Key challenges faced by the retailers today – business leader’s perspective.

Consumer shopping behavior is reshaping.

The boundaries between virtual and physical space are becoming blurred in today's world, and the shoppers are engaged with retailers in so many more ways than they did in the past.

Here’s a great example, the customer can place an order online and have it either delivered to their door step or walk into a store in closer proximity to pick up, ask for a price match and even return an item on any other store.

With a fast rise of Amazon like websites, it is obvious that retailers need to compete online. The trickier question is how? Retailers’ answer is something called “Omni-Channel”- an attempt to use one set of inventory to fulfill all orders, regardless of where and how these orders are placed. Companies that didn’t adapt to the changing norms, like Radio Shack and Circuit City, got out of the game.

Do we have the right infrastructure, knowledge, skills and resources available to cater the changes in retail industry?

With eCommerce trends gaining popularity, 3G and 4G initiatives in Pakistan, the retail industry is reshaping to enable Omni-Channel environment and engage with their consumers in a better way. However, there is a need for an integrated strategy for leveraging on technology, resources and skills to drive compelling customer experiences while controlling costs, which is now becoming a standard practice.

Connected customers are creating touch points with the retailer through POS, CRM, Call Centre, Web, Mobile, and Social channels for various purposes. With the right infrastructure, knowledge, skills and resources, a complete customer picture can be derived from linking customer’s transaction histories, interaction histories, and insights from across a Retailer’s multiple brands and channels as never before.

What is the role of technology in leveraging the growth potential of retail industry?

Retailers leveraging on the technology and Omni-Channel strategies can be far more adaptive to what consumers want than those who rely on anecdotal information from suppliers. Zara is one well-known example, on how they leverage on technology to deliver Fast Fashion – accelerate product delivery and inventory turns resulting in a greater margins and fostering better customer experiences.

The next big thing for retailers are IoT concept, like Apple launched its iBeacon for iPhone which tracks your indoor location and push you special deals in a mall and information as you pass by the stores. McDonalds recently implemented it along with many other global retailers and noticed a revenue boost.

Innovations such as Big Data based ‘listening’ and ‘sentiment analysis’ takes customer view to a whole different level of granularity and clarity. Now it is possible to read millions of conversations taking place simultaneously across multiple online forums. Have you heard the story of Nordstrom in the US – whereby they picked up negative consumer sentiments about a new t-shirt design and recalled the product immediately, and then leveraged on the social listening as their positive, which created a buzz.

Source:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/key-challenges-faced-retailers-today-business-leaders-zubair-anjum