How Does Environment Affect Performance?

Understanding the Impact of Energy on Operations

With customer demands and eCommerce sales continuing to grow at lightning speed day after day, the supply chain is taking on a different—and highly important—role in shaping the customer experience. A late delivery or laborious return process can cause enough dissatisfaction to drive a customer to the competition. In addition to fast shipping and low prices, retail giants like Amazon and Walmart place a heavy emphasis on the customer experience, a China-born concept that is now going global. Widely known as ‘New Retail,’ Alibaba defines its holistic approach as “the complete integration of online, offline, logistics, and technology for a single value chain.” According to Frost & Sullivan, by 2020, customer experience will exceed price and product as the key brand differentiator, further fueling the urgency for supply chain leaders to adapt to this burgeoning trend.