Technology isn’t the biggest force reshaping the retail industry; that honour goes to consumer demand. The two are connected of course, with technology giving consumers the ability to shape their own retail experiences and new competitors with disruptive business models ready to deliver on those demands.

More and more retail is geared toward an omnichannel shopping experience; online reviews are as good as gold, click & collect is becoming standard and Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer, is set to open its first bricks and mortar store.

Carl Hartman CEO  shipping software comapny Temando sums it up succinctly, “Let’s face it. Technology has really raised the bar on customer expectations. I think it all began with Google, which turned our game of ‘battleship’ hit or miss search into something that could miraculously predict what we were searching for, even as we typed it. And so, consumers entered the age of instant gratification – whatever they wanted could be summoned at the click of the button.”

In a new white paper called The Personal Supply Chain, Telstra has examined what consumers want as a connected omnichannel shopper. Readers should note that consumers don’t distinguish their experience online from that in store, for them it all comes under one brand.

Telstra’s white paper includes the results of a survey conducted between February and April 2014 of 800 Australians, which met different quotas of age, gender and locations around the country.

When asked what they would find useful or very useful, consumers said:

  • 86 per cent said the ability to return goods to a physical location
  • 83 per cent said the ability to see stock levels online
  • 76 per cent said receiving a text message saying goods are to be delivered in x minutes
  • 76 per cent said the ability to customise a product to requirements online
  •  71 per cent of customers said guaranteed same day delivery

There were also strong scores for delivery being tracked on a mobile app (67 per cent), click and collect (53 per cent) and delivery service, including set-up (51 per cent).

These demands provide retailers with an opportunity to diversify their revenue streams, form stronger relationships with consumers and distinguish their services from competitors.

When it comes to convenient delivery options, 62 per cent of consumers said they would be willing to pay a premium for guaranteed same day delivery and 54 per cent of consumers would be willing to pay a premium for a guaranteed weekend or evening delivery.

According to Telstra’s results, 40 per cent of consumers would pay more for a delivery service including set-up, but only 4 per cent of SMEs and 6 per cent of large businesses are offering them the opportunity to do so.

Another value-adding trend which emerged from the research was the ability to customise a product, with 57 per cent of consumers willing to pay a premium for the ability to do so. For example, Dick Smith’s Move stores provide a service in this space, providing customised smartphone and tablet cases.

The results also showed a clear increase in online and mobile commerce:

  • 51 per cent have compared prices online while shopping in a store versus 36 per cent last year
  • 42 per cent have made a purchase on a mobile phone versus 23 per cent last year
  • 39 per cent have made a purchase on a tablet versus 25 per cent last year
  • 19 per cent have scanned a barcode in a store to find out more information versus 11 per cent last year.

At the heart of all these changes, Telstra’s white paper describes the omnichannel shopper as: “a person who is no longer prepared to stand by, but wants to actively participate in the supply chain. This has resulted in a new phenomenon we call the Personal Supply Chain.”

The report explains the Personal Supply Chain as the shift from supply chain management that has been about business to business (B2B) collaboration to now include consumers, who — via their devices — can become active collaborators in the supply chain as “creators rather than simply consumers of value.”

The white paper outlines four key ingredients to meeting these demands:

Mobility – make sure you are communicating on a platform that is accessible to your customers. In the world of the Personal Supply Chain, apps must be accessible on any platform to reach the greatest number of customers.

Stock Management Systems – in the Omnichannel world, customers have higher expectations for visibility of stock availability. The majority of online shoppers can see available stock levels as a matter of course, which is not the case in most traditional retail stores. Tools are available for this today: the use of Radio-frequency identification (RFID) not only allows retailers to provideaccurate information about the location of stock to customers, but can also be used in the supplychain to track the progress of goods in transit.

Social media – is an essential tool for building trusting relationships with consumers, allowing retailers, manufacturers and transport companies to share information with, and respond swiftly to, their customers. Social media is also a great place to share a conversation about how a product, service or delivery experience could be improved.

Delivery options – our research shows that consumers are demanding both a choice of service offerings and also a choice of price. Time-definite services can demand a premium, while someone prepared to wait all day for a delivery now expects a discount. We explore a number of innovative solutions that address some of challenges that retailers and transport companies face and that encourage collaboration between the core elements of the supply network: parcel lockers, shared drop locations, home lockers and Click and Collect options.