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I got a buddy who works for DSCO, a company which, among other things, sells software that makes it easy for brick-and-mortar stores to sell products online and

I got a buddy who works for DSCO, a company which, among other things, sells software that makes it easy for brick-and-mortar stores to sell products online and have the products ship from the retailer's warehouses. Around the time of the pandemic, they change their software so that the stores themselves would look like warehouses to the software. That way, they could ship from any of these so-called warehouses and then support ship-from-store on the websites of their customers. This functionality was sort of in in demand before the pandemic, but many potential customer said "no thanks, we'll build it ourselves". After the pandemic hit, everyone went scrambling to DSCO for help to support ship-from-store. This article seems to talk about the next logical step away from ship-from-store: turn the store into a shipping yard.

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
Honestly I wish there was 'ship-a-replacement' to store. If something is on Amazon, why can't I pick up from Home Deport and have them ship inventory to Home Depot to replace the thing I just picked up...
- talliedthoughts 6y ago
  They're competitors, and presumably are selling the item at different prices. If Amazon is cheaper, HD would have to give you the item for less than they normally sell it. If Amazon is more expensive, why not buy the thing directly from HD, you're going there to pick it up anyway.
  - dutch3000 6y ago
    Amazon used to always be cheaper. not any more. amazon has realized people shop it for convenience and not mainly for price.
- cortesoft 6y ago
  If the item is at Home Depot and you want to pick it up... why not just get it from Home Depot?
  - WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
    Pricing.
    - lotsofpulp 6y ago
      How would you guarantee the item is not a counterfeit/broken in transit/transported at the right temperatures/etc?
- AndrewKemendo 6y ago
  Kohls has been doing exactly this a while with Amazon: https://corporate.kohls.com/news/archive-/2019/july/kohl-s-now-accepts-amazon-returns-at-all-stores- https://corporate.kohls.com/news/archive-/2019/july/kohl-s-n...
TMWNN 6y ago
>I got a buddy who works for DSCO, a company which, among other things, sells software that makes it easy for brick-and-mortar stores to sell products online and have the products ship from the retailer's warehouses. I always wondered why more stores didn't do this. I had Best Buy have another store ship directly to my home when phones I wanted to buy weren't available in the local location, Bealls Florida fulfill an online order from three different retail stores, and I think I read a while ago of Walmart planning on doing this to fight Amazon Prime 2-day shipping but, otherwise, any online order would come from some warehouse somewhere no matter how many or few retail locations that company had near me. Your friend's experience of companies trying (and mostly failing, obviously) to build such capability inhouse would help explain this. Such capability would also help retail customers by improving the accuracy of in-store inventories that appear online.
- nekoashide 6y ago
  The reason is that retail stores don't have the space to store products and it's expected by the consumer that when you walk into a store products should be in-stock. All inventory at a retail location is supposed to be just-in-time and for the area that they service so they do not support the warehouse model. Store like Hot Topic here in the US have been shipping from stores for some time and the idea behind this is that both warehouse and retail adhere to the just-in-time model. That way product is no more likely to sit in a warehouse than it is at the retail location, there's no ship backs and markdowns are taken at the retail location. As a result inventory stays fresh and there's little to no overstock. This does not work for all retailers as you can imagine, for for boutique stores with a limited number of SKU's it's enough to keep them afloat while still turning inventory and keeping retail locations staffed.
- treis 6y ago
  >I always wondered why more stores didn't do this. It's not an efficient way to ship stuff. Wandering around a store picking an order takes much longer than an optimized warehouse. Square footage is much more expensive retail than in a warehouse. So the area (if there's even room for it) where you pack and ship stuff costs more. Shipping is more expensive because you are doing a few boxes a day instead of a semi-truck a day to UPS/FedEx/USPS It just doesn't work that well. Fine as a stop gap for a small retailer dipping their toes in the online market. But for any sort of scale the warehouse model is much better. I think the article is way off here. Yeah, some Sam's Clubs in the middle of nowhere were converted and a high end retailer has the margins to absorb the inefficiency. But the idea that existing retail is going to convert to warehouses at any sort of scale is laughable. The real estate costs are prohibitive and they'll end up somewhere an hour away where land is cheap.

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago

Honestly I wish there was 'ship-a-replacement' to store. If something is on Amazon, why can't I pick up from Home Deport and have them ship inventory to Home Depot to replace the thing I just picked up...

talliedthoughts 6y ago
They're competitors, and presumably are selling the item at different prices. If Amazon is cheaper, HD would have to give you the item for less than they normally sell it. If Amazon is more expensive, why not buy the thing directly from HD, you're going there to pick it up anyway.
- dutch3000 6y ago
  Amazon used to always be cheaper. not any more. amazon has realized people shop it for convenience and not mainly for price.
cortesoft 6y ago
If the item is at Home Depot and you want to pick it up... why not just get it from Home Depot?
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  Pricing.
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    How would you guarantee the item is not a counterfeit/broken in transit/transported at the right temperatures/etc?
AndrewKemendo 6y ago
Kohls has been doing exactly this a while with Amazon: https://corporate.kohls.com/news/archive-/2019/july/kohl-s-now-accepts-amazon-returns-at-all-stores- https://corporate.kohls.com/news/archive-/2019/july/kohl-s-n...

TMWNN 6y ago

>I got a buddy who works for DSCO, a company which, among other things, sells software that makes it easy for brick-and-mortar stores to sell products online and have the products ship from the retailer's warehouses. I always wondered why more stores didn't do this. I had Best Buy have another store ship directly to my home when phones I wanted to buy weren't available in the local location, Bealls Florida fulfill an online order from three different retail stores, and I think I read a while ago of Walmart planning on doing this to fight Amazon Prime 2-day shipping but, otherwise, any online order would come from some warehouse somewhere no matter how many or few retail locations that company had near me. Your friend's experience of companies trying (and mostly failing, obviously) to build such capability inhouse would help explain this. Such capability would also help retail customers by improving the accuracy of in-store inventories that appear online.

nekoashide 6y ago
The reason is that retail stores don't have the space to store products and it's expected by the consumer that when you walk into a store products should be in-stock. All inventory at a retail location is supposed to be just-in-time and for the area that they service so they do not support the warehouse model. Store like Hot Topic here in the US have been shipping from stores for some time and the idea behind this is that both warehouse and retail adhere to the just-in-time model. That way product is no more likely to sit in a warehouse than it is at the retail location, there's no ship backs and markdowns are taken at the retail location. As a result inventory stays fresh and there's little to no overstock. This does not work for all retailers as you can imagine, for for boutique stores with a limited number of SKU's it's enough to keep them afloat while still turning inventory and keeping retail locations staffed.
treis 6y ago
>I always wondered why more stores didn't do this. It's not an efficient way to ship stuff. Wandering around a store picking an order takes much longer than an optimized warehouse. Square footage is much more expensive retail than in a warehouse. So the area (if there's even room for it) where you pack and ship stuff costs more. Shipping is more expensive because you are doing a few boxes a day instead of a semi-truck a day to UPS/FedEx/USPS It just doesn't work that well. Fine as a stop gap for a small retailer dipping their toes in the online market. But for any sort of scale the warehouse model is much better. I think the article is way off here. Yeah, some Sam's Clubs in the middle of nowhere were converted and a high end retailer has the margins to absorb the inefficiency. But the idea that existing retail is going to convert to warehouses at any sort of scale is laughable. The real estate costs are prohibitive and they'll end up somewhere an hour away where land is cheap.