Retailers are increasingly outsourcing their back-office
functions so that they can concentrate on their core business
activities.
More than 60% of retailers outsource part of their businesses so
that they can focus on retailing, according to a survey of 24
members of trade body the British Retail Consortium.
Only 30% of retailers gave cost cutting as a reason for using an
outsourcing company, while fewer than 30% said that they were
getting a good return on investment from outsourcing.
Some 60% of retailers outsourced their IT, the same percentage
outsourced their warehousing or another part of their distribution
network, 45% outsourced payroll and 35% outsourced store
security.
The 24 retailers surveyed had combined sales of £39.8bn out of
total retail sales in the UK of £249bn. Between them, the retailers
operated 8,300 stores out of the total UK stock of 278,630.
Some 88% of retailers said that outsourcing was successful
despite the recent decision of J Sainsbury to cancel its
outsourcing deal with Accenture.