Let’s explore some fascinating statistics that shed light on the growing influence of online sales. By 2023, it is estimated that global online sales will account for approximately 22% of total retail sales. This remarkable shift in consumer behavior translates to a staggering $6.54 trillion in eCommerce sales worldwide. The digital revolution is well underway, evident from the substantial investment in digital advertising, which reached $261.1 billion in 2022 and is projected to climb even higher, reaching $440.3 billion by 2027. These figures highlight the significant impact of the digital landscape on the retail industry.

Speaking of online shoppers, a whopping 48% of them prefer to head straight to large eCommerce marketplaces for their purchases. It’s clear that the way consumers shop is rapidly evolving, and retailers need to adapt accordingly.

Meanwhile, the retail digital transformation market is on an upward trajectory, expected to reach an astounding $388.51 billion by 2026. With an anticipated CAGR of 18.2% from 2021 to 2026, retailers are recognizing the need to embark on this transformative journey to secure their place in the market.

In this blog, we will explore the transformative power of intelligent solutions in the retail sector and how Experion, as a forward-thinking company, is leading the way.

The Evolving Retail Landscape

Retail has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, driven by changing consumer behaviors and the rise of digital technologies. Today’s customers expect personalized experiences, seamless transactions, and instant access to information. To meet these demands, retailers must adapt and leverage advanced solutions that enable them to optimize operations, drive sales, and build customer loyalty.

The Promise of Intelligent Solutions

Imagine a world where artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things seamlessly come together to empower retailers with unprecedented capabilities. These technologies offer unparalleled opportunities, allowing retailers to make data-driven decisions, streamline processes, and enhance customer engagement. By harnessing the power of AI and ML algorithms, retailers can gain valuable insights into consumer behavior, optimize inventory management, and accurately forecast demand. The global smart retail technology market is set to skyrocket from $22.6 billion in 2021 to a staggering $68.8 billion by 2026. That’s a jaw-dropping compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.9%. These cutting-edge technologies are transforming the retail landscape, enhancing operations, and delivering seamless customer experiences.

Intelligent solutions offer a myriad of benefits for retailers, enabling them to tackle key challenges and unlock new avenues for success:

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Leveraging advanced analytics and AI-powered algorithms, retailers can make informed decisions based on real-time data. This enables them to identify trends, optimize pricing strategies, and deliver personalized experiences that resonate with customers.
• Seamless Customer Experiences: Intelligent solutions enable retailers to provide frictionless shopping experiences across multiple touchpoints. From personalized recommendations to seamless checkout processes, retailers can enhance customer satisfaction and build long-lasting relationships.
• Efficient Supply Chain Management: By integrating intelligent solutions into supply chain operations, retailers can optimize inventory management, automate procurement processes, and minimize wastage. This leads to improved cost-efficiency and a streamlined supply chain network.
• Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Automation and AI-driven tools empower retailers to streamline back-office functions, such as inventory tracking, employee scheduling, and reporting. This frees up valuable time and resources, allowing retailers to focus on strategic initiatives and customer-centric activities.

Black Rock IT Solutions: Empowering Retail Innovation

As retailers navigate this digital transformation, partnering with an experienced technology provider becomes paramount. Experion, with its DNA in product engineering and digital transformation services, has been at the forefront of driving innovation in the retail domain. With a deep understanding of the industry’s pain points and a wealth of expertise, blackrock has empowered numerous retail businesses to embrace intelligent solutions and achieve sustainable growth.

At Experion, we are not only passionate about technology, but we are also committed to empowering our clients in the retail sector. Our collaboration with a leading retail technology provider in Australia stands as a testament to our capabilities and the remarkable outcomes we deliver.

Our solution has transformed the operations of our client, processing a staggering 380 million transactions monthly. With an impressive product portfolio of over 17 million SKUs, our solution has successfully optimized their processes. It is currently deployed across 20,000+ terminals and self-checkouts, ensuring seamless operations and enhanced customer experiences.

The impact of our solution goes beyond efficiency. By leveraging our expertise, our client has achieved a significant 30% reduction in labor and operational costs. This achievement demonstrates the tangible benefits that our innovative approach brings to the table.

The future of retail is not a distant concept—it is here and now, and at Experion, we are leading the charge. With its deep industry knowledge and expertise, Black Rock IT Solutions is empowering retailers to embrace intelligent solutions and unlock a world of possibilities. By embracing these technologies and staying at the forefront of innovation, retailers can shape their destiny in an ever-evolving industry.

The future of retail is here, and the possibilities are limitless.

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• COVID-19 forced 79% of Retail Leaders to set up online presence and launch Digital Commerce
• According to Statista, Revenue in the eCommerce market is projected to reach US$4.11tn in 2023 and resulting in a projected market volume of US$6.35tn by 2027.
• According to Gartner 86% of Marketing Leaders Believe Digital Commerce will become the most important Sales Channel within the next two years.
• 70% of customers believe Market Places are the most convenient way to shop

As Benjamin Franklin said, “Out of adversity comes opportunity” and during COVID, organizations across verticals, not to let go of the opportunity, were in a rush to land an eCommerce platform in some way or other– be it B2C /B2B/D2C. Ultimately their goal was multifold and to ensure:

• To have a scalable platform
• To create business tools that empower business to perform operations (Ex: set up products, set up promotions & festive banners etc) with minimal IT intervention
• To leverage their current infrastructure and data
• To integrate with their inhouse systems (read legacy)
• The ability to operate internationally

which brought the million Dollar question for every CIO – Should I build or Should I buy, my eCommerce platform?

The choice of eCommerce platform- Build vs Buy, depends on many factors. In general, building an eCommerce platform from scratch is a very time-consuming exercise, fraught with risks and is best suited for very mature organizations.

Below table shows some considerations for the Build vs Buy choice:

Here are the top 5 considerations that can help determine a Build vs Buy choice.

• Time to Market and accelerated Global Rollouts

Faster time to market should be the most important consideration to launch an eCommerce website. Organizations want a transactional platform, where their end users can place orders. In this case a Most Viable Product (MVP) launch is the best strategy. Once the site stabilizes, they can go for a multisite global roll out, (in case of multiple brands), maintaining the same codebase but different branding and local integrations. eCommerce platforms such as Adobe Commerce on Cloud (erstwhile Magento) and SaaS platforms like BigCommerce, Commercetools can accelerate these roll outs, compared to a bespoke platform.

• Organization Budgets and Cloud Strategy

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.6 trillion in 2023, an increase of 5.1% from 2022. “Enterprise IT spending is recession-proof as CEOs and CFOs, rather than cutting IT budgets, are increasing spending on digital business initiatives,” said John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. While the trend shows an increase, Small Medium Businesses have limited IT budgets. Adoption of COTS eCommerce platforms incur significant costs. Most of the eCommerce software providers charge on parameters such as Order Lines or GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) or pricing based on a specific set of features. The costs may include a one-time signing fee and a monthly/yearly license fee. Additionally, Organizations typically need to engage a System Integrator, to customize, brand, integrate and launch their website. Also, most organizations have a preferred cloud provider and would like to have their eCommerce website also hosted on the same cloud provider. Building a bespoke platform, may go light on budgets in terms of license fees, but would still incur cloud hosting charges.

• User Experience – Headless and Composable Commerce

According to Forrester, improving UX experience can increase conversions upto 400%. Mobile devices account for ~70% of all user traffic to websites. Add to that, according to Google, probability of a user leaving a website goes up by ~30% if there is an increase in page load time. All this highlights the importance of building a superior User Experience.
Of late Progressive Webapps are preferred over separate Mobile apps.

Organizations can focus on best practices such as

• Headless Commerce – where the frontend UI (Ex: React js, Next js) is decoupled from backend services (Ex: REST Services) in order to provide a diverse experience based on the eCommerce channel or device. This may be used in conjunction with a Content Management System (CMS)
• Composable Commerce – which involves choosing Commerce components and combining or ‘composing’ them into a custom application built for specific business needs

Platforms such as Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce provide native support for Headless/ Composable Commerce. When building a bespoke platform however, a lot of additional effort is needed on the UX part and support for Headless and Composable Commerce

• Organization Maturity and inhouse eCommerce IT expertise
  In case of Organizations that are very mature – in terms of enterprise-wide adoption of cloud and latest technology stacks – and have a very strong IT team inhouse or partnering with a System Integrator – defining and building a bespoke platform following MACH (Microservices based, API first, Cloud-native and Headless) principles is the preferred option.
• Support for B2B

B2B market is not as mature as B2C. However, B2B eCommerce sales reached $1.2trillion, as per eMarketer. Increasingly Organizations are expecting B2B features on their eCommerce platforms – such as Quotes, CPQ, Punch out, Custom pricing, ERP Integration etc. Platforms such as HCL Commerce, SAP Commerce Cloud, Adobe Commerce come bundled with many of these features along with B2C features on a common codebase and can accelerate B2B rollouts. Building B2B features on bespoke platforms is quite complex.

References: Gartner, Forrester, eMarketer, Statista, Sitecore

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Leveraging Digital Technology for Business Transformation 

Digital platforms are defined as online networks or systems that facilitate the exchange of information, products, and services between different parties. Examples of digital platforms include e-commerce platforms like Amazon, social media platforms like Facebook, and online marketplaces like eBay. 

A digital transformation is the adoption of digital technology to fundamentally change how an organization operates and delivers value to its customers. This can include the use of technology to automate processes, improve the customer experience, and drive innovation. Digital transformation services can help organizations become more agile, efficient, and competitive in today’s digital economy. However, it also requires significant changes to an organization’s culture, business processes, and technology infrastructure.

Innovative Models: Exploring New Ways of Doing Business 

Digital platforms may initially appear to be just another channel for delivering goods or services. However, companies with platforms build value with external customers, in a way switching manufacturing from the inside to the outside, whereas a traditional company scales by selling more and more for less and less of that product or service. The value of the platform ecosystem, which enables the exchange of value between various parties, increases with the number of players. These businesses have also been able to produce network effects that increase value at a previously unknown rate without the labor, production, and infrastructure expenditures that traditional players bear. 

Digital platforms have several advantages over traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. For example, they have low barriers to entry, allowing small businesses to reach a global audience without the need for a physical storefront. They also offer flexibility, allowing businesses to quickly respond to changing market conditions and consumer preferences. 

However, digital platforms also come with their own set of challenges. For example, they are subject to intense competition, with new competitors entering the market all the time. This can make it difficult for businesses to differentiate themselves and stand out from the crowd. Additionally, digital platforms are constantly evolving, requiring businesses to constantly innovate and adapt to new technologies and consumer behavior. 

A Look at the Digital Future 

The future of the marketplace looks bright for businesses that are able to effectively leverage digital platforms. As more and more consumers turn to online channels for their shopping needs, digital platforms will continue to play a crucial role in driving growth and success in the marketplace of the future. 

The digital platform titans of today face unique challenges, ranging from charges of spreading fake news to looming antitrust action. However, there are numerous lessons to be drawn from their success for more traditional, non-digital platform businesses. Many of these companies have already progressed with their digital platform and ecosystem strategies. While the big names may get the most attention, the growing platform presence outside of these few may indicate that the true impact of digital platforms and ecosystems has yet to be felt. 

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What is inventory management?

Inventory management is a difficult task, especially for businesses with multiple store locations and retailers who sell thousands of products each month. Order mix-ups, dead stock issues, deficient stock situations, and storehouse complaints are all common problems for retail and e-commerce business. For owners of small and medium-sized businesses, inventory management is a top priority. Reducing overstock and out-of-stock situations will be made easier with the help of a system that monitors inventory levels, orders, and transactions to perform predictive analysis and gather forecasted demand.

5 benefits of inventory management using machine learning

• Stock tracking using machine learning

The stock market is largely responsible for being volatile, dynamic, and nonlinear. Because of numerous (macro and micro) factors, including politics, international economic conditions, unforeseen events, a company’s financial performance, and others, accurately predicting stock prices is very difficult.

With machine learning, current data input is used to modify software-generated calculations and estimates. Using it to improve the precision of stock tracking, optimize inventory storage, and provide open communications throughout the supply chain is a way to improve the performance of tracking technology in inventory management by providing more accurate data to facilitate future planning.

• Inventory management optimization

Inventory optimization is the process of keeping the right amount of inventory on hand to meet demand while keeping logistics costs low and avoiding common inventory issues such as stockouts, overstocking, and backorders. Algorithms can be built to fit specialized limitations that work for your business with the help of artificial intelligence

and machine learning. Particularly in companies with numerous distribution centers, this can be used to improve inventory optimization. It proves to be a more efficient way of managing stock.

• Minimize forecasting errors

Machine learning can be used to cut transportation and warehousing costs by keeping inventory at a lean but comfortable level, and it can forecast demand in the near future, allowing stock to be purchased in time for transactions. This improves client delivery times and, as a result, client satisfaction.

• Limiting idle stock

The concern about stock degrees is one of the major factors influencing inventory management. Forecasts for how much stock to carry are frequently inconsistent when based solely on outdated tracking models. Extra and idle stock essentially represents tied-up money that could be put to better use.

If you stock too much, you risk increasing your costs, but if you stock too little, you risk running out of a product entirely. Finding the perfect balance is a difficult task. Reduce stock levels and avoid stockouts by mastering your lead times, automating tasks with inventory management software, calculating reorder points, and using accurate demand forecasting.

• Enhancing customer experience

The success of small and medium-sized businesses depends on maintaining customer satisfaction. A customer who finds the ordering process difficult, cannot get the stock they require, or consistently receives product late is likely to be dissatisfied and look for a new supplier. Let’s have a look at how to improve customer satisfaction:

· Avoid understocking.

· Have an estimate of seasonal demand

· Boost order fulfillment

· Reduce lead times

· Set sustainable pricing

Wrapping up

Technology updates will saturate the world of inventory in the future. To boost sales and draw customers, this industry is constantly evolving, using technologies like virtual reality, artificial intelligence, digital signage, and even stores with no inventory. And it will only get bigger from here. With the advancement of real-time inventory management systems, retailers now have access to more information about consumer demographics, spending patterns, and other factors. Retailers should try to improve their accuracy with their inventory and continue to appeal to their customers with this constant increase in inventory visibility.

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The retail industry is currently confronted with numerous challenges and intense competition, including customer service, active customer engagement, customer retention, and loyalty building. To address these issues, players are looking at the metaverse as a solution for recreating the in-store experience of not only physical clothing stores, but also furniture and automobile showrooms, among other places.

Metaverse- The Hot Topic

Facebook’s declaration of rebranding into a metaverse corporation called Meta, is currently a hot subject. The metaverse, according to Mark Zuckerberg, is “the future of the mobile internet.” He claims that a combination of AR and VR technology will allow us to “feel present – like we’re right there with others no matter how far off we actually are”. Major IT firms are pushing the envelope and spending billions on research and development to make  metaverse a reality.

These businesses are working very hard to make the metaverse a reality. Unexpectedly, the technology is already more widely used. 17.7% of Americans are predicted to use VR at least once per month this year. Also, 28.1% will employ AR.

With Gartner predicting that 25% of people will spend at least one hour per day in the metaverse over the next four years, the metaverse promises to have a multifaceted impact on our lives.

Customer Experience in Metaverse

The metaverse uses avatars, or three-dimensional characters, and artificial intelligence to imitate real-world interactions in a virtual environment. The avatars can converse with one another and with representations of actual places, such as stores or shopping centers. The metaverse is currently not expected to replace real, in-person, or even online customer contacts, but it is well-positioned to become a substantial new channel, much like social media did.

• Customer Interaction

Just like in the real world, consumers will be able to communicate with brands in the metaverse. They will peruse shops, make purchases online, make selections from racks or shelves, ask store employees questions about products, “try on” clothing in an online dressing room, and add items to shopping carts. While some companies may choose to recreate their real locations in the metaverse, others may want to create an entirely original online experience.

• Customer Reach

Today’s focus on customer experience is on developing individualized interactions that distinguish your brand from the competition and encourage repeat business. Brands have plenty of opportunities to accomplish that in the metaverse providing imaginative and distinctive experiences, amplifying their personalization efforts, enlarging their audience, increasing the demand for virtual experiences, and offering assistance and customer support.

• Unique Customer Experience

The metaverse is no different from other new technologies in the sense that there are always ways to make it better. In order to create a friction-free, seamless customer experience, brands will need  to map the new customer journey, capturing data about where friction occurs and upgrading accordingly. Although it seems like the metaverse would be a good place to nurture innovative and creative experiences, marketers will still need to be aware of and sensitive to their customers’ shifting requirements.

Conclusion

Businesses who already have preparations in place to offer a metaverse consumer experience will have an advantage if the metaverse becomes a reality. Organizations are undoubtedly growing more receptive to the metaverse as 82% of businesses who experiment with AR and VR indicate that the benefits met or exceeded expectations.

Customers often use Facebook Messenger to communicate with their favorite brands today. In the future, Facebook might create a virtual environment where its 2.8 billion users can interact in real time, bringing customer experiences into the metaverse. And it’s unlikely that Facebook is the only business building its own virtual world. How much people will accept these domains is still up for debate. The Metaverse might not be ready to take over the retail sector any time soon. It might, however, evolve into one of many channels via which customers can communicate with companies.

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The pandemic is also a significant factor for the sudden growth of this industry. According to industry experts, the pandemic has accelerated online shopping by as much as five years. This has led retailers worldwide to sell online – scaling and expanding their businesses to reach new markets and serve customers from across the globe.

But, as the industry is exploding, there are specific challenges retailers must contend with, such as:  

• Building customer loyalty and improving user experience     
• Handling data and security breaches  
• Dealing with fierce competition, price hikes, and economic uncertainty  
• Inefficient policies for returns, refunds, and order fulfillment  
• Lack of SEO knowledge for drawing relevant traffic to the online store  
• Converting shoppers into paying customers   

While many eCommerce platforms are available in the market, there are a handful of reasons why Magento has been the most popular and how adopting it can help solve the above challenges. But before we dive deep into the unique features and values of Magento, let us have a quick understanding of the platform itself.  

What is Magento?  

Magento is one of the most widely used eCommerce platforms for building customized websites and shopping portals. It helps enterprise store owners manage high sales and customer volume and handle heavy website traffic while offering a high conversion rate. 

The platform offers a high degree of customization and exceptional flexibility with advanced features such as various tools for managing an XML website, CMS for static pages, rewriting URLs, integrated image optimization, the grouping of products, multi-store facilities, email list, and SEO related modules. Moreover, it has a user-friendly interface with responsive design, multiple deployment choices, and seamless integration with third-party modules, which aid in creating an enjoyable shopping experience for users.

Headless Commerce- The digital differentiator  

Modern shoppers are empowered by technology and look for seamless digital shopping experiences tailored to their specific needs and interests. In addition, they expect loyalty rewards, same-day delivery, free shipping, social engagement, and more. This shift in consumer behavior has created a demand for novel approaches in Magento.  

Headless commerce decouples the front-end of the eCommerce store from its backend. This means the content presentation layer is separated from the functional and business logic layer, allowing eCommerce companies to deploy new customer experiences across various channels. Headless commerce is agile, flexible, and customizable and helps in creating unique and engaging shopping experiences.

Adobe Commerce & Adobe Commerce Cloud   

Adobe Commerce is an eCommerce product developed and maintained by Adobe and powered by Magento. It allows businesses to create engaging and unique shopping experiences with striking features for store fulfillment, page builder, marketplace, user experience, product recommendations, customer segmentation, personalization, etc. It offers an easy-to-use interface to create and launch content and provide a personalized shopping experience without the support of a developer. It can serve both B2B and B2C customers within a single platform and easily integrates with existing backend systems. It also offers numerous extensions and themes to customize your eCommerce storefront. Additionally, its business intelligence feature allows you to track and monitor your data and turn the insights into striking visualizations for better decision-making.  

Adobe Commerce Cloud is an automated Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) built on a redundant AWS-based cloud hosting platform. It is a highly scalable and customizable solution including all the Magento Commerce on-premise features. 

Top Reasons for Choosing Magento for eCommerce  

If you’re looking for a new e-commerce website, the first thing you need to decide is whether you’ll use a pre-made plug-and-play website or a custom solution. There are ready-to-use e-commerce solutions available such as Shopify and WooCommerce, that offer numerous advantages, but they do not fit the needs of every business. Custom e-commerce solutions, on the other hand, require a more significant time investment but offer better scalability, flexibility, and control. Here are some unique features and functionalities of Magento that make it stand out from the rest of the available solutions for eCommerce development. 

Open Source  

Magento is an open-source platform that gives the developers and site owners access to the source code, thereby offering complete flexibility and freedom to customize the code to fit specific business requirements. In addition, the Magento Open Source is free and adaptable, so all that the developers need is some extra time and server space to build the website. With Magento Open Source, you can create your site exactly as you envisioned if you have the right technical skills. It also gives you control over the logic flow and design on each site page and access to a library of modules to develop new features and functionalities for your Magento store.  

Highly scalable  

Magento is a scalable solution, making it suitable for both small and large businesses. It can handle growth and scale accordingly. If you are a new business, you can start with a relatively basic installation and upgrade features with the proper hardware and configuration as your business grows. For instance, if your site traffic increases suddenly, you can easily manage the load by adding more backup servers. This will save your online store from crashing and improve page loading, thereby saving a lot of business for your retail store.  

One site set up for multiple stores  

Whether you have a specific product catalog that serves multiple websites or has more than one brand on the same website, you can use Magento to maintain all your products, orders, and settings in a single site setup. It supports multiple store setups from the same backend, which allows you to manage multiple stores from the same admin dashboard. The inventory and order management feature of Magento will enable businesses with various brands, sites, stores, and warehouses to create seamless cross-channel experiences. It also allows developers to extend and expand the platform to new product categories and customize it based on their brand and target market, saving a lot of money, effort, and time for retail players.  

Third-party integrations  

Magento allows you to integrate with various third-party services such as web applications, payment gateways, shipping, transportation and order tracking systems, and databases. Some of the popular integrations used by retail stores include PayPal, eBay, Google Shopping, MailChimp, QuickBooks, etc. It also offers in-built Google tools such as Google Analytics, Google Base, and Google Checkout to help you monitor site traffic, analyze website performance, and stay well-informed of the latest trends in Magento eCommerce.  

Product Recommendations  

Product recommendations are a great marketing tool to improve customer engagement, boost conversions, and increase revenue. Powered by Adobe Sensei, Magento’s product recommendation uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms to analyze visitor data and suggest relevant products. These recommendations appear on the storefront in the form of “Similar Products” and “Customers who viewed this also viewed” and create highly relevant and personalized shopping experiences.  

Live Search feature  

Magento also offers an AI-powered tool for intelligent and fast live searches. Also powered by Adobe Sensei, this tool uses real-time data to deliver automated personalized search results for shoppers to find what they want quickly. It also offers a flexible developer framework that eliminates tedious merchant tasks and provides search results with accuracy and speed.  

Flexible content and extensions  

One of the main reasons for Magento’s popularity amongst developers is its flexibility in content systems and extensions, allowing them to develop the site the way they want. It provides you with a flexible content management system to manage changes in content based on language, culture, laws, currency, etc., for global markets and customize your store for user-friendliness. Moreover, it also allows you to customize your online store with high-quality add-ons, extensions, modules, plugins, and apps designed to meet specific business needs. Adding these extensions helps enhance your site, drive more traffic, boost conversion and sales, report and analytics, and optimize the customer experience. Both free and paid extensions are available, which you can leverage based on your requirements and budget.  

SEO friendly  

Magento comes with in-built SEO features that help your eCommerce store rank in the search engines and reach your target customers easily. It includes an SEO-friendly URL structure, meta tags and descriptions for products, categories, and content pages, auto-generated sitemaps, positioning layer, and popular search terms, which improve the on-page SEO of your website.  

Mobile friendly  

As per a recent report, three out of four consumers prefer buying from their smartphones because it saves time. Catering to mobile-savvy customers is therefore inevitable for the success of your eCommerce business. Magento supports shopping experiences on mobile devices with pre-integrated HTML5 technology. In addition, it offers device-specific media capabilities, user-friendly search and results, display, pinch, multi-touch, scaling images, zoom, and easy swipe options for product images. All these features help in quickly creating a storefront optimized for a seamless mobile shopping experience.  

Security features  

Magento provides advanced security features to protect your eCommerce store from unexpected breaches and site attacks. It uses CAPTCHA and PCI Data Security for protection, which makes the site difficult to hack. As a result, it is more secure for both customers and sellers than sites built using Core PHP or WordPress.  

Multi-lingual support  

Businesses and merchants catering to multiple markets across the globe should offer their website in various languages to make it easily accessible to their customer base. Magento allows you to build multi-lingual sites, making it the go-to platform for businesses wanting to expand to new markets. Consequently, it also supports multi-currency transactions, making it ideal for building your eCommerce store.  

Magento is a sure-shot option for companies looking to implement many distinctive features to their online store. The scalability and customization capacity of Magento makes it stand out from the plug-and-play options available. Moreover, all these powerful features and benefits play a huge role in improving your eCommerce business processes which will, in turn, result in better ROI. 

Wrapping Up  

Apart from those discussed here, other valuable features for order management, customer service, analytics and reporting, product browsing, checkout, payment and shipping, and marketing and promotions play a crucial role in improving your eCommerce business. The quick load time, improved shopping experience, high-level technical architecture, and better testing and reporting capabilities make Magento a powerhouse for eCommerce. 

At Experion, we have a team of Magento certified experts offering Magento design, development, maintenance, and support services. Our Magento portfolio includes e-commerce consulting/development, architecture design, Magento migration, re-platforming, roadmap support, usability/UI re-engineering, and headless eCommerce. 

To know more about our Magento services or to get help with building a Magento store for your business, write to us at sales@blackrockdxb.com. 

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The modern customer does everything virtually and has started to see the world differently. Therefore, retailers must develop unparalleled innovations to provide unmatchable online shopping experiences that meet customer expectations and changing demands.  

Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics & Augmented and Virtual Reality have paved the way for digital transformation solutions in the retail industry for years to come. This article will take you through the top technologies and trends that are transforming the retail industry and helping businesses to stay afloat in the current circumstance. 

1. Omnichannel customer engagement  

Omnichannel customer engagement goes beyond making physical stores’ products available online. It is about engaging customers on new online channels such as social media, marketplaces, brick-and-mortar stores, and offering a frictionless shopping experience across various touchpoints. According to a study by eMarketer, cashier-less checkouts, curbside pickups, and streamlined digital experiences contributed to increased shopping frequency and improved sales in 2020. Therefore, omnichannel customer engagement is vital to interacting with customers and providing a consistent shopping experience across channels. Retailers must synchronize various channels such as social media, phone calls, online searches, chats, and physical stores, ensuring customers interact with the business at various points and are provided a personalized experience on each of them.  

2. Data Analytics to track customer behavior  

It is essential to track the customers’ behavior and activities across all channels to create a more intuitive shopping experience for them. Data Analytics allows retailers to monitor the customers’ in-store and online store activities. It gives insights into various metrics such as the number of visits to their store per day, new and returning customers, and the success of their marketing initiatives. These insights allow retailers to make more informed decisions and better engage their customers.  

3. Contactless payments and seamless checkouts  

The need of the hour for retailers is to provide a frictionless customer experience while keeping human touch as limited as possible. Cashier-less checkout technologies and contactless payments are in high demand due to the security, speed, and convenience they offer. Touch-free technology provides a convenient retail experience by scanning each item that a customer picks up using an app and sensors and automatically charging them for the things they have picked. Contactless checkouts will flourish in the retail sector, and retailers are working closely with FinTech companies to build quick and efficient contactless payment models.  

4. Demand forecasting with Machine Learning  

There has been a vast difference in customer demand due to the pandemic. As a result, it has become a significant challenge for retailers to understand and predict customer demand and take necessary actions to meet the shifts in the market and stay on top of the industry. Data and Machine Learning can make forecasting customer demand more accurate while improving inventory management and supply chain management. Machine Learning-based demand forecasting lowers logistics and warehouse expenses, prevents overstocking, and supports sustainable production and consumption.  

5. Hyper-automation with Artificial Intelligence  

Speed, agility, and efficiency are the critical factors that determine the success of a business. Artificial Intelligence-led automation makes the retail processes more cost-effective and the shopping experience more convenient for customers. AI systems can assist the customers by directing them to the store’s exact location and suggesting related items that might interest them. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) enhances inventory management and distribution and warehouse management processes. It eliminates repetitive daily tasks that do not provide any additional value and improves service quality and compliance across the retail value chain. Soon, driverless vehicles and drones will also play a vital role in retail transformation.  

6. Immersive shopping experience with AR and VR  

AR and VR enable retailers to make shopping more powerful and experience-driven. According to a recent study, by 2025, the AR and VR market will reach 1.1 billion globally. Since customers now shop more online than in brick-and-mortar stores, it is vital to give them a seamless ‘try-on’ experience to help them make quicker and better decisions. With Augmented Reality, customers can use their smartphone to bring products to life and see how they will look on themselves or in their homes. Companies like Sephora, IKEA, and Lego use AR and VR to make digital shopping a lot exciting and personalized. In addition, retailers can use experiential marketing and virtual fitting rooms to reduce their operating costs while providing safe and engaging experiences to their customers.  

The future of retail  

The adoption of emerging technologies has saved the retail industry from drowning and help in tackling the disruptions caused by the pandemic. As customers continue to shop and work online, these technologies show no signs of slowing down anytime soon.  

Black Rock IT Solutions is helping retail businesses in adopting new technologies to redefine their processes and offer their customers a safe and immersive shopping experience. We are digital architects, domain practitioners, and technology experts working towards fostering a digital retail world. To know more about our services and offerings and discuss potential growth opportunities, get in touch with us. 

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COVID-19 has brought about a sudden change in our behavior and attitudes as large-scale health crises tend to do. Spending on essential supplies skyrocketed while spending on luxury almost became zero. Even when the vaccine is found and this invisible enemy is defeated, the ghost of COVID-19 will loom large in our lives. Global consumption patterns of the retail industry are not likely to bounce back to the pre-covid days in the foreseeable future.

Apart from changing consumer behavior, consumer safety is also a big challenge for retailers as they open their stores once more. How does one keep the clients and staff safe? When is the best time for consumers of the at-risk demographic to shop? How to store merchandise so as to reduce congestion at different counters?

Let’s look at some of the ways technology can be leveraged to make the transition to a post-covid world easier for retailers worldwide. 

Footfall Analytics

Contact tracing has been an important tool in the fight against COVID-19. Depending on the location, people use govt-issued contact tracing apps or third party applications available online. But what about the people who visit the stores – how can customers be traced to mitigate risk without spending a fortune on a custom analytics solution that might impede their privacy? A footfall analytics solution could be the answer to this problem.

Footfall analytics have been used in retail to identify customers and their consumer-journeys at stores. This system can provide anonymous aggregate footfall analytics to help companies see where customers or employees spent the most (or least) amount of time, and in turn, helps improve merchandising decisions. This data can also be used to identify peak and non-peak hours accurately and promote social distancing to control the occupancy rate of each individual store. 

Demand forecasting

Traditional forecasting models of retail analytics solutions that use historical data such as buying behavior, seasonality, etc. have been particularly hit due to the coronavirus pandemic. Demand forecasting needs to replace its legacy algorithms with short-term forecasting models. These retail analytics solutions use models that take in real-time sales data from a Point of Sale (POS) system and analyze key demands, shortages and forecast necessary adjustments at the store level. 

Customer-facing applications

Many large retail chains have adopted customer-facing applications with varying degrees of success. But in 2020, these technologies have started getting customer acceptance like never before. Applications such as virtual queuing, contactless payment, self-checkout, and retail chatbots have been increasingly used by retailers and their customers. Retailers are leveraging technology such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) and IoT (Internet of Things) to offer hygiene centric shopping experiences. 

In the future, people will remember the times we live in as “The Pandemic Reality”. A time when every industry had to innovate rapidly to keep itself afloat. The retail industry is no different – the industry has to focus on how to safely open its doors to customers while also maintaining its supply chain. 

Black Rock IT Solutions has worked with retail giants around the world, helping them create footfall analytics solutions and sales forecasting solutions that have helped them tide through these unprecedented times. If you need a reliable and experienced IT partner to help your business meet future market conditions, drop a mail to sales@blackrockdxb.com

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Imposing personal safety adherence measures such as redesigning the floor layouts, marking safe social distancing, etc. are immediate solutions, but they may end up creating discomfort in the long term. In this scenario, adopting technology can help retailers tackle these challenges while reducing costs and improving efficiency.

In this article, we look at how retail analytics can play a significant role in helping businesses to overcome these challenges.

In-store analytics

In-store analytics empowers retailers with interactive, dynamic, and real-time dashboards with insights into the customer’s in-store behavior. For instance, customer interaction in a specific zone or an area in the store. In-store analytics’ unprecedented potential to track and analyze customer store behavior patterns enables retailers to adopt better in-store product placement strategies ensuring customer engagement and, in turn, a superior customer experience. These insights coupled with geographical data can also help stores to evaluate the COVID-19 exposure in the geographies where their stores exist. 

Footfall analytics

Measuring the number of visitors will enable the retail stores to analyze and compare store performance over a period of time with respect to customer visits. People analytics can be leveraged to assess employee – visitor ratio, employee performance, schedule employee shifts, predict visitor trends, and forecast optimum recruitment intervals. Various departments such as facilities management, operations, inventory management, and supply chain management, can utilize the insights generated to make faster and smarter decisions. 

Customer sentiment analysis

Capturing customer sentiment on the retail premise helps retailers gauge the efficiency of the services they offer. Customers can be asked to share their feedback using their mobile phones at the entrance or exit doors about various parameters such as safety, comfort, and confidence. They can also run sentiment analysis on data from facial analysis, social media networks, and different online forums. These can help them to improve their offerings and enhance the customer experience.

Cross-platform analytics

Customers today are more empowered and connected than ever before. Retailers must track customer intent much before they visit the store by analyzing their behavior from across touchpoints such as a desktop webpage, native & third-party applications, and mobile sites in one place. This cross-platform analytics will help retailers understand how the customer moves through various channels before they visit the store for purchase. They expect companies to provide seamless experiences across channels that reflect their history, preferences, and interests. Understanding the whole customer journey and discovering their behavioral insights allows retailers to create a consistent and unified experience through all the different channels.

In Conclusion

Retailers who want to thrive in the future must leverage the vast potential that retail analytics offers. They must make smarter and faster decisions based on meaningful insights from retail analytics to ensure increased revenue, higher profits, enhanced customer engagement, and superior customer experience.   

Black Rock IT Solutions has developed retail analytics solutions to help global retail enterprises operate more efficiently. Experion’s expertise and experience in assisting organizations to realize their strategic and operational goals has enabled us to gain an edge in the workings of the retail industry. To know more about how we help businesses ensure business continuity and enhance customer satisfaction amidst the COVID-19 crisis, drop a mail to sales@blackrockdxb.com.  

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With advancements in technologies, availability of real-time data and analytics, retail industry will be transformed to meet consumer preferences as they evolve. Unlike the old days, the consumer has access to the product or service information and different purchase options. Online purchases have elevated the customer experience with more personalization. According to IDC Research, by 2020, at least 55% of all organizations will become digital with new business models and digitally enabled products and services.

To remain competitive in this rapidly changing industry, retailers must leverage the latest digital technologies and transform themselves to meet the changing consumer behavior. They must leverage digital transformation solutions and create a new business model by placing the customer in the anchor position.

What is digital transformation?

According to SalesForce, Digital transformation is using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements. This reimagining of business in the digital age is digital transformation.  In retail, it is nothing but moving from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric approach by extending hyper-personalized customer experience.

What are the challenges retailers face in their digital transformation journey?

Multi-channel buying experiences:

With the staggering growth in e-commerce, in-store purchases have come down. A good majority of consumers still prefer retail shops as they want to see, touch, feel, and try the product before they make a purchase. They may gather product information online and make an offline purchase or try the product and order online. This shows that consumers prefer a combination of both. Retailers who try to bridge the gap between online and offline and go ‘phygital’, stands a better chance to win the customer. Retailers must leverage the latest technologies to create an omnichannel customer experience, which enables them to extend personalized offers across channels.

Demand for seamless, superior customer experience:

A seamless customer experience allows both online and offline stores to complement each other rather than compete to keep customers coming back for more. Customers expect in-store retailers to keep track of their online purchases and treat them as loyal customers when they visit the store. Retailers must use advanced analytics for capturing customer data and produce meaningful insights to create an integrated customer experience.

Customer loyalty is driven by experience:

Customer experience fuels customer loyalty than just product features. Even if the retailers offer superior products, the customer is delighted only if they provide him with a superior experience. Though pricing offers and promotions are building blocks of customer experience, hyper-personalization is the critical factor. Retailers who can predict customer behavior, anticipate their needs, and extend personalized offers exclusively for them via their preferred channel creates a profoundly loyal customer.

Key elements of digital transformation strategies in the retail industry

In-store experience

Ensuring better customer engagement and rich in-store experiences enable retailers to connect with customers through all touch points and influence buying behavior. They can leverage beacons, IoT devices, and smart shelves to delight customers with in-store navigation, real-time product pricing, and offers.

Optimize consumer journey

Optimizing end-to-end customer experience across the customer lifecycle journey plays a crucial role in mitigating customer churn and ensuring customer loyalty. Retailers must leverage data analytics technologies to understand customer behavior and preferences to provide tailor-made personalized offers or product recommendations in each stage of the customer lifecycle journey.

Advanced payment solutions

Frictionless payments or digital payment terminals enable consumers to move from cashless to cardless, significantly reducing transaction times.

Customer service

Advancement in artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies has changed customer care interaction by automating routine services which don’t require human intervention. Using a digital bot powered by AI & ML technologies enable retailers to answer standard questions, handle returns, help customers with product specification queries, etc. efficiently and thus improving the customer experience.

Digital transformation is key to success for retailers, perform or perish

Hyper-personalized customer experience stands tall in this digital economy. To win the modern customer, retailers must create a superior shopping experience that sets them apart from the competition. They must establish an exceptional omnichannel experience irrespective of the channels to win retail customers.

blackrock partnered with one of the leading retail chains in Australia for transforming their legacy systems to match the changing business scenario. Our solution enabled them to reduce the legacy maintenance costs, and it leads to a 30% increase in customer response time. To know more about our Digital Transformation services for the retail industry, drop a mail to sales@blackrockdxb.com

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