Above: A demo screen of a customer profile powered by Cloud for Retail. Image courtesy Microsoft.
With the rise of blended consumer shopping behaviors, persistent supply chain constraints, and a serious labor shortage, a new reality has emerged. A reality that requires retailers to accelerate their digital capabilities to give consumers what they want before they’ve asked. With the February 1st general availability of Microsoft Cloud for Retail, Microsoft will meet this challenge head-on with technology that will help retailers connect their customers, their people and their data with a partner they can trust.
Microsoft will contribute to accelerate business growth by providing a complete set of retail specific capabilities across the Microsoft Cloud portfolio.
According to Shelley Bransten, Corporate Vice-president of WW Retail & Consumer Goods Industry, “it starts by unifying disparate data sources across the end-to-end shopper journey, allowing retailers to maximize the value of their data, and resulting in one holistic view of the consumer.”
“Once connected, data and AI help retailers better understand and elevate the consumer shopping experience. In providing more relevant and streamlined experiences throughout the retail value chain, retailers can build a real-time sustainable supply chain and empower their frontline workforce.”
Retailers in T&T and across the world can be optimistic about the four future looking opportunities, described below.
- Maximize the value of retail data
Realize the true value of retailer’s data by unifying disparate data sources across the shopper journey, discovering insights that enable better experiences. There are 40 petabytes of data generated every hour in retail systems and data are siloed and disconnected. And most retailers are only set up to leverage a fraction of the data that’s available.
Microsoft Cloud for Retail is using data models to bring multiple systems and applications together, unifying disparate data sources to establish a singular, in-depth profile of each shopper. Capabilities here include Unified customer profile, Shopper and operational analytics, Intelligent fraud protection, and Retail media.
Demo of an online storefront powered by Microsoft’s Cloud for Retail.
“When you make decisions based on data, you know that you’re going to put the right products in the hands of customers when they need it. And we’re going to have happy employees because they won’t have to manage inventory that’s not needed in their stores”, Anne Cruz, IT Manager for Supply Chain and Merchandising, Walgreens
- Elevate the shopping experience
Transform the shopping experience through data analytics and new store technology to create more engaged shoppers with stronger lifetime value. In today’s highly competitive retail landscape, personalization has become the standard. While 95% of retail CEOs say they are strategically prioritizing personalization, only 23% of consumers think they’re doing a good job.
With personalization at the heart of satisfying shopping experiences, Microsoft Cloud for Retail helps drive conversion by enabling personalized recommendations and search results. Capabilities here include real-time personalization, intelligent stores, unified commerce, digital advertising solutions, and seamless customer service.
- Build a real-time, sustainable supply chain
Supply chain transformation starts with the recognition that a retailer’s data holds the key. Yet despite retailers sitting on a treasure trove of data from across their supply chain, many can’t use it to their full advantage. With Microsoft Cloud for Retail, we’re helping retailers to better predict demand using AI to optimize inventory and optimize order management to give customers choice across channels. What’s more, Microsoft is helping retailers record, report and reduce things like carbon emissions as they strive to become more sustainable. Capabilities here include supply chain visibility, demand planning and optimization, and flexible fulfillment.
- Empower the store associate
Equip store associates with solutions to enable real-time store communications, workforce management, and store automation. Retail always has been and always will be a people business, with many employed on retail’s frontline. If ever there was any doubt about the importance of retail’s frontline, then their herculean efforts during the past two years have put those doubts to rest.
These superheroes shouldered much of the change we’ve seen and experienced, with minimal training and astonishing grace. Survey results from Microsoft’s recent Work Trend Index show that 60% of frontline workers are excited about the new opportunities that digital tools bring to retail, but 34% feel they still don’t have the right technology.
Partnering for the next era of retail
Increasing reliance on digital capability means local businesses could be left behind in an ever-evolving digital ecosystem.
“Building digital capability is the new currency driving every retailer’s resilience and growth. Not just for this pandemic but for future events, and the years to come,” said Shelley Bransten.
“That’s why digital co-innovation is a massive focus for Microsoft. We want our customers to build their own digital capability and become independent with us, not dependent on us.”
“But we also know that we can’t do this on our own. That’s why we have an incredible ecosystem of industry partners who extend the value of Microsoft Cloud for Retail with additional solutions that address their most pressing challenges.”
This partner ecosystem is a growing network of solutions that uses a common data model format to integrate seamlessly and natively with the entirety of Microsoft Cloud for Retail.
