How to deliver on the promise of intelligent retail
There has never been a more exciting time to be at the intersection of retail and technology. Challenging? Certainly. Opportunity? Absolutely, in fact full of it!
Technology is enabling retailers to reimagine every aspect of the value chain. From delivering amazing customer experiences and empowering employees with data and rich insights to optimized operations and helping to identify and develop new revenue opportunities.
Our goal at Microsoft is to empower every organization on the planet to achieve more by providing you with the tools to digitally and culturally transform your business. To enable your intelligent future, we believe you should be laser-focused on four transformational scenarios:
- Know your customers and create exciting customer-first experiences. Successful retail starts and ends with the customer. It really is a simple value equation – no customers mean no sales. Customers expect more today than ever before, and those expectations are growing. Intelligent tools will enable you to better know your customer and deliver highly personalized experiences that will build lifelong brand loyalty.
- Empower your employees to deliver the best customer experiences possible. They are one of your most valuable assets but oftentimes are the last to be reached by technology. Highly engaged employees are 87 percent less likely to leave an organization than their unengaged counterparts (Recruit Loop). Arming your employees with the right tools and date to empower them to deliver great customer service
- Deliver intelligent supply chain as the clock speed of retail is getting faster and faster. The break between when demand is created and where demand is fulfilled has met. And still, organizations have difficulty getting visibility of their inventory. More than 70 percent of chief supply chain officers believe by 2020, the supply chain will be a key driver of better customer service for their organizations. (Accenture). The power of putting data in the right places to deliver an intelligent supply chain means we can get closer and closer to that customer and create great experiences.
- Reimagine retail and reinvent the operating model to unlock new opportunities. While there’s no crystal ball to gaze into to predict what customers will demand next, there is work that retailers can do today to equip their business with technology that will allow them to anticipate and adapt to future market shifts and disruptions.
It’s this framework that has helped us establish strategic partnerships with some of the world’s most complex, innovative and leading retailers from across the globe including Marks and Spencer, Loblaws, and Natuzzi.
As your trusted technology partner, it is our goal to partner with you to build your future technology pipeline so you can reimagine retail and continue to grow your business in years to come.
See how we can help you enable intelligent retail by visiting microsoft.com/retail, watching this new video, and learn how to create a data-driven, intelligent retail model with the Retail Trends Playbook 2020.
