As consumers expect ever faster and more efficient delivery, effective fulfilment and order management have become critical to the customer experience.

Moreover, eCommerce now regularly accounts for 25% or more of total sales at brick-and-click retailers and good fulfilment processes are critical to managing costs and maximising profitability.

Franchise and cooperative structures in retail are common and have many benefits, particularly for the bricks and mortar stores, which are then locally owned and operated.

As online has continued to contribute a bigger share of total sales, this has created challenges for these retailers to navigate. The key challenge can be how these businesses set up eCommerce to ensure their customers are receiving exceptional service while balancing the needs of the franchisee and franchisor.

Mark Greaves Chief Fulfilment Officer at eStar discusses the need to focus on improving profitability from your eCommerce channel.

With eCommerce now accounting for a much larger portion of sales, the return from investing in efficiency gains has never been greater. A few years back when eCommerce channel sales comprised a smaller percentage of sales, it was easy to delay conversations on improving profitability and focus on growing top-line sales.

Click & Collect demand continues to grow faster than the rest of online orders and remains a key growth strategy for online. Click & Collect also can be known as a local pickup or BOPIS (Buy Online; Pick up In-Store). Click & Collect remains a key differentiator retailers have over the pureplay competitors.

eStar launched Digital Picking as an extension of the Order Management and Fulfilment module that is easily configured and compatible with a range of handheld devices.

Viare, an eStar company, looks forward to meeting you at the following events this year;