#FocusOnBestPractices
To engage today’s connected consumers effectively across a wide variety of touchpoints, you must create the unified experience sophisticated shoppers have come to expect. Whether your customer orders an item from your online eCommerce store or visits a physical retail location, their experience from ordering to payment and delivery must be seamless and uniform. The problem for many multi-channel retailers is the near impossibility of delivering the experience customers expect using legacy systems that don’t play well together – if at all.
No one’s denying the current retail landscape is a complex and challenging one. Traditional retailers have been decimated by competition from Amazon and consistent innovation in supply chain technology. If major retailers such as Payless and Toys ‘R Us have buckled and gone out of business under the pressure, it’s critical retail businesses look to their existing systems and make investments to improve their operations, if they want to survive that is.
However, coordinating disparate systems that were never designed to talk to each other such as POS, eCommerce, store operation, supply-chain logistics, call centers, and even social media, is a serious challenge. Still, there is almost a limitless choice of products and suppliers available at the press of a button, and your potential customers care less about your internal challenges than they do about instant gratification. Retailers who insist on trying to shoehorn customers into bad systems and disjointed processes will invariably stagnate and fall behind the curve.
Even small competitive edges such as being able to use the same payment methods inside the store as online (PayPal, Amazon Payments, Apple Pay) make for a seamless user experience. And small competitive edges can be all it takes to enhance customer experience and engender brand loyalty immeasurably.
In short, the omnichannel experience is king, and in today’s hyper-competitive retail landscape the future looks dire for businesses who ignore this basic fact.
There are some universal challenges faced by multi-channel businesses transitioning to the new omnichannel retail paradigm. Here are just a few:
Making the transformation requires a platform that gives businesses the tools they need to make omnichannel a reality and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Commerce is such a platform.
Here are some of the ways Microsoft Dynamics 365 Implementation for Commerce can help your business make the transition:
Merchandise management solutions – Solutions to make sure you always have the right products at the right time and priced correctly. Remove the need to create manual purchase orders and automate communication with suppliers.
Connected shopping experience – Deliver greater continuity as consumers use different devices to shop online or in-store. Accommodate different cross-channel scenarios such as shop online and pick-up in-store.
Unified view of customers – Deliver greater continuity as consumers use different devices to shop online or in-store. Accommodate different cross-channel scenarios such as shop online and pick-up in-store.
Business insights – Customer information becomes highly targeted data to feed powerful machine learning. Advanced analytics deliver a more personalized customer experience – drive business intelligence, make smarter business decisions.
Legacy systems – Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Commerce is adaptable and integrates with existing apps and services. Protect existing investment while benefitting from a highly cost-effective cross-platform unification.
Retailers who embrace the challenge of providing modern consumers with the truly personalized, omnichannel shopping experience they demand will be one step ahead of the competition from a brand loyalty perspective.
Not only that, the same systems that deliver value to customers can slice and dice data in order to deliver superior business intelligence to power instantaneous decision making. And a final, often overlooked payoff: Employees will feel empowered by having the information needed to consistently perform at their best, right at their fingertips.
Korcomptenz, a Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation partner, helps to explore the opportunities made possible by digital retail transformation and helps retailers re-imagine their businesses in the cloud and thrive in today’s competitive environment. Contact us for a consultation today!
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