Gartner has been talking about digital in retail for a while now, so the awareness on this has been building over the years. But over the last one year, one of biggest transitions we’ve seen is that digital has finally entered the conversation as a definite parameter for consideration when retailers evaluate any technology solution.
Today,when we speak to our retail customers, we find that they actively look for solutions that support Social Media Analytics Cloud (SMAC) and IoT. They want to know, for example, if our platform provides out of the box integration with popular social media platforms; if our eCommerce solution supports SaaS etc.
Overall, retailers today are able to better appreciate the power of digital technology to transform all aspects of their business. There is growing awareness that a strong technology backend is crucial to be able to evolve at the pace that today’s environment demands.
From Sonata’s perspective too, our approach to digital transformation in retail recognizes these emerging needs. Our unique approach of platformation of retail operations has enabled us to steer the discussion from piecemeal fixes towards a focus on driving business transformation through a platform that is open, scalable, compatible and Agile.
We’ve seen considerable uptake across our Ready, Accelerate and Custom approaches.
Brick and Click, our retail platform has resonated with customers, who have been able to recognise its value in enabling them to take the quantum leap to the digital world by getting the best of store & online retail on one seamless platform. We have seen a very enthusiastic response from customers across retail segments such as fashion, apparel, consumer goods and industrial goods and across geographies such as the US, Asia and Australia.
One great example is a hard goods manufacturer in Asia that was looking for 10X growth. It implemented Brick & Click to help it scale, improve time to market, integrate to third party logistics and payments, but most importantly, to provide a unified experience to its customers. It has not only overachieved on its growth target, but has reported greater customer satisfaction, enhanced business potential and informed decision making as the other big advantages.
Similarly, another a leading apparel brands for active wear that operates in Australia and the US implemented Brick & Click to support current operations and fulfil the aspiration of expanding to other geographies. Another example is a leading New York-based contemporary fashion brand was facing multiple challenges with its existing platform that was not designed to support omnichannel sales. Brick & Click enabled the company to launch promotions easily and seamlessly across all channels and also simplified engagement with end customers consistently across channels.
Overall, our ability to position Sonata as a IP led company rather than as a services company has been a big plus, that has helped us changed the nature of our conversation with our customers.
In the next year, we expect to keep pushing the envelope in helping retail customers transform their businesses, ably backed by the IP and Platformation strategies.