"Now is the time to change how you approach your IT
strategy, because retail is changing" says Alan Morris, Managing Director of Retail Assist
As retail is changing, more now than ever before, Alan
Morris advocates a new way for retailers to review how they plan their
technology, to reflect and remain on the upside of market change.
As an industry, we are driven more by change than by any
other factor. Retailers no longer introduce new lines solely to reflect the
four main seasons. Merchandising now takes place on a continuous basis, to keep
the offer fresh, relevant and customer-centric. So how should a retailers IT
strategy accommodate and serve that constantly evolving market?
Retailers customarily manage their IT investments and
infrastructure to reflect a 5-year business plan. To ensure we providers tailor
our solutions to the challenges that retailers face today and will face
tomorrow, I put myself in the shoes of retail IT director. How would I decide
what to include in an IT strategy today? Well, I would certainly try to build
one that contained more than incremental technical upgrade and investment.
Any retail IT strategy needs to support the business's drive
to improve footfall and conversion rate. This is even more challenging in these
recessionary times although, as pockets of buoyant sales reveal, people with
(relatively) secure jobs are continuing to spend. Nevertheless, some good
retailers are struggling and others, less sound, have been able to mask their
poor performance. As with consumers, few retailers have escaped the recession
without some exposure to vulnerability, somewhere.
So, looking forward to 2015, I know that my strategy must
increase the closeness of IT to the business. I believe IT should take
responsibility for looking at customers and their IT usage. They should ask
themselves what the company stands for, what makes them exceptional and then
map that into trends and IT practices that bring consumer and retailer closer.
The most obvious element-now a given-is to make sure the
internet is an integrated point-of-service. But, what else would I look at,
say, taking the example of a fashion retailer catering for women in their 20s
and 30s? Who could I trust to predict the changes that will happen in my
sector? I'd look more widely at society, including the media, and not confine
myself to consulting 'experts' in the fields of technology and retail. Whilst
a lot of IT directors set their strategies to reflect the predictions of
technology visionaries, I believe theyd be better served by focusing on how
their customer profile will change.
Your current customer base will grow out of your mix, your
product profile. To forecast how people will buy tomorrow, look not just at
today's technologies but turn your attention to today's 15 year olds who will
be your target market in 5 year's time. Make your judgments based upon the
technologies that are embedded in the lives of the individuals who will be
tomorrow's customers. Consider the ways in which today's teenagers communicate
via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter; and consider the
devices that they live by to obtain information and gratify their retail needs
and desires, ie. mobile and intelligent phones.
Retailers know they must be customer-centric but do they realise
they need total visibility across their selling chain? You need to understand
every customer interaction and, using the CRM functions that exist within
todays retail systems, capture and record activity across each channel. When
someone buys online, for example, this needs to cascade through your business,
alerting every part of it and added this record to other information available
on that customer and their previous interactions.
Todays hot topics are support for the iPhone and the
Blackberry. Looking forward, mobile and 'on the go' computing will remain
strong. Online purchasing will expand from largely home-based to taking place
anywhere and at any time. Retail IT strategy for the coming years needs to
cater for this in its systems design and management.
Still in the shoes of that retail IT director, I'd ponder
how to integrate these new devices into my hardware 'pool'. With potential
customers walking round with significant processing power in their pockets or
handbags, I'd be a fool not to use it to deliver truly individual service that
could differentiate me from my competitors.
Even those retailers considering themselves to be technology
pioneers need to know where they will go next. When it comes to systems upgrade
or acquisition, they should ask tough questions of their solutions providers.
They should expect 'roadmaps' that chart the release of new functions and
support for any new technologies, demonstrating what they will do for a retail
business at a practical level. It is only then that the crystal ball marked
'retail in 2015' can be looked into by all parties, and a strategy defined that
will accurately reflect the future intersection of technology and customer in
the retail sector.
Alan Morris is co-founder and managing director of retail-only
IT services and solutions provider, Retail Assist.
Here I refers to the author of the article
Picture
courtesy: http://www.coworkforce.com/sjh/RetailSales.jpg
