Digital transformation för detaljhandeln

Retail as an industry has gone through a phenomenal transformation in the past decade. From visiting retail stores and buying products to sitting at home and  purchasing products online, from paying by cash for purchases to online transactions , from going to malls and shopping from various brands to listing products from multi-vendor market places, digital commerce has come a long way and clearly revolutionized the retail industry. To the extent that there’s no future for retail industry without digital transformation in retail, and retail will be powered by data and cutting edge technologies to pave its way forward.

Några av de vanligaste antagandena av digital transformation i detaljhandeln är:

Omni-channel handel med Mobile Commerce

Statistics show that 80% of the customers shop from mobile apps, and customer engagement is maximum from mobile applications. The customer portfolio has shifted and is getting shifted  to those who are tech-savvy with more of an impulsive buying behavior, and the access to the online stores when customers are on the go, waiting somewhere or when they remember the need to buy something takes up a large percentage of purchases. Online stores, especially online marketplaces also provides a large variety of products to compare and buy from, with aggressive pricing offers and much simpler product recommendations. Omni-channel commerce has the advantage of hooking the psyche of a customer, reminding them again and again that they need to a buy a specific product until it translated into a conversion. At the heart of Mobile Commerce and Omni-channel commerce, is a deep philosophy for customer engagement which is personalized and targeted,  that its difficult to ignore and can literally follow you everywhere!

Verktyg som kan hjälpa till med Omni-channel handel

• Inbyggda mobilappar för e-handel Android, iOS, ReactNative eller Fladdra
• Headless Commerce-implementationer där backend och frontend är frikopplade. En modern huvudlös, API-först, mikrotjänstbaserad, molnbaserad plattform är framtiden för Headless Commerce
• Omni-Channel marknadsföringsverktyg som Marketo, Agera på, Aktiva kampanjer etc.
• SaaS-plattformar som erbjuder omni-channel e-handel som BigCommerce, Fynd, Moengage etc.

Personliga shoppingupplevelser och intelligenta produktrekommendationer

Personalized shopping experiences is a must do strategy for online selling. Ensuring that the customer is segmented, targeted and pursued is the KEY. Starting from personalized search recommendations, showing personalized related products  or products ‘you may like’ to showing targeted promotions makes the E-commerce experience extremely customized unlike before. Gone are those days when you can push the same products and the same promotions to everyone. The websites that have learnt to crack this game has outperformed their competition and successfully created a mark for themselves in their respective industry.

Verktyg som kan hjälpa dig med personalisering och skräddarsydd upplevelse

• Googles analysverktyg – Google Analytics, TagManager,
• Hotjar  och Galet ägg ger dig värmekartanalys, scrollkartor och klickanalys
• All Faktor & Metrilo  ger dig spårning i realtid, avancerad analys och köpbeteende och massor av andra insikter
• Clerk.io för AI-drivna personliga produktsökningsresultat och rekommendationer med enkel integration med e-handelswebbplatser
• NetCore, an AI-Powered Marketing Platform for Ecommerce Personalization
• Woopra, ger dig trendrapporter, reserapporter, kohortrapporter, retentionsrapporter och beteendesegmentering
• Och många många fler produkter som har dykt upp i detta utrymme...

Multi-channel & Social Media Marketing

This is the digital era where a customer touch points are many and its important to do a 360 degree marketing or outreach program for your brand. Working with a marketing agency for retail businesses can help brands combine channels such as WhatsApp, email, SMS, Facebook, and Instagram into one cohesive marketing campaign to reach the right customer with the right message, on the channel they respond to  best. Kundlivscykelhantering genom att lägga till dem i vårdande kampanjer och ha ständiga kontaktpunkter med din kund är nyckelfokus här. De tre modeorden som du bara inte får glömma här är kundengagemang, kundbevarande och kartläggning av användarresa.

Verktyg som kan hjälpa dig med Multi-channel eller Omni-Channel Marketing är

• Marketing automation tools  like Marketo, Agera på, Aktiva kampanjer etc.
• HootSuite – För marknadsföring och hantering av sociala medier

Logistikaggregering och leveranspartners

Logistics aggregation and role of  delivery partners playsa key role in the E-handel fulfillment process to ensure  faster delivery process and easy product returns. Most countries have come up with quite a few logistic partners who have taken up this role, whereby smaller companies can work with a logistic partner or aggregator, and the bigger companies like Amazon have their own delivery division. They have APIs available for integration or rate calculation, and for delivery tracking & a great last mile connectivity.

Logistic aggregators are specific to geographies, with FedEx and UPS being the most popular international ones, Aramax in the MiddleEast and Delhivery, ShipRocket, ShipDelight to name a few in India. Users can also use reliable online tools to track package status in real time, ensuring better visibility and transparency throughout the delivery process. For post-purchase transparency and returns, teams can quickly generate standardized digital receipts using free, ready-to-use Invoice Simple receipt templates, streamlining customer support and accounting across channels.

IOT inom detaljhandelsautomation

Den största användningen av IOT inom detaljhandeln är i lagerhantering, lagerhantering och försändelsespårning. IOT can help  business owners to maintain inventory records with the use of IoT enabled sensors, have predictive engines for supply and demand planning and optimize inventory management to the next level. Real time inventory management gathers and sends relevant and updated data of the SKUs to ERP systems, enabling end to end automation of all the internal business processes.

IOT-verktyg som kan hjälpa din detaljhandel att växa

• Bättre spårning och logistikplanering
• Automatisering av lagerhantering, planering och beställning
• Möjliggöra bättre koppling mellan leverantörer och kunder
• Automatiserade shoppingprocesser och utcheckningar
• IOT integrerad e-handel köp som POS, kiosker etc.

Det finns många IOT-plattformar som kan användas för ovanstående, och några av de anmärkningsvärda är Zebra, Intuz 

Räckvidd för flera regioner

An online store can have  a multi-region reach, surpassing geographical boundaries and broadening customer reach. This can be achieved by architecting the platform with multi-currency and multi-region support, with a centralized or decentralized inventory control and shipment.  An ideal solution for such an implementation would be to use a distributed service stack based architecture, with payment methods, shipment methods , taxation etc configurable for each supported country, and keeping in mind compliance aspects to be taken care of for that particular geography.

Konversationsbotar för e-handel

Konversationsbotar har använts flitigt i Mobilappar especially to do voice based product search, order placement or chat bots to search for products in a store, track orders, get more details on a product etc. There are many AI-powered conversational bot engines that can easily integrate with eCommerce platforms using a plug-and-play model. This makes Artificial Intelligence in ECommerce highly accessible, as the processing is handled on the provider’s end, helping businesses reduce integration time while also lowering overall support and operational costs. On the other hand, for the customer it gives faster turn around time, and easy access to information round the block. Some of the bots that are popular in this regard are Freshchat, Revechat, Googles DialogFlow och  MobileMonkey.

Här är några funktioner som du kan tänka på när du letar efter en chatbot.

• Funktioner för kundinriktning.
• Alternativ för A/B-testning
• Förbyggda mallar
• Integrationsmöjligheter
• Analytics and reporting  features

AR och VR inom e-handel

Användning av augmented reality och virtuell verklighet att förbättra kundernas shoppingupplevelse och engagera dem bättre är en av trenderna inom e-handel. Många e-handelsföretag especially in the home, landscaping and automotive sector are creating virtual showrooms and allowing customers to explore products from the comfort of their homes without having to visit a retail store. Fashion retailers have adopted real-time simulators where customers can try on  clothes and jewellery before purchasing. Recreating the In-Store Experience is still something that brands are working for, and is still evolving in terms of adoption. In future we may see AR E-commerce Ads, Product demos and many other adoptions of these as well.

Här är några intressanta statistik om adoption av digital transformation inom detaljhandeln och dess mognad från en studie gjord av Mckinsey

Digital Transformation in Retail handlar om att integrera framåt och bakåt. Framåt integration kommer att göra det möjligt att skapa en futuristisk färdplan för vad e-handelsföretag will need to stay competitive, customer focused and bring in a high level of customer engagement. This will in turn impact their brand positioning, overall sale, geographical reach,  revenue growth and brand value in the long run. Backward integration on the other hand would bring in automation, lean processes, faster turn around times, visibility and insights into cost optimization, overall cost and profitability advantages and most of all, agility for the organization. Both of these are important to go hand in hand while planning your digital transformation strategi, för långsiktig tillväxt och varumärkesbyggande. Det finns företag som tror att digital transformation också är en kulturell förändring inom en organisation som förändrar sättet de arbetar, sättet de engagerar sig med kunden och sättet de tar ut sin produkt på marknaden, och jag tror starkt på att så är fallet . Det är inte bara en teknikantagande, det är en kulturell adoption som gör dig redo för framtiden! Och förr eller senare kommer alla e-handelsföretag, oavsett bransch, att behöva gå med i detta tåg för att behålla sitt varumärke.

Som Charles Darwin sa

“Its not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent ones. It is the one that is the MOST adaptable to change”.Wo