Connectivity is crucial to the success of retailers this Christmas as they battle to provide the service customers demand of retailers, warned Entanet.
The voice and data communication wholesaler said its partners should look at customer connectivity issues to ensure the right amount of bandwidth is available to cope with increasing traffic as the Christmas countdown begins.
“Every retailer is looking to maximise their sales ahead of Christmas and to do that they need to monitor sales in as near to real-time as possible so they can manage order priorities and replenish stocks swiftly,” said Darren Farnden, head of marketing at Entanet.
“Add to that the need to provide a 24/7 service to customers ordering online, either for direct delivery or for collection in-store and the desire to more accurately predict demand and keep costs down by using just-in-time delivery, and it is easy to see why fast, consistent, reliable communications are absolutely critical to successful retail operations,” he explained.
Issues confronted during the Christmas rush will put the spotlight on the importance of connectivity, Farnden added, but order lead times could mean there may not be time for retailers to upgrade to certain types of connectivity because of order lead times.
“It’s between November and January that connectivity really matters for retailers that makes it the ideal time to highlight the benefits of services that offer higher performance and SLAs,” he said.
Farnden said there were ongoing sales opportunities for partners right across the board. While larger retailers are always going to be attracted by the higher-speed, un-contended leased line services, and private WANs, individual stores may find Ethernet in the first mile (EFM), Generic Ethernet Access (GEA) or high-speed DSL services are sufficient for their back-office operations.
“Every situation will be different, of course. As we have our own network, we have the flexibility to work with our partners to tailor connectivity solutions to fit the exact needs of retail customers,” he said.
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