It’s nothing new that both omnichannel and E-commerce negotiations have been part of market considerations for close to a decade. What has changed is their prioritization, which evolved – and accelerated – due to the pandemic.

This makes the question we’ve been asked by our clients for close to a decade now increasingly pertinent, and what we would like to explore in this paper. It is, simply: “Are the fundamentals of omnichannel and E-commerce negotiations really different from regular negotiations?”

This question has not only been posed by our clients. It’s also been discussed amongst the world’s leading negotiators at The Gap Partnership, and has plagued engagements between retailers and suppliers for the past decade. Over the last two years this conversation has moved from a theoretical to commercial imperative due to consumer acceptance of E-commerce and significant growth of other non-traditional fulfillment models. This rapid acceleration has exposed the gaps that exist in supporting, serving, and meeting customer expectations, as well as the need to adopt a different mindset and reapply negotiation fundamentals to better negotiate in an omni world. There has developed, in addition, a need to rethink the evolution in the development of key account management (KAM) commercial negotiators for the new retail environment.

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