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Retail Digital Transformation in 2021 and Beyond

Digital transformation has become an impending necessity for retailers. If retailers want to scale using the modern disruptive environments, they need to build acceptable, adaptable, and composable business models.

The ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic has forced global retailers to fundamentally reassess how they want to do business in the future. The Pandemic has pushed retail digital transformation forward with a great thrust. However, it has also highlighted the importance of digital technology to the retail industry.

Although many retailers are moving online, changes in consumer goods preferences, spending patterns, and new purchase channels demand digital transformation at the core. Retailers are adopting digital technologies to meet changing expectations by opting for new ways of improving operational efficiency. They are introducing new or connecting existing business systems using CRM. eCommerce, ERP, WHM, and PIM solutions.

Technology trends like data analytics, big data, augmented reality, and robotics need a significant change in the operational models and processes. Therefore, it is expected that retailers will adopt them gradually. However, retailers want to accelerate digital adoption to meet customer expectations, predict future demand, and seek to work more efficiently.

Top Trends Defining Retail Digital Transformation

Retail digital transformation is radical thinking of how effectively a retailer can utilize advanced technology for pursuing new and improved revenue streams by designing innovative business models.

Right from contactless services to cost optimization strategies, retailers are demanding, building, and adopting acceptable business models to provide impeccable customer service and solidify their trust.

Here are some key trends that are driving digital transformation in the retail industry:

  • Mobile-based purchases are outpacing the growth of digital technology adoption in retail.
  • Mobile apps providing different features like wish lists, rewards, coupons, secure online payment helps retailers to enhance the customer shopping experience
  • Mobile apps remove the friction and delay by making online stores available 24/7 to purchase, thus overcoming the barrier of traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
  • A robust payment solution using different methods such as tokenization, high-level encryption, and biometric authentication like voice and pulse recognition and finger vein scanners make online payment convenient and completely secure.
  • Increased use of click and Collect to cross-sell and up-sell places a great emphasis on convenience, value, and personalization when making purchase decisions.
  • Smart tools such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-enabled smart shelves and intelligent fitting rooms reading RFID tags help a great deal to the floor staff in elevating the customer experience.
  • Using Beacons (low-energy Bluetooth-enabled devices), allows retailers to locate nearby consumers to attract and engage them with personalized messages. The technology helps in redefining customer engagement using customized, location-based notifications.

IoT or the Internet of Things tracks and collects data through various sensors deployed across the retail value chain and analytical solutions process that data to deliver actionable business insights.

Features of Retail Digital Transformation

Predictive Analytics
The data-driven retail industry depends on predictive analytics to make smarter decisions. Predictive analytics helps to know purchase dynamics and inventory reporting, consumer behavior and customer journey, identify patterns in customer behavior, understand customer preferences and interests.
Social Shopping
Modern consumers rely on reviews and opinions to make a purchase. Social shopping is about involving other people in your purchase decisions. Social media trends such as ROBO (Research Online, Buy Offline) and ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline) penetrate the offline retail experience.
Privacy and Cybersecurity
Data privacy is a vital concern for online retailers. Many retailers have adopted a comprehensive consumer privacy protection strategy. Besides, retailers are using cybersecurity specialists and cloud-based data governance strategies to comply with new GDPR and CCPA regulations.
eWallets
Digital wallet technology provides a convenient, reliable, simple, and secure payment method for consumers and retailers. The one-touch payment activated through facial or fingerprint recognition bring speed and agility to the payment needs. Besides, retailers enjoy lower transaction fees with higher data security.
Voice Assistants
Voicebot such as Amazons Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Siri have become household helpers and car companions for many. By optimizing goods and services to voice search, they are helping consumers in their shopping journey. Voice assistant is still evolving to offer a comprehensive omnichannel retail strategy.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in retail revolve primarily around customer experience. It enables personalized recommendations of makeup, helps consumers find the right clothes sizes, simplify store navigation, and measure customer preferences. Besides, it helps in automating processes.
Inventory Tracking and Management
Retailers are looking for simplified and streamline operations. The advanced digital technology tools automate supply chain management, detect stock objects, manage order systems, forecast sales, perform real-time stock analysis and work on pick-to-light, put-to-light systems.
Augmented and Virtual Reality
AR and VR solutions help consumers to understand how the chosen items look and feel in real life. Virtual try-on and Virtual Showroom build with AR/VR applications provide a more immersive experience to customers. It allows them to look at 3D images of the products instead of regular 2D images.
Progressive Web Apps
These are browser-based applications that can be accessed from any device without the need to download the mobile app from the app store. Progressive web apps are easy to update, support the same code base, highly responsive, framework-friendly, and support push notifications.
Omnichannel Experience
By offering an omnichannel experience, retailers have blurred the boundaries between online and brick-and-mortar stores. By delivering value across all touchpoints, retailers ensure that their customers can find them in any convenient way for a better, seamless, and integrated customer experience.

EPC Group’s Retail Digital Transformation Consulting Services

Do you feel your retail business is lagging in digital transformation? For almost 24 years, EPC Group has been a reliable digital transformation consulting service provider across the globe. We work with the small, medium, and large retail enterprises to provide full-cycle digital transformation consulting services and much more.

EPC Group is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner offering consulting and development services for versatile Microsoft products that play a dominant role in accelerating the digital transformation in retail.

EPC Group has an excellent team of digital transformation consultants who extensively worked for B2B and B2C retail businesses. Their solutions are robust, flexible, and customizable for any business need.

You can expect support for corporate structures, B2B/B2Cworkflows, personalized product catalogs, pricing calculation, inventory management, as well as ordering and checkout workflows.

EPC Group has completed many transformative projects in the past, with a growing ecosystem of developers, technologies, and full-service solutions.

Regardless of what challenges you face in your digital transformation journey, EPC Group and its deep expertise will transform your goals into digital reality.

Why Choose Us

Why Organizations Recognize EPC Group's Consulting Services as the Industry Leader
EPC Group wrote the book on SharePoint & Power BI
Microsoft Partner for 25+ Years
Over 4 million Office 365 users successfully migrated
200+ years combined senior team migration experience
Expertise migrating to Office 365 in every vertical
EPC Group's Chief Architect Errin O'Connor was on the original SharePoint and
Office 365 Beta teams