Channels to market

The e-commerce era has dramatically shaken up access to the consumer; brands traditionally linked to wholesale intermediaries can now access their end customer directly, whilst the traditional retailers are looking to maximise the presence and use of their physical stores to resist, or even win the service battle against pure e-commerce players. Even companies such as Amazon are now looking at the optimal balance between the agility of e-commerce and the attractiveness of a physical point of sale. 

Defining the channels to market strategy is now imperative for a company to be able to survive and grow. There are four dimensions that must be addressed: defining the access strategy to the final consumer – how to develop new sales channels without cannibalising the old ones or ensure a smooth transition, optimising the planning and management of the offer by sales channel – what are the process and tools which make it possible to plan budgets, prices and assortments between channels to generate more turnover, optimise e-commerce operations – how to control costs and inventory in a service inflation environment, and finally, for bricks and mortar retailers – how to reinvent the store’s role in an end to end approach?