Intelligent platforms boost brand loyalty
In this age, you need to be aware that you’re dealing with digital natives, and know what they want
The world of retail has come full circle. From the earliest barter economies until the first Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s, humankind traded face-to-face. Vendor reputations spread through word of mouth. Tradespeople knew customers by name and knew what they wanted before they asked (The usual, Mr Smith?). If you arrived (on horseback) in a new town and wanted to know where the best food was served, you asked around, and were reliably informed.
The First and Second Industrial Revolutions pushed sellers and buyers apart, building an impenetrable wall between consumers and the information they needed to make shrewd purchases. Onesided public messaging, in the form of advertising, took the place of the knowledge community.
But the Third, and particularly the Fourth (the current digital transformation era), Industrial Revolutions have seen the return of the knowledge community, and it is more powerful than ever. Some 330 million Twitter users and a Facebook base that is rapidly approaching 2.1 billion, form the tip of an intimidatingly large iceberg that needs to be addressed by modern retailers. Blogs, reviews and social media comments can shatter brand reputations within hours.
Something olde, something new
So how do you even begin to manage the expectations of this talkative horde? Well first you must recognise that you are dealing with digital natives who need to be able to buy what they want, when they want, how they want.
That means your commerce platform needs to be tied into multiple sales channels — Web, mobile and social, as well as a knowledge-driven sales floor. At any given point of sale, you need to deliver Ye Olde Marketplace paradigm, bringing warm, personalised experiences to customers. You need to optimise stock levels so that you always have the product being sought. And you need to monitor all the venues where your customer talks good or ill about your brand.
Already you can see the benefits of an integrated omnichannel solution that allows you to effectively manage inventory and sales from a single point, unify customer profiles and personalise engagement. As a retailer, you can trace the circle, and get back to the start.
According to Alpen Capital’s GCC Retail Industry Report of May 2017, the value of the GCC retail sector will reach $313.2 billion by 2021. E-commerce sales alone are expected to reach US$ 41.5 billion by 2020, with the UAE taking more than half (53 per cent) of that revenue, followed by Saudi Arabia (14 per cent). The report cites an increasing number of young people and expatriates who are “propelling demand for innovative, trendy and international consumer products”.
Winning hearts and minds
Taking advantage of such consumer appetite demands a bold digital transformation programme, where the intelligent cloud and the intelligent edge lead you to the front of the pack. The digital world demands the automation of business processes.
Systems of intelligence become systems of action that streamline core tasks and empower employees, by giving them more time to innovate and win the hearts and minds of customers. Your commerce solution will work best as a common platform and data model. You will then have the tools to provide customers with seamless and consistent engagement at every touchpoint. It will cover cross-channel scenarios, such as checking in-store availability online, returning online purchases to stores, choosing clickand-collect, or placing home-delivery orders from stores. Your platform will monitor cross-channel customer activity and social media comments. It will deliver powerfully visual, actionable information to a single dashboard, giving you a deeper understanding of behaviours and preferences, leading to wiser merchandising decisions.
Finding meaningful patterns in customer data allow you, either online or on the sales floor, to make relevant purchasing suggestions to customers, much as the village-square vendors of old could do. According to a 2015 study by Forrester, 77 per cent of consumers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provided personalised service.
Back to basics
Earlier this year, the US Department of Commerce reported that more than 90 per cent of retail sales still occur in brick-and-mortar stores. Similar figures prevail across the Arabian Gulf, and regional retailers are beginning to deploy solutions that cater to these visitors. IoT beacons, self-service kiosks and mobile POS can enhance in-store experiences and create brand ambassadors out of your customers.
So the village square is back and it’s time to get smart. Sounds like a job for the intelligent cloud and the intelligent edge.
The writer is Dynamics 365 lead at Microsoft Gulf. Views expressed are his own and do not reflect the newspaper’s policy.