New Product Development in an Omnichannel World

What is it about?

Firms compete in an increasingly omnichannel environment. Customers no longer travel a single linear path but traverse a complex map invoking many channels, firm-owned and external, seamlessly through integrated technology. The associated changes in consumer behavior and the ways that firms engage consumers have led many to reshape the way they innovate their product portfolios. This article presents a structured overview of some of the most striking changes to firms’ new product development (NPD) processes in B2C settings. Enlisting the classic NPD funnel, it describes how the omnichannel environment and its technologies affect speed and execution in each development stage. It illustrates key changes with examples from packaged goods, consumer technology, and fashion.

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Why is it important?

------------------------------------------------------- Contribution to Academic Scholarship ------------------------------------------------------- Academic research on omnichannel retailing is a nascent field. Existing research mainly centers on how firms can best coordinate the sales and distribution of products across a multitude of channels. But the new omnichannel reality also provides opportunities to design more relevant products. While there are lots of omnichannel changes to the new product development process (NPD) in business, there is little academic research on this topic. ------------------------------------------------------- Contribution to Management Practice ------------------------------------------------------- We provide managers interested in product innovation with a variety of stimulating examples of how firms have adapted their NPD process to omnichannel retail. We also synthesize these case studies by adapting the well-known product funnel stage-gate model to innovation. Our article will help companies rethink how to design and execute their NPD processes in an omnichannel world. ---------------------------- Author Perspective ---------------------------- We are interested in the challenges and opportunities that arise from new technologies and business models in omnichannel retail. In our interactions with firms active in this domain, we came across several innovative approaches to developing new products. We realized these examples shared some common characteristics that could be described as an adaptation of the classic stage-gate NPD process.