In recent years, retail has experienced a digital overhaul unmatched by other industries. Forced to adapt to a permanent shift in consumer behaviours and expectations as a result of the pandemic, the industry accelerated its digital transformation dramatically last year.
Retailers large and small embraced technology solutions able to meet the needs of the post-pandemic consumer, and that was just the beginning. In 2022, retailers will leverage digital technology and data-drive innovations to tackle the continued challenges posed by COVID-19, and deliver exceptional customer experiences online, in-store and everywhere in between.
The value of data
In capturing and effectively managing data, retailers today can draw invaluable insights across the business, supporting both company and customer personalisation. Many leading retailers are already leveraging data to address areas where there are clear metrics and opportunities to calculate return on investment, and we expect to see lots more of this in 2022.
Large-scale analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence(AI) can prove effective for operational efficiency, deploying associates, tracking inventory and more. For example, Google Cloud’s partnership with retail brand Lush enabled the business to improve customer experiences, enhance inventory optimisation and boost sustainable sales through development of its AI-powered, intelligent mobile app, Lush Lense.
In grasping a good working understanding of their customer and company data next year, more retailers will be able to follow Lush’s example. They will be able to venture into new areas, encourage customers to engage in new ways, and develop a sharp enough profile of their activities to personalise and fully optimise their operations.
Prioritising personalisation
There is no business more customer-focused than retail, and so it’s no surprise that the sector has embraced digital technology to better understand what their customers want. This year, many retailers will come to realise that now familiar personalisation solutions have value outside the customer-facing realm, and can be leveraged to tackle logistical and operational challenges too, such as disruptions facing the supply chain.
Supply chains are broken everywhere from manufacturing, to storage and shipment. On top of this, every company has a unique set of circumstances to contend with, tackling challenges with partners, inventories, store locations and more. In this environment, understanding how, for example, a particular supply chain disruption will affect customer delivery in two months is critical.
Company personalisation enables visibility of things like local weather, time of delivery, and even an outlook for finding and recruiting new staff. The ability to understand oneself and one’s environment in this way enables retailers to look ahead and predict previously unforeseen challenges, empowering them to prepare with confidence.
The store of tomorrow, today
Following a period of preparation for the post-covid world, the convergence of digital and physical retail experiences are now commonplace. Caused at least in part by continued high street lockdown closures and the subsequent shift to ecommerce, 80% of consumers now engage with digital touchpoints at some stage of their shopping journey. The omnichannel store of the future is here, and retailers must embrace this reality to avoid being left behind.
In combining lessons from the pandemic with tried and tested retail strategies, leading brands have been able to merge the worlds of online and physical retail to offer customers the best of both. This means delivering enhanced customer experiences combining the emotional connection of in-store with the convenience of online. Mobile purchasing, checkout-free stores, same-day delivery and in-store pickup are just some of the customer benefits enabled by an omnichannel strategy, whilst seamless digital offers of this kind allow retailers greater visibility into customer behaviour, shopping preferences and product interest.
Having built up its digital capabilities over a number of years, data-driven innovation has long been an area of interest for the retail industry. With COVID-19 as the catalyst, digital technology solutions will move from interesting to vital this year.
Consumer expectations are shifting, the lines between in-store and online are blurring, and the technologies able to support retailers in this new space are multiplying. In 2022, retailers will embark on some of their most significant transformations to date.
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