The Big Shift in RetailThe top 10 takeaways from the retail sessions at the SAPPHIRE NOW conference

Keep the Conversation Going

Industry professionals touched on the major changes occurring in the retail industry today at this year’s SAPPHIRE NOW conference.

Here are some highlights.

2

A Seamless Retail Experience

Simplified IT architectures, more user-friendly technology, and better collaboration among departments are enabling companies to gain faster insight to action in order to ensure a seamless retail experience is delivered to customers.

3

Simplify Your IT Infrastructure

The process of building separate technology stacks to control data made sense in the past, but what businesses have done is unintentionally built a massively complex IT infrastructure. That infrastructure can leave a mess that can cost millions of dollars to maintain and operate.

Solutions are available that can help you rethink and simplify your IT infrastructure.

4

Consolidate Your Data Stacks

A strategic investment in the latest in-memory database technology offers a single platform for future growth, collaboration, and enterprise consolidation, as well as high-performance reporting and analytics.

5

Leverage Cloud Technology

A single, in-memory platform can give you the ability to leverage cloud technology, enabling you to create a single source of data that all your business users can access and gain insight from.

6

The Merging CIO/CMO

The roles of IT and marketing are beginning to merge.

Marketers are now using real-time data as the basis for their decision making, and IT pros are learning to spot trends in consumer behavior for reporting. Such data and analytics are providing far more clarity into where to spend resources.

7

The Marketing Technologist

Marketers are now using technology and analytics to construct highly targeted marketing campaigns based off consumer data as well as to measure specific campaign performance.

8

Say Goodbye to Gut Feel

So much data about consumers, markets, business performance, and investments is produced on a day-to-day basis that there’s little need for gut feel in retail. Data and analytics are providing far more clarity into what decisions and investments to make.

9

CRM as a Selling Tool

Retailers are attempting to shift their focus from customer centricity to customer obsession.

Companies are now pushing customer relationship management technology’s limits to learn more about lifestyle characteristics of consumers and predict future buying behavior as well.

10

Successful Collaboration Is Key

Collaboration between a solutions provider and retail organization is important to building a culture of customer centricity. An effective collaborative partnership enables a company’s IT infrastructure to scale, create efficiency, and give order to the chaos of an expanding retail operation.

11

Always Bet on People

In the end, effective retail comes down to having the right people within your organization.

Easy-to-use solutions for talent management are available that feature streamlined automation that can actually be run by HR, not IT. These solutions ensure that you have the best candidates walking through your door while also limiting strain on IT resources.

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Learn More

Check out our library of retail session replays from SAPPHIRE NOW and gain the key insights that can help you leverage modern retail solutions.

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