The Retailer Autumn Edition 2022

THE RE TA I L ER

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RETAIL’S WAKE-UP CALL: FUTURE TRENDS IN RETAIL DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Erika Arena Principal Industry Lead, Retail Mendix

N ew Gartner report on for the retail industry

Top Trends in Retail Digital Transformation and Innovation Let’s take a closer look at some of the trends Gartner identifies in its report: Store Operations: Comprehensive Solutions to Excite Customers Everyone in retail iswondering about the future of brick-and-mortar locations.What do compa nies need to do to get customers back in stores and excited about the “IRL” shopping experience? Gartner sees a holistic solution trending in store operations and it benefits everyone involved from sales associates to the customers.

Are you enabling your associates with the real time digital experiences they need to deliver unrivaled customer support? On Mendix, you can build bespoke solutions so your team mem bers have accurate, up-to-date data at their fingertips. An experience layer can connect disparate backend systems, meaning everyone in the organization has a unified view of data, including the real-time insights generatedwith in-store monitoring systems and data pulled from core systems. Team members also benefit from the introduc tion of digital solutions that streamline their daily and administrative tasks like our ShiftSwap template. This enables employees to manage their own schedules from anywhere on their personal devices. Composability and Collaborative Ecosystems: A Brick-by-Brick Approach A nascent and growing trend that Gartner identifies is “composability,” the centralized, collaborative, and modular approach to digi talizing an enterprise. Gartner cites findings in an earlier report, the 2022 CIO andTechnology Executives Survey, that shows businesses that are “highly composable can deliver superior business performance, even in times of volatility.”

digital transformation is out. Here are key trends

What Gartner Calls a “Once-in-a-Lifetime” Disruption to Retail

The latest Gartner report includes a wake-up call for the retail industry: it is “now time for retailers to seriously start getting their houses in order.” In other words, your company must get serious about digital transformation to stay competitive in the long-term. This is an exciting opportunity to forge aheadwith bold proactive changes that will prepare you for the myriad digital trends on the horizon. The Gartner report, Top Trends in Retail Digital Transformation and Innovation for 2022, calls this moment a “once-in-a-lifetime” disruption to the industry. These sweeping changes are necessary even in more creative departments like merchandising.

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Citing their 2022 CIO and Technology Executive Survey, Gartner notes, “73% of retail respond ents expect to increase store technology invest ments in 2022.”

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Retailers must initiate “root-and-branch reform” transformation now as Garter warns, only “prun ing or tweaking” will set you behind.”

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Retailers are piloting new in-store technology including automation, edge computing, and IoT. These changes depend on updating legacy infrastructure and systems. Sales associates benefit from augmented productivity through technology and in the process, they develop “more management responsibility and become more accountable,” says Gartner. Customers benefit frommore productive and on-point staff, as well as an elevated shopping experience. To accommodate these newtechnologies for store level visibility, retailers need a comprehensive planwith an accelerated digital transformation.

Customer expectations continue to be the single most influential driver of transformation in the retail industry,” Gartner explains in the 2022 report, highlighting “composability” as a key industry trend.”

All the trends highlighted in the report—from unified commerce and composability to in-store automation and the metaverse—depend on digital transformation.