constant in the world this fact not only
applies to people but applies to every
business in the 21st century to better
demonstrate this fact I would like to
talk about two examples but first we
have to go back 11 years in 2005 Netflix
and blockbuster were two large companies
that allowed their customers to rent
DVDs however at that time more customers
were purchasing computers with internet
connections this was the change Netflix
decided to adapt to this change by
implementing an online streaming service
however blockbuster did not eleven years
later Netflix is one of the largest
companies in the world and blockbuster
II no longer exists the second example I
will talk about is of Amazon and Barnes
and Noble in 2005 both of these
competitors so paperback books to their
customers however more customers were
gaining interest in ebooks this was the
change Amazon
decided to adapt to this change by
investing in ebooks
however Barnes and Nobles did not today
Amazon hold an enormous sixty-seven
percent share of the entire ebook market
unlike Barnes and Nobles so by now it
should be clear that it is essential for
every business to adapt to the changes
taking place in its industry if it plans
on surviving and succeeding now I would
like to talk about the current IT trends
in the retail industry and how they are
impacting a customer’s shopping
experience the first trend I would like
to talk about the
tech-savvy customers today’s customers
are much more tech-savvy and independent
than the prior generation they would
rather use a kiosk for product
information price checkers to check the
price of the product self checkout
counters to complete the transaction and
mobile phones for updates their care for
customer experience in a different way
they want digital friendly assistance
and only want to rely on human
interaction we’re deploying technology
does not make sense
while this presents an opportunity for
retailers to possibly reduce the labor
costs it also poses a challenge as it is
much harder to manage customer
experience on a real-time basis as they
are now fewer touch points the second
trend I would like to talk about is
mobility and omni-channel with a
smartphone penetration greater than 50%
in the United States mobile phones are
laying the groundwork for innovation the
process of engaging with the customer
can begin in this house where he uses
the retailer’s mobile application to
browse through his catalog discover new
products and identify which products he
wants to purchase and pick up in store
today’s customers want easy navigation
with minimal clicks and an informed
in-store experience where shopping
habits and payment options are already
known by the retailer in the US today
30% of customers purchased an item
online and then come to collect it in
store in fact mobility plays a key role
inside the store as well as the
customers can physically see the
products that they had previously
shortlisted and can finalize purchase
decisions right there 65% of customers
purchase an additional
when they come to collect their online
order in store the next trend I would
like to talk about is new levels of
customer insights traditionally
retailers have used reactive measures
provide the bra IT a day or two later
while this helps retailers note the past
emerging technologies allow the
retailer’s to use predictive measures to
estimate the immediate future Amazon
there’s a splendid job of this for
combining sales history and real-time
customer selection to recommend products
purchased by other customers today’s
retailers are focusing on a single view
of the customer they are using external
sources of data such as social media and
demographics an internal sources of data
such as loyalty card and sales data to
gain further insights on the buying
behavior of a customer which is later
used as inputs to create personalized
offers some of the top investments in
customer insights include Market Basket
analysis loyalty card analytics and
social media analytics the next trend I
would like to talk about is real-time
retail the ability to identify and
engage with the customer digitally as
soon as he enters the store completely
changes the way a customer perceives a
retailer this trend is soon to become an
expectation as customers will soon
expect a seamless in-store experience to
help better demonstrate this trend I
want to talk about an example let’s say
a mr. Smith enters the store a Bluetooth
sorry a beacon inside the store uses
Bluetooth to identify mr. Smith and then
notifies mr. Smith’s favorite sales
associate that he has entered the sales
it uses a tablet to gain information
about mr. Schmidt including his name
date of birth and past few products he
has purchased then the sales associate
approaches mr. Smith and greets him by
name and asks him how the past few
products he purchased are a simple
greeting my name
automatically improves the retailer’s
trust and improves customer loyalty and
this allows the sales associate to
upsell the last trend I would like to
talk about the social media social media
is the new superpower in the world of
Millennials today’s customers do not
want to know what their friends think of
a product they want to know what the
entire world thinks of a product as per
Forbes only 1% of customers are directly
influenced by information and
advertisements however 33% of customers
are impacted by information on social
media furthermore the expected ad
spending budget on social media in the
United States is expected to increase to
15 billion dollars by 2018 clearly
showing how important social media is so
to conclude I would like to say that it
is essential for every business to adapt
to these changes to rename them tech
savvy customers mobility in omni-channel
new levels of customer insights
real-time retail and social media if
they did not plan on facing the same
fate as Blockbuster and Barnes and
Noble’s did thank you you