GEC NEWS WIRESoftware AG has shared its view of trends in the retail industry based on its interactions with customers and market observations. Oliver Guy, Retail Industry Director, Software AG, noted: “The worlds of e-commerce and brick and mortar retail are now seamlessly merging with retailers evolving towards an omni-channel approach to their businesses. Mobile, Cloud, Analytics and Social Media will be fully integrated into a unified merchandising system designed to vastly improve customer engagement. The notion that ‘the store is dead’ is not, in our opinion, the future – rather, stores will become highly technology-enabled to deliver a super-personalized customer experience and become the hub of omni-channel customer-centricity.”
According to Software AG,
Existing stores will take a “hub and spoke” approach, acting as pick up and fulfillment centers and offering “gold-star” customer service.
Customer-centric personalization will be the must-have differentiator for retailers and will become much more targeted. Retailers will deploy customer-centric technologies such as easy sign-up, RFID-tagged loyalty cards, which send personalized rewards over mobile phone when in-store. Real-time electronic shelf pricing will replicate customers’ online experiences, as well as optimize inventories and reduce labor costs. The complexity of omni-channel processes and how these interact with multiple systems will need further control; a kind of “mission control” center where retailers can see and control every activity across all channels.
Apart from that Predictive analytics in retail will enable stores to know what customers are going to want and when. Retailers embracing the IoT will have visibility into inventories via electronic shelf sensors; the ability to create smart signs that are weather- or facial expression-relevant; and the tools to make every loyalty customer feel coddled and important. Futuristic technology will immerse customers in the shopping experience.
The prediction also states that, Real-time monitoring capability will be critical for the store of the future, in order to sense, correlate and automate processes from staffing to inventory.
Retailers will further customize and personalize instant gratification “buy buttons,” with the expectation that these will translate into higher earnings.
Lastly, Real-time inventory visibility will dominate as retailers strive to keep the customers informed of stocks at all times. Retailers will control inventories by applying technology that shows inventory levels across all channels.
