Omni Channel SVP Mickey Bradford on Delivering a Complete Customer Experience

Mickey Bradford is the SVP of the new Omni Channel Directorate, established in January. The Exchange Post sat down with Bradford to learn more about the directorate and his plans for the future.

What is the new Omni Channel Directorate, and what does it do for the Exchange?

Omni Channel is the entire customer-facing technology for the Exchange, including eCommerce, supply chain, point of sale, credit card and digital strategy, and architecture. My role as SVP is to oversee a single entity within the Exchange that is focused on all forms of commerce. Whatever device or method of commerce customers want to use to shop the Exchange, our goal is to provide a seamless, holistic experience for them. Whether they use a smartphone, tablet or visit a brick-and-mortar store, customers decide their points of entry. We have the ability through these commerce platforms to fill their orders quickly, know where our inventory is and use whatever payment method they prefer.

All these processes were embedded in different parts of the business; now, it’s a strategic look at how we deliver this complete experience to our customers.

Do you expect challenges in 2017, and how do you plan to overcome them?

One challenge for 2017 is getting a handle on inventory availability. This year, we will implement a new near real-time inventory. This will give us the capability to see our inventory no matter where it sits, whether in a distribution center, store or third-party location. With near real-time visibility of inventory, we will provide the cheapest and fastest delivery of products to our customer. But there are checks and balances. For example, it may make more sense to fulfill an Austin, Texas, customer’s order from Fort Hood, but if Fort Hood is running a special on that item and has limited inventory whereas Fort Sam Houston has plenty, it would make more sense to send it from Fort Sam Houston. The closest isn’t always the best. Our goal is to fulfill the order in the fastest and most effective way.

“Whatever device or method of commerce customers want to use to shop the Exchange, our goal is to provide a seamless, holistic experience for them.”

Regarding the Veterans online shopping benefit, we are busy preparing our website for the additional volume. There is a plan A and a plan B. We are completing a major upgrade to the online platform. The upgrade will be ready in mid-July. This will allow the Exchange to handle around 30,000 concurrent users. To put that into perspective, our peak user load on Veterans Day in 2016 was around 5,500 concurrent users. Just in case we run into issues with our upgrade, we will also have the current platform scalable to 20,000-plus users.

What else should associates know about Omni Channel?

Omni Channel is rolling out a new point-of-sale system to all our stores in May, with the goal to be finished in mid-September. We will continue logistics upgrades to our warehouse management systems. We completed the Germersheim Distribution Center in February. We are starting on the Dan Daniels DC, with an implementation date in early 2018. There are two smaller warehouses also in the works, the cold storage in Germersheim and one smaller DC in the Pacific.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Omni Channel on improving the customer experience.

Omni Channel SVP Mickey Bradford (center) and EVP/Chief Logistics Officer Karen Stack congratulate associate Michael Chastain at the grand opening of the Germersheim Distribution Center.