Yesterday, Majid Al Futtaim posted on LinkedIn a lengthy article from McKinsey about Omnichannel retailing. However, on of their flagship brands – Carrefour, struggles to do basic offline-only retail well.
Consider the customer experience that is trying to buy a laptop.
As a fairly average Dubai consumer, I’d done my research. I knew what I wanted. I knew the processor I wanted, the amount of RAM, the size of the SSD, the graphics card and I knew the model numbers of several products by several brands that matched. I knew the prices in Jumbo, E-max, Lulu andCarrefourr plus a handful of online options.
The only advantage that a bricks and mortar store has over an online competitor is that I can walk out of the store with the goods, there and then. Unless…
The conversation goes like this:
Me: I’d like to buy one of these.
Carrefour: Just a moment (calls for someone else to come and help.)
Carrefour: How can I help?
Me: I’d like to buy one of these.
Carrefour: Just a moment. (Disappears and returns with a stack of paper with inventory printed on it, checks the bottom of the computer, checks the list.)
Carrefour: We have two.
Me: I only need one.
Carrefour: One of the ones we have is this one.
Me: The display model?
Carrefour: Yes
Me: I want a new one in a sealed box, please.
Carrefour: Just a moment (Disappears to call the supervisor… several minutes pass)
Carrefour: Could you come and pick it up in a couple of days?
Me: I can order it from Souq and get it in a couple of days, I want it today.
Carrefour: Just a moment (Disappears. Overheard ‘can you call the supplier?’)
Me: Why is it on display if you don’t have any?
Carrefour: We have been out of stock on this one for a few months?
Me: Why is it on display if you don’t have any?
Carrefour: (shrugs)
Me: Are you still looking for the other one? (At the same time ‘Googling’ the same laptop on Souq.com on my phone in the store)
Carrefour: um, I don’t think we have any Sir.
Me: Thanks. (Exits the store. AED 4,000 LOST SALE)
Lost sales are a tough thing to measure. My guess is that there is no way for Carrefour to record the fact that I wanted to buy and walked out. How many other customers wanted to buy that computer that day and walked out? What is the value of being out of stock for “months”?
Lost sales also hurt retailers by disguising the true demand for a product.. (I’ll explain that one in another post, because it is important.)
Carrefour isn’t the only one though. Jumbo in the Mall of the Emirates also told me that they could do me a discount for the display model as it was the only one they had left.
One of the benefits of a truly Omnichannel approach to retailing is being able to empower the people in your stores with information about inventory levels. Rather than fumbling with sheets of paper, they can use the same back end as an Ecommerce store would, to find out stock levels in the store, in the warehouse or in other stores.
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