Three most common roadblocks in a retailer’s digital journey

Currently, consumers get more attracted towards recent and advanced technological and digital innovation like real-time personalization, product suggestions, advanced loyalty programs, in-store customization, swift order, and delivery, hence retailers were forced to adapt and implement advanced digital solutions to reach out the demands of the customers.

The integration of retail and digital technology not only strengthens customer success but also improves employee engagement and revenue generations. So, retailers nowadays need to implement digital technology to a great extent to improve sales. So, the success in the retail digital market is not dependent on the product itself but the buying journey of customers.

eMarketer predicted that by 2020 the retail sales will touch the revenue around $4.058 trillion, which is almost 14.6% of total retail spending.

Now the advancement in the retail sectors is in the vital stage, it seems a favorable time to question the impact of current retail strategies in the future. With Amazon ranking as the fifth largest retailer in the UK, it would be quite easy to predict that consumers are more attracted to a more convenient and technological approach.

Barriers to the digital transformation

Recently there is an article on Forbes which stated that, currently traditional retailers need to shift from the traditional module of business that is buying low quantity and selling in large scale and optimizing everything in between towards a ‘digital value chain’ that integrates ‘accumulating data (about products, consumers, and geo locations), turning that data into insights, and then turning those insights into action.’ The author goes on to suggest three barriers to full digital transformation:

Hesitations to adopt digital change: Some retailers are determined to preserve their old organizational structures against major digital transformation that they gloss over, inefficient technology, and contradictory incentives that have different parts of the business working at cross-purposes’.

Deficient use of data: There is no structured approach to store and maintain data in the retail sector, nor any fixed procedures to manage the information which can be converted into meaningful insights and results to planned executions. Retail Brands can be guilty of depending on hypothetical prediction, out-of-date data, very limited insights, and failing to implement advanced technological solutions also retail tend to invest less in the technology that can fetch the meaningful data they need.

Neglecting the impact of technology: Lack of digital transformation and without sufficient investment, Implementation of IT methodology will not able to meet the fast pace of requirements of today’s retail transformation market. Different teams might bring or design their own technological solutions – but this results in a lack of integration and communications between the teams and very few meaningful insights will be generated.

Various news of retail causalities are popping out these days, with the right investment and improved executions of plans across the organization, there is a very strong reason to believe physical stores will not only survive but also deliver real value and in the long run, it will defend the brand’s future.