Retail

Retail has evolved since a mechanical cash register was built in 1879 to stop employees helping themselves to profits. There are various aspects of retail digital transformation involved. 

While that first register simply totalled figures, today’s point-of-sale systems offer sophisticated solutions, retrieving prices from a database, calculating discounts and sales tax, and accommodating differential rates for preferred customers. 

Digital systems can actualize inventory, time and date stamp transactions, record methods of payment, keep totals for each product or type of product sold as well as total sales for specified periods.  

Why Retail Digital Transformation?

Most retailers today take advantage of these applications to capture data. However, they’re generally very siloed, with limited capacity to cross-reference data types. 

And while transaction systems provide some insights, allowing businesses to make intelligent decisions about preferences and what the next purchase might be, most enterprises collect only a small fraction of available information.  

The growth in technologies and wider gamut of data touchpoints is a rich resource for the retail sector. Social media monitoring, website statistics, in-store observations and customer surveys provide pre-transaction behavioural insights. 

For certain goods and services, technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID), global system mobile technology (GSM) and Internet of Things (IoT) allow for usage monitoring well beyond a final sale. 

There is tremendous opportunity to collect, analyse and operationalise this data to transform retail operations. 

Various Aspects of Retail Digital Transformation

Attract and retain customers

First and foremost aspects of retail digital transformation in retail industry concentrate on the spine of the businesses, Customers. Data can play a crucial role in attracting and acquiring customers, with segmentation based on customer behaviour supporting more targeted marketing efforts. 

The customer journey begins well before the cart is filled and continues beyond purchase and supply. It can be traced from the time a customer considers a product, compares it to others, creates a shortlist and possibly read reviews. At each stage the customer is engaging with a brand or company.  

Social engagement data can be demographic and geo-spatial. It can provide insights into what days and time of day a customer researches products and if it’s being done on a personal computer or mobile device. 

It can reveal who or what platform has been consulted (the influencers) in the lead up to a purchase and give insights into satisfaction levels after sale. 

Customers are increasingly looking for a truly immersive experience when shopping. Online, interactive applications offer detailed imaging which can be manipulated by the user, allowing customers more options to virtually try before they buy with greater personalisation. 

As well as a more engaging customer experience, these touchpoints are a valuable opportunity for collecting information at the early stages of the customer journey.  

Personalize customer service 

Retailers have always worked toward improved productivity, aiming to increase their customer base and sales figures while reducing costs. However, the story is more complex now. 

The ability to service more customers with a smaller workforce is only part of the puzzle. Data is recognised as a core resource, so applying analytics and then creating analytics at scale has become an important strategy.  

Whether a customer is new or returning, they still need to be convinced to buy. Even with returning customers, it's important to continually engage and benchmark against CX measures to see how a brand can improve.   

Modern retailers are looking to add fluidity to the equation, with more regard and responsiveness to the customer’s complete journey, using data in an ethical way to provide superior experiences. This comes through a better understanding of customer needs and desires. 

The challenge is to capture aspects of customer behaviour and then create a customer profile, including what they do and don’t like. This deeper understanding of customers allows more scope for cross-selling and up-selling. 

Loyalty and brand advocacy are more likely when customers believe their individual needs are being met. 

Streamline operations 

Most retailers are focused on doing more with less. How can they allow for scale and scope? Ways to provide more services for more customers without spending on more resources? How to learn from customer behaviour and feedback to deliver better products or better processes?

Good data management, which supports internal processes and empowers employees to meet customer needs, addresses all these questions. 

At every point of the customer journey, from researching products and services through to transacting, acquiring and consuming, the customer goes through a set of steps. 

Each step demands digital solutions to improve user experience, while also offering an opportunity to collect and use data. Businesses must ensure internal processes consider every touchpoint, harnessing the resultant data to inform, support and train employees. 

Improving digital processes 

One of the important aspects of retail Digital transformation focuses on digital elements. Digital process software helps automate tasks. Examples include customer support and service software and credit checking. 

But this can be improved further with data modelling and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate decisions. For example, credit checks can incorporate modelling using a company’s risk monitoring methodology with conditions put in place to refine automation. 

Once the data is captured, AI or machine learning models can transform it. This can be done using a capture-and-create model, or by being more interactive with customers through online Chatbots (programs that simulate human conversation by responding to certain phrases with programmed responses). 

As Chatbots become more sophisticated, supported by more and diverse data, customers are more likely to engage with them for problem solving, allowing for more automated decisions and better customer support.  

Achieving operational data excellence 

Operational data is sourced from internal systems then organised to represent a purchasing time series. This can be dimensionally layered with the customer experience side - information collected on how a customer has traversed websites and social media and what channels are being used to make purchases.

Customer and journey data can be combined to create cross domain data, which can then be used to create specialised analytics to support better decisions and more personalized customer experiences. 

Benefits of digital transformation in retail

• Reduce the Customer Service Burden

Empower users to get more value out of the product on their own. Find more efficient and scalable ways to get them the information and guidance they need to complete their tasks to increase their proficiency.

• Seamless Customer Experiences

The most profitable way to start delivering a seamless customer experience is to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Recognize the pain points they face and then lower the barriers and hurdles that stop them from converting.

• Taking Advantage of Upsell Opportunities

Successful upselling is based on understanding your customers’ requirements and making the shopping experience more delightful. A good upsell always leaves the customer feeling like they won.

• Understanding Buyer Preferences

Buyers' preferences affect the willingness to purchase a good. This demand determinant is based on the satisfaction of wants and needs that buyers obtain from a good. 

• Enhance Marketing Campaigns

To enhance the marketing campaign, appeal to a large customer base and make those customers interested and eager about that campaign. If you want to market a product, you need to know how to make your campaign really shine.

The final word

A 360 degree customer profile can be used for targeted marketing, improved delivery and to inform future product and service development. The above aspects of retail digital transformation helps you understand the consequences.

The challenge for retailers is how to monitor every touchpoint of the customer journey, and how to capture and analyse data from every juncture. Then they must differentiate themselves from the competition in the way they process that data to interact with customers in a personalised way. 

Sonata Software is an industry leader in data platform services. Our Platformation™ approach supports enterprises pursuing retail digital transformation by anchoring data as a primary asset. 

With industry-specific solutions across digital retail, travel, manufacturing and distribution, we leverage platforms and technologies from leading industry players – Microsoft, Amazon and Open Source – to implement data analytics and visualisation solutions. 

Have any queries? You can be a part of the Q&A session on June 15th where our experts will help in clarifying any queries you might have. 

Here’s the link - https://www.sonata-software.com/webinars/landing-page/europe-data-webinar

 

 

 

Adaptive retail is the new fundamental for retailing of the future. Consumers are meticulously building personal ecosystems that conform to their exact needs at every touch point, whether on mobile, via social media, in-store, on a laptop, at the front door or every other touch point in between. 

Below mentioned are 4 Reasons Retailers are embracing adaptability in retail, which has helped some companies in finding enormous amounts of growth in a short time.

This is true for all customers, regardless of demographics, gender, or age. Consumers influence brands by disclosing personal information and preferences. 

This data is the foundation for developing brand strategies. The trends revealed by today's early adopters anticipate the expectations of tomorrow's mainstream.

Importance of Adaptive Retail Experience

Make your customer's retail experience more adaptable. Brands must be able to shift digital tools, strategies, and in-store experiences in real-time based on consumer input to provide the most adaptive experience. 

Brands currently provide adaptive ecommerce sites with recommendations based on product page clicks or email communication, and feedback, but there are numerous opportunities to up the ante.  

How to ensure the technology meets the needs of customers

• Respond to customer inquiries by incorporating product information, reviews, assortment options, availability, and other FAQs into in-store displays
• It gives customers real-time directions to difficult-to-find products in unfamiliar stores like grocery stores, pharmacies, hardware, home improvement stores, and department stores.
• Improve the e-commerce experience by displaying related products based on previous browsing or purchasing activity.

Here are four ways to adapt your business so that retailers can effectively focus on their core business, accelerate time to market, and ultimately deliver seamless, secure digital experiences—all while adapting to an ever-changing marketplace and consumer demands.

4 Reasons Retailers are embracing Adaptive Retail

Automation

Retailers who use automation will reap the benefits of greater efficiencies across multiple environments. This will ultimately allow you to reach the market faster and more securely, resulting in differentiated digital experiences for your customers.

As we saw with COVID-19, the adaptive retail industry was forced to respond to a change in the environment almost instantly, and embrace a newfound reliance on the web and mobile applications. As a result, automation is the best way to quickly adapt to new or increased demand.

Security

Security is a critical component of ensuring smooth and secure online transactions for customers, particularly when cybercriminals are more active during sales events. Retailers must protect not only their systems and operations but also those of their customers.

Retailers can stay ahead of the ever-changing threat landscape by deploying comprehensive security solutions that protect their apps from bot, DDoS, and DNS attacks, credential stuffing, and unauthorized access.

Performance

Retailers should prioritize the delivery of exceptional digital experiences for every customer, at all times, more than ever before. 

Nowadays, retailers must consider the impact of a security solution on the user experience and prioritize solutions that do not cause user friction.

Insights

To accurately track and act on any inconsistencies, retailers must have real-time visibility and analysis of all transactions, web and application traffic, and security.  This will allow for the consistent delivery of high-performance and dependable digital experiences.  

Harnessing the power of data and insights will significantly assist retailers in making better business decisions and adapting to changing customer demands and the environment in which they operate.

Adaptivity in the Resilient supply chain Ecosystem

Companies that once boasted the world's leanest, most efficient global supply chains have been hit the hardest by COVID-19. 

The organizations are now struggling to meet soaring customer expectations for faster delivery, customization, lower cost, and sustainability, owing to inflexible networks.

However, the list of technological advancements is lengthy and often intimidating. The vendor ecosystem is rapidly evolving as innovation accelerates. 

Implementation 

Implementation presents new challenges and risks for many leadership teams, such as scaling solutions across heterogeneous operations. As a result, few businesses fully utilize new technologies.  

According to a recent Bain survey, only 8% of global firms have achieved their desired business outcomes from investments in digital technology.

Successful businesses concentrate on developing the ability to constantly reinvent their supply chains in response to changing market dynamics. They also remove any impediments in their path. 

Identifying the competitive elements of your supply network and those that offer no distinct advantage is a critical first step in moving toward a more flexible supply chain.

Future-Proof Retail with Adaptability

The retailer with the greatest adaptability will have the best chance of increasing market share and growing their business. 

Who stays in business—and who goes out of business—is ultimately determined by a retailer's ability to continuously adapt to innovations and changing consumer demands?

Pay attention to the customer

In the age of the consumer, every strategic initiative must begin with the consumer at the center of the process. Enabling robust data collection and analytics for both in-store journeys. 

The channels used before and after assists retailers in developing more detailed consumer profiles and gaining a better understanding of what constitutes a "consistent shopping experience."

Adaptive Retail establishments should be digitalized. Adopt a modular approach that encompasses the entire ecosystem of hardware, software, and related services to reduce friction in consumer and employee journeys while lowering the total cost of ownership. 

Retailers will continue to adjust their checkout mix to better serve a consumer base that is more accustomed to various checkout options, such as self-service and assisted service, as well as mobile scan-and-pay, click-and-collect, curbside pick-up, and even drone-based home deliveries.

Encourage candor

Give customers the end-to-end connected shopping experience they expect, whether they start their journey at home, on the go, or in-store. 

Through a collaborative multi-vendor strategy, an open technology platform with a set of standardized APIs for faster and easier integration will allow retailers to more easily adapt to upcoming technological innovations.

You should always be "interactive."

Ensure that customer and employee journeys are always accessible and secure. 

As a result, a hybrid of remote and proactive service models is required. In the event of a problem, this includes proper system monitoring and extensive data sharing on system availability, as well as an intelligent correlation engine to connect the dots and facilitate root cause analysis.  

When combined with remote support services, this will maximize your profits while also ensuring that your online and offline customer interaction points are always available. 

Conclusion

With the concept of a connected ecosystem, Sonata Software’s Connected Retail connects physical and digital systems.  It provides retailers with agility and data-driven insights into every element of their business, ensuring that a tailored and seamless customer experience is the only constant.  

Explore our Connected Retail offering to kickstart your Retail transformation journey.

 

 

68% of shoppers are unlikely to return to a website or store that doesn’t provide a satisfactory customer experience. – Forrester

Times have changed, and so has consumer behavior. It is not about the availability of products anymore. Everyone enjoys being recognized and valued. Customers prefer to be loyal to brands that recognize them. It's about being a part of an exclusive and engaging brand community. 

Retail personalization in customer service

Designed by freepik

Retail Personalization has the potential to have a significant impact on both brands and consumers. Relevant personalized communications can build long-term customer loyalty and drive revenue growth of 10% to 30%. 

Customers no longer want to settle for generic products or experiences, preferring to have everything reflect their personal preferences. But, as your customer base expands by leaps and bounds.

How do you create a one-of-a-kind, personalized customer experience for everyone, every time? Retail personalization is the answer! It is the process of providing each shopper with a personalized journey across all touchpoints and channels, based on historical data and real-time shopper intent, and powered by customer and product intelligence. 

Personalization in retail has the ultimate goal of making customers feel unique, special, and connected to improve their shopping experience.

Personalization & Segmentation:

Designed by freepik

While the term "personalization" is thrown around, not every retailer has realized its potential. In most cases, the terms "segmentation" and "personalization" are used interchangeably, although they are two distinct techniques.

Traditional shopper segmentation considers people to be a cohort – a group of people who share similar tastes and interests. It prioritizes categorizing labeling, and boxing people rather than treating them as individuals with distinct style preferences and needs. 

It provides a rather myopic view of categorizing based on limited data points, which are broad and fragmented categories.

When the two terms are used, we see instances such as a shopper being recommended mosquito nets after purchasing one a week prior. For example, imagine waking up to a slew of promotional emails about baking trays after purchasing an oven. 

These examples do not imply that they do not involve "personalization." It implies that they are irrelevant personalization, which is a failure.

For example, among the 100 percent of refrigerator purchasers, trays may be required by a small percentage. However, sending them all a prompt to buy "tray" demonstrates that the brand has lumped everyone in that group into one category rather than mapping their individual needs. 

This is the result of conflating segmentation and retail personalization.

While nearly every retailer today claims to "personalize" their shopper's experience, only a few do it correctly.

• If an email is not personalized, 52% of consumers will look elsewhere.
• Only personalized messaging will be interacted with by 72% of consumers.
• 90% of consumers are willing to share their data with brands in exchange for exclusive discounts on products they are interested in.

What is 1:1 Personalization?

Every eCommerce site has three components: customers, products, and the actions that customers take. Every shopper is a one-of-a-kind individual. 

Every customer is a segment in their own right. Shoppers, products, product attributes, and actions must be individually mapped to create a unique shopper profile for each shopper. 

This can be used across channels to create a one-of-a-kind shopping experience for each customer.

AI-powered retail personalization helps in delivering a unique customer experience for better engagement and higher conversion. It provides a distinct view of the same site to every shopper. 

Successful retailers know that nothing is more important to a retailer than a satisfied customer. Thus, successful retailers go to great lengths to create signature moments that delight customers and foster loyalty.

Sonata's Connected Retail 

 

Designed by freepik

Sonata's Connected Retail takes into account these carefully crafted customer journeys and applies a CX lens to all aspects of technology transformation, making the vision pervasive and consistent. 

Furthermore, three decades of CX measurement and management experience ensure that your promise is kept. Every single time.

Netflix's Emmy Award-winning recommendation engine, which drives nearly 75 percent of the viewing activity on the site, is an example of personalization.

Personalization techniques to look out for

• Create personalized homepages
• Provide customized guides
• Show items that have been recently viewed
• Customize product pages depending on location
• Design unique campaigns based on user behavior
• Make email marketing more personal 
• Make more personal recommendations

Retailers challenges in implementing personalization:

• Data administration
• Analytical data.
• Retail organizations must be aligned across functions.
• Technology and tool enablement

Conclusion

With the concept of a connected ecosystem, Sonata Connected Retail connects physical and digital systems. It provides retailers with agility and data-driven insights into every element of their business, ensuring that a tailored and seamless customer experience is the only constant. 

Looking to start your Retail transformation journey? Register for our upcoming webinar to join the Panel of Seasoned Experts on May 11.

 

 

Retailers are transforming the traditional shopping experience, bringing more importance of technology to deliver on their measures to supply a unified shopping experience, through store digitization. A New Era of Connected Retail explains How Personalization, Adaptiveness, and Intelligence are shaping Retail.

Why Connected Retail?

It's no secret that today's retail environment is more competitive than ever. The customer is in complete control, and only a tailored, one-of-a-kind shopping experience will pique their interest hence many Retailers are undergoing a total transformation.

Connected Retail is one such transformation framework that helps to build Connected Retail ecosystems that leverage Personalization for end-customers, Adaptivity for the Value-Chain, and Intelligence for better Business & Marketing decisions. Connected Retail market enables best-in-class Customer Experience(CX) transformation and catalyzes transformation.

Changing face of the Retail Landscape

Since Amazon's introduction two decades ago, the reach of internet stores has only become considerably larger. Over the last decade, the number of retail businesses that have converted to digital stores or that operate in both physical and online areas has expanded tremendously.

The advent of the pandemic has also had an impact on purchasing habits. Customers across the globe claim to have adjusted to new purchasing habits. 

The majority even believe that they intend to continue this behavior in the long run. Research has revealed that businesses which utilize customer analytics are considerably more probable to outperform their competitors.

•    Nearly 88 percent of shoppers online are millennials

•    53% of retailers stated it was difficult to teach shop employees to correctly pick, pack, and ship online purchases or to proactively engage store walk-in customers. 

•    According to a McKinsey & Company survey, retailers who employed customer analytics extensively increased their profit by 93% and their ROI by 115%.

From the perspective of the consumer, most internet retailers are focused on offering better customer service, and the scope of discrepancy has been reduced to a bare minimum. Customers are pleased, since last year, they have created a habit of receiving their product at their door.

So, how do you engage a digitally sophisticated and choosy customer? How can a retailer stand out from the crowd while still providing the amazing experiences that customers seek?

3 critical technological features for a retailer to be future-ready.

• Personalized 

It allows for a customer-centric strategy. Increase consumer loyalty by providing personalized purchasing experiences at scale, as well as convenience-based options.

• Adaptive

Ensure a technology stack that is adaptable and nimble. Unify all processes to increase efficiency while creating experiences, managing orders, and supply chains, data-driven forecasting, and distribution.

• Intelligent

Give your company the power of data-driven insights at every touchpoint, transaction, and process.

As consumer expectations rise, the global retail business is currently focused on producing great customer experiences. It is critical to reinvent present practices and focus on digitally modernizing your firm. 

Successful shops will go to considerable measures to satisfy their clients. A satisfied consumer is always beneficial to a company's bottom line, as is client loyalty.

Benefits of Connected Retail

Platforms, rather than point solutions, are recommended by industry experts for providing retail store personnel with tools such as:

• Store Modernization 

To assist associates in leveraging an Omnichannel customer view in conjunction with product/service mapping. Endless aisles – extended retail shelving Pandemic-driven application cases include store traffic, queue management, and curbside queues, among others.

• Commerce Transformation 

Make use of contactless payment methods. Activate features such as Queue Busting. Analytics for shoppers (In-store).

• Customer 360 view

In real-time, there is a single version of the truth: a 360-degree picture of customers, partners, and inventory at the corporate level.

• Merchandising and go-to-market strategies 

Based on customer insights, assortment and own brand development, data-driven granular in-season pricing, and promotions.

Real-time stock visibility

To maximize Rates of sell-through in supply chain and logistics, use real-time stock visibility and channel/store stock allocation.

Conclusion

Platform-led thinking is the key to thriving in this evolving retail market. Sonata's PlatformationTM provides retailers with a platform-centric approach that creates a unified customer experience throughout the purchasing journey. Sonata Connected Retail assists in reimagining retail to prepare for the future.

With the concept of a connected ecosystem, Connected Retail connects physical and digital systems. It provides connected retailers with agility and data-driven insights into every element of their business, ensuring that a tailored and seamless customer experience is the only constant. 

Watch out for this space for more updates. Worried about your Retail transformation journey? Reach out to us today and we will show you the way forward.

 

 

The onset of COVID-19 has affected the global retail market to a great extent. From the shrinking of physical retail stores to permanent closure and bankruptcies have touched another record. For those who survived the crisis, the past year has been difficult for them as many are in the process of a complete digital makeover.

Since the arrival of Amazon two decades ago, the scope of digital stores has only grown much stronger. In the past decade, the number of retail enterprises that have changed themselves into digital stores or operating in both physical and online spaces has increased exponentially. The onset of the pandemic has also affected the shopping behaviour. As per a survey conducted by McKinsey, over 75% of people in the US claims that they have adapted to the new shopping behaviour. The majority even believe that they plan to stick to this behaviour on a long-term basis. Also, almost 88% of them are millennials.

From a consumer point of view, most of the digital stores focus on providing better customer service and, the scope of discrepancy has been reduced to a bare minimum. Customers are happy as they have developed a habit of receiving their product at their doorstep since last year.

While the physical stores still might take some time to get back to normal, many people believe that they might not go back to a physical store if the same product is available online. Many retailers even claim that many people come to their shop to inquire about the product and purchase it later from digital stores as they have regular offers.

Amid all this, there is a need for the physical stores to focus on the bigger picture and adapt to the changing ways of the industry. There is a need to bridge the gap between the physical and the digital world.

Sonata Software is launching Connected Retail which focuses on providing end-to-end solutions for helping retailers to transform their business digitally. With over 25 years of experience in the retail industry and an exceptional track record of delivering smart solutions, Sonata Software is a trusted alliance partner of Microsoft for retail implementations across the value chain.

Four years ago, we had introduced the Platformation^TM approach to help companies in their digital transformation journey. We build open, scalable, intelligent and connected platforms that form the core of the modern digital business strategy.

Core of Platformation^TM approach:

Open: Easily accessible for users, ecosystem partners, and businesses to take part in.

Connected: You are always on, always connected.

Scalable: It gives the business the power to scale the platform by the number of users, segments, and geography.

Intelligent: To use the data generated in the platform to enable more efficient and meaningful transactions.

 

Already have a platform? Take the platform maturity assessment today with us and we will provide you insights on how to make your digital transformation journey more efficient.

 

We are using the same concept to provide a 360-degree view of your inventory, channel, consumers, supply chain etc. and connect them on a single platform to cut down redundancy and improve your efficiency. However, ensuring a great customer experience remains the core of our offering.

The global retail industry is currently focused on creating amazing customer experiences as the consumer's expectations have risen. It is important to reimagine the current practice and focus on transforming your business digitally.

Successful retailers go up to great lengths to keep their customers happy. A happy customer is always good for business and, so is customer loyalty. Sonata specialize in crafting unique customer journey and with the help of data, we also provide advance insights on metrics to understand a consumer. It is important to map every customer journey to understand their behaviour and using this information build unique journeys to ensure great customer experiences.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg!

We also offer solutions to streamline your workforce as per the insights we provide on consumer behaviour. This information helps to determine and define the role of your workforce. 

Why is this data helpful?

• To improve brand visibility
• Integrated system for both internal and external data
• Use insights to understand customer behaviour
• Encourage workforce to understand and use insights for better customer experiences

Retailers must invest in technologies that can bypass minimize redundancy. This is a way forward towards attaining efficiency in the long run for every retail enterprise.

Watch out for this space for more updates on the retail industry. Worried about your digital transformation journey? Reach out to us today and, we will show you the way forward.

 

The Global Consumer Electronics market started to realize many paradigm-changing innovations for the last few years like 5G, Extended Reality, Blockchain, etc. While the COVID-19 Pandemic has slowed the spread of Innovation in most of the cases, it also has boosted the demand for some of the Consumer Electronics and Smart wearables embedded with sensors that monitor various health factors.
Smart wearables & health gadgets like Pulse oximeters, wrist watches with electrocardiograms functionalities, pulse sensing earbuds were some of the main attractions at the Consumer Electronics Show 2020. The Smart wearables industry is witnessing a steady growth and the pandemic situation has just boosted it.
Staying indoors has affected the active leisure lifestyle & passive leisure activities like consuming streaming content have become more popular during these times.

Source:Nielsen

Pandemic is the Catalyst for the Online shopping:

While the overall spending has plunged, to purchase essentials and consumer electronics within the disposable income, e-commerce has become the new normal. 
Anxiety induced demand has pushed the traditional retailers to scale up the order fulfilments during the initial phases of the crisis. Today even the Internet companies and Retailers with legacy commerce systems are finding it difficult to maintain the order fulfilment ratio. Those who could bypass the supply disruptions are finding new ways to improve the customer experience. Mobile phone manufacturers are not only moving their focus towards Direct to Consumer channels also leveraging the power of social media to deliver the best in class customer experience. Social media engagement has become a mandate for the brands to deliver the best-in-class customer experience.

Ensuring Last mile delivery:

With an undoubted shift towards online shopping, eCommerce with adequate supply networks is the trusted path to ensure last-mile delivery. Most of the firms including consumer electronics manufacturers are turning towards Direct to consumers models, B2B eCommerce to manage the channel partners, and embracing Omnichannel strategies to cut through the demand uncertainties and better insights of the consumers.

Phygital Retail - the novel phenomenon:

There is a phenomenon that Physical Stores are increasingly behaving like online stores and Online Stores like the Physical Stores unleashing a novel way of Retailing termed as Phygital Retail. Phygital Retail is an ecosystem that focuses on customer experience by providing the human touch on digital interfaces and the ease of digital technologies at a physical store.

Here are some of the features of a Phygital Retail:

• Cashier-less checkout systems that provide hassle free self-checkouts
• Intelligent Displays at Stores that let the customers choose and purchase the items 
• Personalized content push through Bluetooth Low energy & WIFI: Small devices like Beacons that can be used to push personalized promotions when a passer-by moves next to the store
• The extended reality for Size/fit and other suggestions: Digital portals and apps which let users to try the required items virtually
• Intelligent chatbots that interact like humans by breaking the barriers of the traditional content and Knowledge systems
• Personalized content and ads: Phygital is all about personalization, intelligent suggestions based on purchase history and content personalization will provide the unique customer experience 

Digital ecommerce platforms that enable Unified Commerce

Digital commerce platforms enable businesses to scale up rapidly, enabling them to cope up with the competition. Web portals and apps play a vital role in providing a consistent experience to the customers.
Digital commerce platforms make it easier for businesses to retain existing customers through personalized content and Brand Survey Capabilities. 
Experiential Retail is certainly the future and Physical and Online Retail will co Digital commerce platforms enable businesses to scale up rapidly, enabling them to cope up with 
the competition. Web portals and apps play a vital role in providing a consistent experience to the customers.
The crisis has also raised a question of whether the Physical Retail is dead? The Post COVID era demands unified commerce beyond the regular omnichannel strategy. 

Unified commerce with Sonata’s Digital Platforms

Sonata leverages the power of platforms to help clients create & implement platform-based business models.
Brick & Click is a unified commerce platform that provides digital-ready operations capability and best in class digital engagement both instore and online with smart unified commerce and operations systems.

The Need to Transform Now

Millennials, Gen z, or Covid-19 all have disrupted the retail industry across sub-segments, still, the demand is purely driven by consumer expectations. Today, companies with innovations are defining the boundaries and standards in the industry. Leaders in various segments rely on technology that enables them to deliver what consumers want, at a scale, and provide the ability to quickly innovate.

 In 2020, the entire landscape of consumer expectations has changed. There is a growth of recession-trained and fixed-income shoppers. Now, consumers want the best value for money, experience the product first and most of them give low priority to brand loyalty.

The Change was Already Here

In the last few years, we’ve seen the boundary between online and offline stores is disappearing. Consumers expect a true omnichannel model of online-instore-mobile by the retailer with importance to originality and relevance. Friends & peer generated views on social media matters today.

According to research, 44% of European millennials take instore pictures to collect opinions of loved ones whereas 56% compare prices on the internet while they are in the store.

According to eMarketer, as reported before Covid-19, Retail eCommerce sales are projected to grow at approx. $1Tn every year from 2019-2023.

 

Before pandemic, US retailers were majorly focused on drivers like on speed of technological changes, shifts in demographics and shopper behavior, global economics of procurement, transparency, and knowledge-centric shopping.

Changing Preferences Post Covid-19 Era - Get Ready

For most companies, the customer experience was the only way to differentiate themselves before CV-19. The next era is different, it is for the retailers who can innovate, transform their businesses quickly, and be the pioneers in defining the new normal beyond customer experience. Companies need to understand the holistic picture. 

• Millions of people lost jobs and forced nearly everyone in the world to cope up with sudden social distancing norms. Consumer habits are already changing with contactless shopping getting popular.
• Everyday pricing will be a crucial factor to answer value for money need; as consumers plan to be cautious, even when the spread of the virus subsides.  
• Consumers will now expect retailers to simplify their shopping experiences. There is a clear shift to eCommerce, click & collect, and even ways in which certain categories are consumed could alter consumer behavior permanently, creating a new retail environment. 
• Inventory optimization will be based on new habits of consumers and will need more frequent sales and operations alignment. It means a need for better tracking, measuring, reporting, and analysis 
• Proper demand forecasting will be needed to avoid stock-out situations, post-pandemic, at regional as well as store levels and eliminate uncertainty factors.

Staying Ahead in the Race - the tech intervention

The need for social distancing to curb the Covid-19 epidemic will continue to drive the sales for some more time. The era of inventory-led retail is ending with the consumer-driven intelligent supply chain taking the front seat with emphasis on last-mile fulfillment, omnichannel capability, and demand forecasting. The focus should be on new technology that accelerates and enables transformation at scale to think beyond the current normal.

IoT: IoT is one of the game-changers in retail. Retailers will need to improve the ability to monitor goods throughout the entire supply chain. For flawless delivery and service, retailers should equip themselves with tracking systems that report valuable data such as location, temperature, providing insights into quality control and traceability. 

AI: With current customer trends towards touchless shopping retailers can reap benefits quickly. Visual recognition and infrared technology can make online and in-store experiences better for customers. Companies in apparel, footwear, and Food & Grocery have realized the value of the investment.

Voice Commerce: Voice commerce will play a significant role in eCommerce with WW Voice-based commerce touching $83 Billion by 2023. Voice search queries using virtual assistants or audio-to-text conversion capabilities will give an edge to retailers looking for innovation

Blockchain: Retail is the 4th largest Blockchain market projected to grow $933 million by 2022. For customer loyalty schemes retailers should leverage blockchain for data capture at every stage of customer interaction. eCommerce companies can lead by addressing supply chains management issues like product tracking and authenticity with blockchain. It will reduce the risk of counterfeiting especially in arts, antiques, luxury goods, etc.

Mobile: Companies innovating on this front will have an edge in the long term as shopping is going mobile, in-store and out. Millennials or non-millennials everyone preferred mobile as a primary shopping channel. In fact, 50% of digitally influenced in-store sales will be driven by mobile in 2021. With mobile payment being the world’s largest and fastest-growing market companies should look for partnerships and software companies to can keep them ahead.

Conclusion

In the backdrop of global economic uncertainty, the retail industry needs to quickly undergo a major transformation in both eCommerce and brick-and-mortar. Retailers need to re-evaluate their current operations and adapt to succeed. Companies should look beyond the current situation and stay relevant through 

1. A clear vision to evolve
2. Focus on localization and scalability simultaneously
3. Well balanced investment in both brick & mortar and eCommerce
4. A seamless shopping experience across channels
5. Super exciting in-store or off-store experiences

At Sonata, we understand the core principles of retail and the emerging trends of digital transformation. Sonata Connected Retail specializes in developing platforms and frameworks to help you go to the next level of your digital transformation. Reach out to us right away, and we'll show you the way. 
 

As the retail industry continues to be disrupted by emerging technologies and shifting consumer behaviour, how do you keep up? One of the first steps is to keep up to date with the latest innovations and trends that will transform how you start, market, manage, and grow your business in 2020 and beyond.

What do customers want? They are looking for good-value goods and smart applications and designs. Retailers have made a virtue of delivering customer experience by making retail as frictionless as possible. Organisations are now mapping out their customer journeys to identify bottlenecks and clearing the way to purchase and beyond very smart way, the idea is that more the retailers can remove these bottlenecks and provide rewarding customer experiences they will have more happy customers.

Retailers are increasingly talking about how to earn customer attention, which is a common goal for all retailers. If customers cannot remember their shopping experience, there is less chance of they are going to become a loyal customer for the retailer. So, the starting point for the retailer is creating a memorable and valuable customer experience, but that is bereft of challenges.

Some of the key Challenges that a retailer deals with is in understanding

• Are customers happy with our brand?
• Feedback on retail store experience?
• Why do customers return to our brand and stores?
• How to improve the retail experiences for customers?
• What could be done which would help our customers to remember our brands and stores?

With the advent of new digital technologies and smart applications retailers can reach out more effectively to the customer using smart technology and the internet. But with this changing landscape comes a set of new expectations from the customers.

33% of retailers are going to see a decline in customer experience execution this year as shoppers' desires will outpace organizations' capacity to deliver a meaningful experience as 70% of the buyer’s journey is based on how the customer feels they are being treated by the retailers. Companies that are historically brick-and-mortar are fighting to bring innovation into the retail space, too. Retail eCommerce companies also changing how customers experience brands in their everyday lives.

So, what does all of this end to? It’s not enough to sale product anymore; retailers must sell them an experience using a mix of digital and physical store.

Digital Retail Experience

Mindful of how today's customers are using both the digital and physical worlds; Retailers sought to create a new 'Digital' retail customer experience. A unified experience which combines with all retail stores, eCommerce Platforms and mobile application customer journeys.

Today, customer journeys don’t always begin in brick-and-mortar stores - 90% of all purchase decisions starts with online search. In fact, according to data published by retail expert on Statistica, over 40 millions of US customers are ‘mobile-only’ internet users, about 35% of the entire internet population of the country.

How to Deliver a Digital Customer Experience in Online Retail
Online retail shows absolutely no sign of slowing down from the exponential growth we’ve seen in the past few years.

Approximately $ 3.46 trillion was spent online by consumers in 2019. With forecasts predicting an 18% growth rate over the next twelve months, it’s vital to the future success of businesses that their online customer experiences are the very best they can be.

Great customer experience is a major driver of revenue – customers who walk away happy are over two times more likely to part with more of their cash. Retailers should assess their end-to-end digital customer experience with an understanding of best practice in that area.

Physical retailing is no longer a stand-alone process and, without question, customer experience fuels today’s retail. That’s why it’s critical that retailers understand today’s linear consumer journey.

• Digital: Pre-store visit
  • 76% Customers compare prices
  • 62% Customers are look at reviews
  • 47% Customers are checking local store inventory
• 46% of the consumers will search the product before buying in the store
• In-store Mobile Use
  • 83% Customers Compare Prices
  • 78% Customers are look at reviews
  • 76% Customers are checking local store inventory

Over the next few years, retailers can anticipate consumers’ expectations to shift toward more innovation from their favorite brands. The innovating technology allows retailers access to more powerful forms of customer contact details, which will completely change how products market to, sell to, and engage with customers.

Differentiating on Customer Experience in Retail

To face competition, retailers are looking for ways to capture customer data and gain a holistic customer view across channels, personalized customer experience solutions using innovative technologies, allowing retailers to curate delightful experience that drive customer-centricity and increase brand value.

• Pervasive Digital Intelligence: Pervasive digital intelligence describes gathering and managing the detailed information about every action a customer takes, regardless of channel or mode of interaction.
• Humanizing Digital Systems: Humanizing or personalizing digital systems changes customer interactions. With AI processing the data, humanization allows a company to combine data and analytics to personalize any interaction that customers have with the company.
• Deploying “Multiexperience” in Customer-Facing Systems: Multiexperience is a relatively new concept but one that’s having a substantial impact on how organizations interact with customers. According to Gartner, “Multiexperience refers to the various permutations of modalities (e.g., touch, voice, and gesture), devices, and apps that users interact with on their digital journey across the various touchpoints.”

With all this new technology available at retailers’ fingertips comes ample opportunity to stand out from the competition. Utilizing innovative technologies and creating an innovative customer experience will not only highlight your product, but it will also demonstrate your ability to move ahead of the competition.

Rapidly evolving customer behavior makes new age IT solutions an imperative for driving a comprehensive digital transformation strategy for businesses.

What are the trends impacting retail business currently?

Mobile:

is a constant companion for shoppers before, during and after shopping expeditions thus, making it a key element of the new paths to purchase. Customer expects 24/7 engagement because shoppers are shopping on mobile anytime, anywhere! Mobile has penetrated hitherto unreachable markets due to rapidly dropping price of devices that provide increasingly powerful features and better mobile experiences.

Social:

has created new shopping models like we-commerce and social commerce that has created new competitors who disrupt existing retail space. Social is known to build or break a brand because of the disproportionate impact it creates surrounding a feedback – be it positive or negative. Over the years social networks have matured significantly and social media users are aware of the power this channel provides to endorse a brand or redress their grievances without having to go through the hassle of engaging with a brand’s customer care.

Data & Privacy:

For the right benefits, the digital generation of users are willing to trade some level of privacy i.e. they do not mind sharing personal and location information, if that fetches better deals on their favorite products and services. The amount of data users are willing to share now, is much greater than what was available earlier to businesses to devise accurate and relevant marketing promotions. Thus, data can drive the next age of real-time and in-context retail businesses that deliver faster conversions, increased revenues and efficient supply chain/store operations for the retailers.

Are current means of Customer Engagement adequate to meet these new challenges?

Traditional retail businesses have each part of their business engaging with the customer in separate silos. This makes the current customer engagement fragmented and inconsistent across functions. Each channel of customer engagement i.e. web, mobile, store and customer care tends to deliver a different experience to the customer which triggers dissonance in their perception of the brand. The context of past customer engagements are not carried forward from one function to another function of business in a consistent way, nor in real time. Though most retailers have enabled cross-channel context passing, the employees are not able to use it effectively for delivering consistent customer engagement. With the digital generation expecting greater relevance and ability to shop anytime-anywhere, the traditional customer engagement tools and techniques break down. Newer tools and solutions are required to transform the existing retail business to deliver an omni- channel and relevant customer engagement anytime-anywhere.

34% OF WORLD POPULATION WILL OWN MOBILE BY 2017; 86% OF SHOPPERS TAKE ACTION ON MOBILE-BASED PROMOTIONS WITHIN 5 HOURS!

CURRENT CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT BY RETAILERS IS FRAGMENTED AND INCONSISTENT ACROSS CHANNELS SUCH AS WEB, MOBILE, STORE, CUSTOMER CARE.

What are the new rules of Customer Engagement?

The new rules of customer engagement are driven by the trends in technology and consumer behavior:

1. Understand and walk with the shopper's new paths to purchase spanning web, mobile, store, social
2. Engage in a relevant manner with customers by deriving insights from the data they have shared
3. Deliver differentiated deals and services to the high value customers using new dimensions for categorization such as digital presence & influence among target market for brands/retailer
4. Treat employees and business partners as you would engage with customers

How can retailers transform their business for embracing the digital future?

The digital transformation for a traditional retailer is primarily focused on four key elements:

1. Ensure consistent omni-channel experience for consumers
2. Deliver better in-store experiences that enable digital shoppers (e.g. WiFi connectivity)
3. Relevant engagement (both in-store and online) driven by data of user's context
4. Agile backend operations that meet anytime-anywhere expectations of customer

While every business aspired for complete digital transformation, it really starts with simply charting a clear roadmap that is aligned with the business goals and the nature of their retail business. The process of digital transformation for a retailer involves the following exercises that can be performed by consultants:

1. Assessing the existing gaps in the customer engagement processes and end-user experience
2. Identifying the use cases and business processes that need to be transformed
3. Structured analysis for prioritizing the use cases that need to be transformed
4. Identifying the technologies and skills required for bridging the gap between As-Is and To-Be state
5. Evaluating the market offerings in the solution space
6. Assessing the impact on existing IT, people and organizations processes - for change management
7. Evolving a programmatic approach to execution of the digital transformation initiative
8. Putting together the right team internally with clearly identified owners for the initiative
9. Picking the right vendor for executing the program

From an implementation point of view, several critical solution components will be required for transforming the way retailers engage with their new age customers across multiple channels anytime anywhere:

Enterprise Mobile Platforms:

For app development, integration, deployment & device management

Omni-channel Commerce Solution:

Products or open source solutions that can drive a consistent customer engagement across multiple channels; with a clear context passing across the channels

Digital/Mobile POS and Self-Check-out Kiosks:

Queue busting is a key in-store experience enhancer for most shoppers and mobile POS, self-check-out kiosks can go a long way in making this happen

Analytics:

Data from sensors, mobile, CRM, ERP, SCM, social, etc. need to be sliced & diced for generating valuable insights that power customer engagement and efficient business operations

User Experience Design:

Designing better shopper experiences across channels such as mobile, web, customer care center and in-store to ensure customers are delighted with every touch-point

Sonata Connected Retail specialises in developing platforms and frameworks to help you go to the next level of your digital transformation. Reach out to us right away, and we'll show you the way. 
 

The retailing industry is going through a revolution where technology redefines the traditional ways and standards of doing business. Interestingly, some of the challenges of using technology to remain competitive are best addressed by what successful retailers have always been good at - thinking about the customer first and placing emphasis on the customer's delight customer delight at the heart of the retailing operation. New technologies such as mobile, analytics, social and IoT, along with the breakthrough in making these available to customers in an easy to use manner have all accelerated the shift to digital commerce in retail. However shopping continues to have an important context, going beyond the transactional relationship, and the touch-feel experience of real world stores still dominate many categories. Here we try to see how looking at things from a customer's viewpoint point can help retailers get comfortable with what they need to do to continue winning in the emerging era of unified retailing across both store and digital channels.

The modern day customer is caught in between two paradigms - increasing variety and choice in almost every category that allows for a richer shopping experience - but limited time to exercise this choice! So while everyone might like to go to the store, digital offers new dimensions of convenience that customers surely appreciate. Imagine a customer searches online to shortlist a selection of Christmas gifts during a commute back home from work possibly on mobile, catches up on comparisons of product reviews on a tablet after dinner to finally place orders, then picks up the gifts at a short lunch break next day from a store outlet located near work. Wow! That essentially means the consumer shifts across channel devices and times during a single purchase decision as ‘convenient’ to him or her. Let’s also consider that the customer finally picks up a couple of the items from the store for home and decides to have the store dispatch the rest to friends at their respective addresses.

In terms of relooking at the retailing process and putting technology to work, this means a few things. The physical world and digital is increasingly getting meshed and it’s critical to get both right - not just one - especially for established store led retailers. Make shopping one seamless experience no matter where the customer needs to start the purchase cycle and where they need to finish it. The basic foundation is to support mobile, web and store interaction on one unified technology platform. Mobile is key as this is increasingly the device of choice for search and buy whether online or in store - so a clear customer friendly mobile strategy is a must. To allow for omni channel shopping - you also need to have view of inventory across digital and stores, know that some would be picked up - reserve them, connect with shipping agencies to deliver dispatch orders to different addresses, track and confirm back the completion of delivery to customers. So it's not just the front end customer engagement, but the system needs to be backed by true omni-channel enabled supply chain to provide a positive shopping experience.

Retailers have always known the value of relationships and personalized service. Who does not like to be recognized and appreciated for the relationships that you have with a store that one has been loyal to! Imagine - being notified about a sale on a special designer label you patronize that’s in store and the link to an online show video of the pieces in the collection that fit you. You ‘like’ a few designs and at a click, set up a trial appointment. As you walk into the store, the assistant recognizes and greets you, helping you complete the fitting on schedule. As you proceed to pay - the assistant suggests a mix of loyalty point’s redemption, in a single touch transaction, to quickly maximize the value of your purchase.

For retailers obsessed with the value of personalized service - technology really helps take it to the next level, as can be seen in the above example. Analytics solutions enable retailers to have a single view of a customer’s overall relationships across channels such as digital and store to start with, rewarding customers for that with near real time personalized offers and services. Such systems not only identify the customer as they move across channels and physical locations to offer continuous contextually relevant service, but can be hooked up to a strong promotion engine which recognizes and suggests promotions that are specific to their preferences. More than just unified commerce - such technologies help enable complete unified experience management to be the focus - from online to in store and hybrid. Emerging social media and unstructured data based analytics systems extend this capability to go beyond just the buying history, a particular retailer may have with a customer, to the extended set of the customer’s interests, relationships and life priorities. This richer understanding of the customer not only allows for personalization at the individual level, but at a collective level it forms the basis for predictive analytics that better guides a retailer on their segmentation, merchandising, channel footprint and promotional strategies. When you work harder to better serve each of your customers - you are also better placed to profit from the effort of serving all of them!

So to transform digitally one needs to transform not only for the digital side but mesh strategies with the physical. Digital and store models need to complement the whole experience and enhance it for customers. The experience on one channel will influence the preference and conversion across the overall relationship. If your store experience is not the greatest would you still go with downloading the app on your mobile and use that for buying - or for that matter the other way round! In fact, as some of the examples cited above show, the ability to have technology enhance the interplay of value between digital and store channels is immense and a big part of how retailing will be redefined.

This then is a clear imperative for all retailers -- create a true unified engagement infrastructure across channels and persist for seamless, personalized and convenient shopping experience. While retailers have historically, to varying degrees, invested in enhancing store and online systems, the need of the hour is to have unified retail technology systems that provide a single view of customers and operations to be achieved. They can then translate that to seamless experience and fulfilment. New age retail systems that can deliver on this need already exist, integrating best of breed omni-channel commerce, analytics, mobile, with built in functionalities for unhindered cross channel customer and operations management processes -such as being able to provide supply chain support for forward and reverse logistics. Retailers need to only do what they are fundamentally good at - think customer - then work with a strategic IT partner to adapt these technologies to achieve their new vision - to be ready the ere of unified retailing.

Associate VP, Global Service Line Head -Microsoft Dynamics | Digital Platforms | Delivery Unit Head

Rajshekhar Datta Roy is Head of Microsoft Dynamics practice at Sonata. He has over 18 years of multi-discipline experience across leading large delivery groups, leading practice teams for ERP, program management and managing key customer engagements. Raj has been responsible for incubating the Microsoft Dynamics practice at Sonata, including Sonata’s 360 degree engagement with Microsoft and scaling it up into one of the most successful Dynamics AX practice units in the World, partnering with large Dynamics AX clients. Raj has been a speaker at some of the leading ERP events, including Convergence. He has more than a decade of experience of delivery winning solutions in the retail industry.