an omni-channel retail business is not just about having an online presence, but having the capability to design and optimize value exchange across merchants, operators, logistics, supply chain, suppliers and customers, in ways that helps address their needs and allows them to make smart decisions.Architecting for Omni-channel ExperienceWe live in a networked world where there are multiple channels and experiences through which customer's journey could be traced. That calls for all functional areas like merchandising, operators, supply chain, logistics and supply chain to come together in an interactive ecosystem like architecture that allows responsiveness and decision making with speed.IN MY OPINION
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