Retail at the forefront of technology

Retail, either in the textile or food industry, is one of the most important sectors within the economic field both nationally and internationally. This sector continues to evolve each day due to having to adapt to the customer’s needs constantly, which is why they invest many budget efforts and IT resources, putting technology at anyone’s service.

In order to comply with the demands of anyone involved, the departments of technology and innovation are continuously searching for new solutions that may boost their logistics, the way to show their potential customers the appeal of their products through different channels (physical and online), as well as making the customer experience as appealing as possible.

Searching new solutions is always in their plans but, without a doubt, the main objective of the retail sector is having their technological infrastructures (physical and online) available all 365 days of the year, giving support to a business that does not understand stops and lives its activity peaks in contrast with the traditional holiday periods of the labour market.

What are the needs of the retail sector?

For several years, creating an ecosystem that could satisfy any customer demand has been the focus of the main manufacturers, consulting firms and technology integrators. They try to become a benchmark for this sector by basing their strategy in solutions, services and products for IT infrastructures, both on site and remote, such as: Cloud, Cybersecurity, Systems, Communications/Networking, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Digital Marketing, RPA, etc.

Within this general portfolio, we could focus on some solutions specialized for retail, taking into account each type of product and their features, never forgetting that we must facilitate the sale and must never interrupt the service. 

• Monitoring of stock and weather conditions. It is good to know our product with precision as well as how it’s stored (pallets, shelving, racking, trollies, etc.) However, we must also know the means of preservation (especially for perishable goods and food), for example, if it’s stored in the fresh products area, and we must also know how we transport it.  
• Real-time tracking of customers inside the store. From defining a customer journey both in a physical store as well as an e-commerce to find key points of the process, to functional solutions to control capacity.
• Beacons: Improving the digital experience of the client inside the store learning from the information we gathered from the monitoring and online-offline integration to improve the purchase experience. Our digital sales channel will exponentially increase its weight the coming years, but the information originated is also applicable in our physical store. Communication and decision-making processes must be bidirectional.
• Customer service: Omnichannel is the key word when it comes to customer service. Solutions range from chatbots to be able to communicate to any other digital messaging channel or social media. The retail sector has reinvented itself to be in touch with the consumer permanently.
• Bimpact: Our Power BI technology solution. BImpact, will allow you to gather information about interactions in any channel of your business to be able to characterize its behaviours and analyse the users’ consumption, habits and preferences. 
• Augmented/virtual reality: With the implementation of new technologies, the way of presenting the product to the consumer has experienced a big change, allowing visualizing features and main characteristics in a more realistic and personal way adapted in different formats. A change in perception that facilitates the purchase process.
• Digital signage: This new way of presenting our catalogues and ads gives us greater flexibility for the customer and a visual presentation adapted to the screen format to which the consumer is accustomed.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): Building customer loyalty, so that the relationship with the consumer may be prolonged according to plan for our type of product, is key for marketing strategies in the retail sector to reach success. Any plan must include this metric and choose the technology with which to reach or even exceed all initial expectations.

Integra Estrategia y Tecnología is definitely positioned as a technology partner of high added value for the retail sector, combining these technology capabilities, both general and specialized, and always offering a custom solution for each business. If you want to know more about what we can offer you, contact us.