To help overcome stiff competition, retailers can differentiate with personalized, omnichannel shopping experiences.  According to Linnworks 81% of shoppers are looking for a frictionless, cross device ecommerce experience. Given the vast number of systems that they must integrate to be able to achieve this, retailers need solutions that streamline data and app management to be able to offer the ultra-fast, accurate digital experience that consumers now demand.

One of the main challenges that retailers face includes breaking down silos to integrate data sources into a single source of truth that they can use for data-driven business decisions – both operational and real-time analytical decisions. Many established retailers have built up their business by incorporating multiple off-the-shelf products such as Product Information Management (PIM) systems, CRMs and ERP among others, purchased as-required when the business grew. Many of these systems run on legacy data technologies that do not always adapt easily to the demands of modern consumers. 

Retailers also face fluctuations in demand – think of the pre-Christmas rush or Black Friday. They need a solution that will seamlessly scale to meet the burst in online activity and purchases, and then scale down once the peak is over. Even slight delays in response times can have a real impact on sales – Amazon quantified this, noting that every 100ms of latency resulted in 1% fewer sales. But connectivity issues are not just relegated to the peak demand on Chinese Singles Day, or ongoing latency, the retailer must ensure that their operations are running 24/7 with no maintenance windows or other situations that result in downtime. 

Watch this video to see how a leading US retailer now offers super-fast, omnichannel experiences

Retailers are looking for technology that supports: 

• A consistent omnichannel customer experience across mobile, web, and even inside a physical store
• Unification of data silos in legacy  and modern systems that capture inventory, pricing and logistics and additional data; this synthesis enables swift innovation 
• Personalized, real-time insights that create upsell and cross-sell opportunities
• Running 24/7 with zero downtime

Incorporating Generative AI to enrich Shopping Experiences 

Companies that excel at personalization increase revenues by 40 percent compared with companies that don’t leverage personalization, according to McKinsey research. Gen AI can help companies quickly interpret volumes of customer feedback from chatbots, social media, review sites and other sources, and use this data to personalize the services and products that are most likely to appeal to specific consumers. Gen AI also shows much promise with virtual try-ons for clothes, or presenting a visualization of how a painting under consideration would look on our own living room walls. 

Gen AI can improve operational efficiency, with sophisticated models and data analysis that can forecast demand, so that retailers can optimize inventory levels. These advanced analytics also improve fraud detection, incorporating data from the customer identity and access management (CIAM) platform and other security systems with the powerful compute capabilities of Gen AI. 

Gen AI can also be utilized for Price Optimization by analyzing sales data, competitor pricing, and consumer behavior, and then recommending ideal pricing strategies that maximize profits.  Retailers can use Gen AI to enhance dynamic pricing by quickly adjusting to changes in market forces, issues with supply chain, and updates in competitors’ catalogs.

Gen AI-powered chatbots offer a more relevant experience than traditional chatbots. Gen AI offers natural language support, including multi-language capabilities, and by continuously learning from interactions, its responses offer greater context and accuracy. It can process and generate images, audio, and even video, in addition to text. Gen AI chatbots are far less reliant on rigid decision trees and can remember and maintain context throughout a conversation, leading to improved customer interactions. 

Ensuring Superb Customer Journeys with Operational Data Hub Architecture 

Addressing the challenges many retail organizations face to achieve a cohesive, responsive and data-driven online shopping presence, requires a range of solutions. To achieve near real-time performance and apps that provide information from a variety of disparate systems, operational data hub architecture has much to offer.

An operational data hub such as Smart DIH consolidates data from multiple heterogeneous systems, including Point of Sale (POS) systems, pricing engines, inventory management and homegrown solutions, into a highly performant unified data layer that exposes data services in real time to digital and online apps. 

• By decoupling apps from their systems of record (SoRs), the Hub’s distributed architecture ensures high availability offload of the SoR, ensuring ultra-fast response times of digital apps, since they are no longer dependent on sluggish legacy systems. 

Behind the scenes, Smart DIH ensures a superb omnichannel customer experience by:

• Exposing data microservices to digital apps 
• Ensuring data consistency across all digital channels
• Enabling standard API-based integration capabilities for fast app development independently on the SoR (unlike point-point integration) 

Watch this video to see how to power a seamless online shopping experience.

Benefits 

Smart DIH enables retailers to gain a competitive edge with a data-powered approach, enabling sellers to:

• Offers a true picture of sales, products, inventory, customers and more, enabling more accurate analysis and data-driven decisions, no matter how many systems, sites and edge devices are involved 
• Streamlines and speeds up app development to release new, competitive apps in days with low code microservices 
• Enables location-based promotions (based on real-time location data that is collated with inventory and pricing data) that positively impacts sales and can optimize the digital supply chain, in addition to other personalized offers 

How Smart DIH enhances the customer experience:

• Unified, real-time data ensures that customers can see the most up to date merchandise and promotions in real-time, personalized to their buying preferences, and track their orders from any device 
• Apps and sites do not go down, ever, due to Smart DIHs high availability and resilience
• Location-based promotions, offer relevant, personalized suggestions that improve the shopping experience and customer loyalty

Last words

Since the vast majority of shoppers are looking for a personalized omnichannel buying experience, retailers rely on technology to streamline the data and app management processes that enable these interactions. Operational data hub architecture offers the data unification, ultra-fast performance and high availability that powers excellent customer experiences.