Manhattan Associates invited me to their Momentum user event in Phoenix, where CEO Eddie Capel introduced the theme “Move Life and Commerce Forward.” 1100 attendees were united around supply chain commerce.
While many logistics companies are trying to combine unified commerce, Manhattan began its journey six years ago, envisioning the unification of supply chain commerce.
Capel noted, “A store that has more accurate inventory allows a frontline associate to say, ‘Yes,’ more often.
They saw the need to eliminate the barriers and bridges created by traditional systems and make inventories and networks more visible, teams and partners more connected, operations faster and more efficient, and technology simpler and less costly.
“Simplification is deceptively difficult to engineer, but making it seem easy for the customer is essential. It’s a flow between easy and hard to do. To do that takes a lot of data," Capel added.
And how that data is collected and used is at the heart of unified commerce – the API.
What is an API?
An API, which stands for Application Programming Interface, is like a menu in a restaurant for computer programs. It lists all the things one program (kind of like the kitchen in a restaurant) can do for other programs (these are like the customers). Just as customers order from a menu, the programs make requests using the API, and in return, they receive something useful, like information or data (like food from the kitchen). An API is a special helper that allows different computer programs to communicate much like how you would pass notes in class.
The power of API-based architecture
Manhattan’s over 40,000 APIs offer capabilities across the entire Manhattan Active portfolio. Their API-first architecture allows Manhattan customers to innovate alongside Manhattan, with several retailers like Hot Topic sharing their innovations.
The newest integration announced at the conference was their new Google Merchant Center. It enables Manhattan Active Omni retailers to provide shoppers with more accurate location- and product-specific delivery times across the Google Shopping ecosystem, including Search, YouTube, Maps, Discover, and more.
And, of course, the topic of AI was front and center. “The next programming language will be human language,” predicted Sanjeev Siotia, Manhattan’s CTO. Due to AI, programming won’t have to be in a different language and will be more robust.
One of his examples was that soon a Distribution manager might ask, “Are there any issues with the tasks for this shift?” and the system could instantly report they were running behind and needed three more people. The DM could then ask who the best packers were on shift, and the system would serve up the right people based on their productivity. Only with all of the APIs Manhattan has built into its system will such granular data be actionable.
One of their new innovations Yard Active Management, allows distributors to match doors to incoming trucks to save time, money, and the environment.
But it's not just about getting products into stores…
Returns are a big headache for retailers. According to the National Retail Federation, total retail returns accounted for more than $761 billion in merchandise for US retailers in 2021. “For every $1 billion in sales, the average retailer incurs $166 million in merchandise returns,” according to the NRF.
Retailers seem to be taking the returns challenge more seriously than ever, with 57.2% in the goTRG poll responding that returns are a bigger priority than they were 12 months ago. That’s because a $50 pair of jeans costs about $33 to return them online.
No wonder some retailers—including H&M, Zara, Abercrombie & Fitch, and J.Crew—have started charging fees for online returns. It has led to a new term, BORIS – buy online, return in store.
Sustainability
I held a panel conversation with Ann Ruckstuhl, SVP, CMO, Manhattan Associates; Michael Relich, Co-CEO, PacSun; and Anna Vinogradova, Head of Global Sustainability, Wayfair. While you can read a more detailed debrief here, here are some of the highlights:
- The supply chain is responsible for approximately 60% of global carbon emissions. Industry leaders gathered at Momentum to share tangible examples of what they are doing to tackle the most important challenge of our age.
- Retailers gave real-world examples of how they are doing everything from reducing miles to selecting better packaging, reducing returns, and optimizing container and trailer loads.
- Thankfully, a more sustainable supply chain is also a more profitable supply chain.
Part of the push for sustainability is looking closely at your business practices and taking a few small steps to add efficiencies and reduce waste. Even the smallest changes can have a significant effect. Sharing that information all the way from the C-suite to the frontline is essential.
RFID
Heico Souman, Chief Architect at Suitsupply, led an engaging session on their company’s journey with radio frequency ID or RFID. You can read more about it here, but these were a few high points:
- They had thousands of calls from customers to stores asking, “Where’s my stuff?” that the consumer can now answer at any point of the sale.
- RFID helps them have 95% accuracy of stock, meaning lower costs and higher margins.
- You must be able to print new tags in-store for returns or broken tags.
One of my clients, Tim Holliday with Children’s World, sent me another application of RFID. As a school uniform retailer, back-to-school is a game of speed to get all those kids in and out with armloads of apparel. “Now, instead of a customer coming to the checkout with a huge pile of clothing that needs to be rung out with a scanner one piece at a time, taking many minutes to do, everything is placed on a scanner that scans the entire pile in seconds," Tim noted. "It saved us tons of time and saved us from having to use a temporary register.
Unified Commerce Benchmark
I also led a panel with Chris Shaw, VP of Solution and Partner Marketing at Manhattan Associates, Rob Armstrong, CMO from Zebra Technologies, and Chaitanya Tamane, VP of Omnichannel Operations at Belk. Here are some highlights:
Chris: We wanted to create an actual benchmarking assessment to help retailers understand where they were starting so that they could understand how far they needed to go. What we set out to evaluate were 286 capabilities across four areas. The goal was to establish a foundational benchmark so that these guys could decide and understand where they needed to go next. And so we've published 124 retailers so far, and we continue to add to that research, and here today, we talk about the research and the opportunities for retailers to take advantage of. I love that.
Rob: If you're going to do a big, significant transformation, the single biggest reason why transformation projects fail is not a lack of a common shared vision for the future. It's an understanding of where you actually are right now.
We’ve done a survey for fifteen years. We ask retail decision-makers, associates working in stores, and customers who are shoppers themselves how they're feeling about their experience. And we've seen significant changes over the 15 years.
About 15 years ago, less than 30% of shoppers were satisfied with their experience. Now it's almost up to 80%. So the industry's come a long way in the last 15 years.
Chaitanya: If customers have given us some information, they expect the retailers to use that information in all the touchpoints they have with the customers. So, if they're searching for something on the website, it is an important data point for the retailers to show them related products related to the search.
They can look at that data and see the trends customers are searching for. If multiple customers are searching for the same thing, do we have that with us, or do we need to do something about that?
Younger customers don't want, want to be bombarded by emails that are not at all absolutely relevant to them. So using this unified approach to commerce is absolutely important to the retailers to be more productive and profitable as well as to the customers to have a good experience with the retailer.
I followed up with Chaitanya, “Are you and Belk’s done creating unified commerce?” He replied, “It's a journey, not a destination.”
Rob added, “You may think you have it nailed one day, but then the latest TikTok trend where something happens that changes people's expectations and things change so fast that retailers. Less than 30% have real-time visibility into their inventory.
That means we don't really know what's in our store. But the website will tell you, you could order it from us, but it might take a while. No one likes that friction.”
👇 You can watch the whole interview below 👇
The ultimate goal for your associates and customers is that it's a single experience, whether they're selling, fulfilling, or engaging with the customer.
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