Debenhams’ Endless Aisle: What do retailers need to know?

Why are we talking about this now?

Debenhams has introduced an initiative called ‘Endless Aisle’, designed to increase fulfilment rates by meeting customer demand from stores as well as fulfilment centres.

At last week’s interims the department store group flagged its success and reported that it won an estimated £10m of sales that would otherwise have probably been lost. The innovation also means that Debenhams minimises markdown by selling stock more efficiently.

How does it work?

When a product is out of stock in the online stockroom, in the past its image would have been removed from the retailer’s website, which meant that shoppers could no longer purchase it.

Through the Endless Aisle initiative, an additional stockroom is effectively created. Debenhams can access stock from 36 of its biggest shops and so continue to enable online purchasing.

If a particular product is available in more than one stockroom, it is fulfilled “from the location that is most overstocked for the store’s retail needs”, a Debenhams spokeswoman explains.

“Debenhams then delivers to the customer using the same SLAs [service level agreements] and processes as any online order, and as such the process is seamless. The customer experience is exactly the same as if the product was coming from our online stocks.”

How will Endless Aisle be developed further?

“The opportunities are huge,” says the spokeswoman. Starting with autumn lines this year, Debenhams will also start to fulfil stock from store sales floors as well – about 30 are likely to be involved. That will give the retailer access to a bigger pool of stock and is expected to result in 95% availability, which is anticipated in turn to drive more sales.

The spokeswoman says: “We will also be able to do next-day collect from store, using store stock, which will reduce cost, as well as pick ‘trapped’ non-ranged returns stock from any store and deliver direct to the customer, reducing markdown and secondary processing of trapped refunds.”

Are other retailers doing similar things?

Among those at the forefront of innovation is fashion group Aurora. The retailer has integrated its stock system to create a single stock pool across all channels. Under the banner ‘Anywhere Everywhere’, the group aims to fulfil orders from distribution centre and stores.