The pace of change and innovation in the retail industry, already gathering speed in the past years, has accelerated more than ever during the pandemic.
Digital-first trends like buy-online-pick-up-in-store, AR, appointment shopping, same day delivery and new customer demands have reshaped the retail landscape. Now businesses are focusing on enhancing the shopping experience and customer satisfaction more than ever.
Data-driven strategies have become crucial to meeting consumers’ expectations. These consumers have been empowered by the industry’s digital transformation to expect more choice and offer less brand loyalty than ever before.
Consumers are demanding ongoing relationships shaped by better contextualisation of products and services, Gartner notes, and retailers must also keep up with transformative new buying trends including cashless payments, cryptocurrencies, and buy now pay later (BNPL) schemes.
Years of online-offline crossover mean retail is no longer just about physical shops. Instead, retailers need to tap behavioural data and AI-based analytics to deliver superior buying experiences across every touchpoint, whether that means shopping in-store or from a desktop, mobile phone or tablet.
Winning in this environment requires retailers to efficiently capture, manage, analyse and secure data – and use it to deliver an omnichannel customer journey. They also need to be delivering a personalised experience, drawing on data from retail transactions, loyalty programmes, responses to promotions, in-store behaviour tracking and analytics, and other sources.
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