Earlier this year Fifth Dimension had the opportunity to co-sponsor the Next Generation Retail summit in California. It was an excellent opportunity to network with retail colleagues and understand what challenges they’re facing, especially in the current climate.
Among the many one to one meetings and workshops we engaged in, the standout for me was the ‘behind the scenes’ discussion on the first evening between the CIOs and CTOs who attended. I had the opportunity to be involved and the theme that emerged was quite surprising. Almost every delegate in that discussion was concerned with the impact the the internet, social networking and the use of smartphones in-store to price compare, online, at the point of purchase.
From the retail point of view, there was general agreement that one of the greatest challenges was to match a customer’s online experience to their in-store experiences, and also to provide the right information to them whenever they sought it, on or offline – in or out of the stores. The impact on technical and financial resources was felt to be highly significant. Without exception, all thought that their organizations, particularly their IT departments, would be severely tested in rising to this challenge. IT departments were generally felt to be unable to keep pace with current developments in the market and were not taking a collaborative approach to solving the problem.
Quite an eye-opener for us. Still, it demonstrates that today’s retail world continuously provides us with opportunities to innovate so we can all compete successfully in an increasingly multi-channel and rapidly moving marketplace.
There is a synopsis of an interview I did with NGR on their online magazine site here. I touch on the use of Virtual Store technology and Shopper Insights as a supporting solution which any retailer can call upon in their efforts to meet this challenge.
