Dive Brief:

• Only 16% of retailers and manufacturers report they can fulfill omnichannel demand profitably, according to a new survey from PwC and JDA Software Group Inc.
• Companies named returns of online and store orders (71%), shipping to the customer (67%) and shipping to the store for pick-up (59%) as leading omnichannel cost centers. 
• The CEOs surveyed plan to dedicate an average of 29% of 2015’s total capital expenditures to improving performance in omnichannel fulfillment.

Dive Insight:

Costs related to omnichannel strategies are rising, say two-thirds (67%) of companies surveyed by PwC on behalf of JDA Software Group Inc., and few companies (16%) profit from the initiatives. But that won’t stop the spending, according to the report: CEOs say they will dedicate 29% of total capital expenditures for 2015, on average, to improvements to omnichannel fulfillment performance.

Omnichannel is at the forefront of future plans, the report indicates. Ranking plans to improve business operations, the top option cited by CEOs, was spending to create new customer experiences, with 57%. The top choice among “strategic growth enablers” was reducing or reformatting physical store footprints to focus on expanding e-commerce business, with 53% of CEOs.