Mobile Retail World
Decision analytics: driving a more mobile world.
Matthew Smith, CTO UK and Nordics for Software AG talks to A1 Retail Magazine about driving a more mobile world.
It is now a given that mobility will be at
the centre of much of the revolutionary technology
developments taking place in retail over the next
decade. As data takes over from voice as the most common use of the smart phone, for example, mobile will increasingly be used as a universal remote device allowing people to manage their lives.
A key element in this expanding use of mobility will be the emergence of decision analytics. This describes the ability of computing solutions to gather information from disparate sources, pre‐process and deliver it in a form which enables real‐time intelligent decision‐making.
Retailers in particular will be able to benefit from the intelligent pooling and analysis of information within mobile devices as they look to provide a superior and more cost‐ effective customer service. In a more integrated, multi‐channel environment, bricks and mortar retailers will increasingly have to learn from and replicate online customer experience initiatives. So, where tech‐savvy shoppers look at trusted online product comparison sites on their smart devices in‐store to consider different brands and product types, a retailer could provide this service themselves in providing an unprompted, value‐added service to help secure the sale. In this way, retailers need not fear ‘showrooming’ but positively embrace it in building customer loyalty and retention. The nature of customer service in‐store will also change as a result. A new breed of customer experience specialist adopting a more consultancy‐style approach to advising the individual shopper will become
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mainstream, replacing the shop assistant who simply completes the transaction in selling goods already researched and selected by the customer. To support this, solutions are available today which both allow mobile apps to be connected to the business and enable the retailer to see what the user is doing with the device in real time, so enabling better, more informed purchasing decisions.
Technology: barrier or enabler? This brave new world is closer than many people think. All the pieces of the technology jigsaw – including mobile, web, social media and supply chain – are already available, with third‐party specialists on‐hand where needed to help develop pragmatic step‐by‐step programmes to deliver the powerful benefits on offer.
High street businesses are rightly concerned about the greater inherent ability of their digital competitors to innovate. So, what is getting in the way of a more proactive response? With many years of technology investment still in place, the opportunity is often severely restricted with as much as three‐ quarters of IT budgets committed to simply maintaining and managing the existing IT estate. Yet to stand still is to fall further behind, as digital businesses continue to look for ways to expand their consumer proposition by, for example, incorporating payment systems as part of their offer. The result is a vertically‐ integrated customer proposition with the online retailer acting as bank, provider and shipper. Amazon is already going further by bringing together small marketplaces, so providing a consistent depth of product offering which a typical bricks and mortar business finds all but impossible to match. In addressing and overcoming what can be a formidable challenge, a retailer should first identify and challenge the value of each
element of present IT spend. At the same time, they should ask serious questions around their current approach to innovation and develop a broader long‐term innovation strategy, one which is likely to require increased direct investment. Without this, they risk being seriously outpaced by digital competitors.
Consideration of a digital strategy needs to switch from an ‘inside‐out’ view based on processes and systems to one which is ‘outside‐in’, starting from the perspective of what the customer expects from every interaction with the business.
The personal touch
Increasingly, customer loyalty will cease to be based just on a retailer’s ability to keep the shelves full but a sense in the consumer’s mind that ‘they know what I want’. Any feeling of anonymity is likely to result in the customer going elsewhere to get the great personalised experience they demand. Decision analytics will increasingly form the bedrock of intelligence essential for retailers to understand and respond to individual customers in this way. It will also help bridge the gap with those online competitors who were built from the ground up as part of the digital age in providing a fully connected supply chain. It may be difficult to keep up with the speed of mobile developments. Yet the ability of decision analytics to provide real time data analysis and distribution as the basis of intelligent decision‐making, is a powerful reflection of how growth is based firmly on successfully delivering what the user wants, in a flexible and cost‐effective way.
Contact Software AG
+44 (0)1332 611000
www.softwareag.com
www.a1retailmagazine.com
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