It was nearly three decades ago that technology spread its tentacles around every industry. Especially in the retail industry, run extensively by legacy and accustomed systems and methods, technology emerged as a necessary innovative change. Its inexorable rise unveiled a plethora of digital tools to retailers, which, when applied correctly, helped increase business efficiency by a significant degree. Many established retailers embraced the change and launched their business online. However, for many retail enterprises, lack of technological knowledge and right guidance posed as bottlenecks. While they were adept at customer service and retailing, they were not technologists. There came an undeniable need for technology partners and software domain experts to build better and digitally-powered retail customer experiences.

Assemble, a software consultancy for retailers, helps fulfill that need assisting retailers to ‘unleash the potential of technology.’ Guided by its core values and rich domain expertise in the retail industry, Assemble holds a vested interest in its customers’ businesses and creates better experiences that help generate a higher return on investment. The company boasts over a decade of experience building web applications and technology-driven services, such as sales and marketing integrations, full-stack development and automation, and custom plugins tool creation.

“When retailers face the challenge to go digital, we come in with all the intricate pieces and parts of technology they would require for this transition,” states Jeremy Norberg, President at Assemble.

To begin the shift from traditional to digital, Assemble undertakes an assessment, where retailers are asked to categorize their business requirements as either mission statements or challenges. For instance, a mission could be to record double growth over the next quarter, while a challenge could be to address low conversion rates. The clear outline of the mission or the challenge helps Assemble list out the business areas they would most likely affect—revenue, cost of sold goods, and operating expenses—to determine the net income. “Upon precise analysis of these three key metrics, our team measures the expected change in ROI and profitability to ensure a continued growth and investment in the business,” explains Norberg

When retailers face the challenge to go digital, we come in with all the intricate pieces and parts of technology they would require for this transition

As retailers begin to ascend the growth ladder, they are challenged to forgo outdated systems. The ‘tech debt,’ as Norberg calls it, arises from the inability to handle capital expenses to keep up with advancing technologies. To top that, the swift need to go online due to the pandemic added to the ongoing woes for brick-and-mortar retailers. Assemble steps up with its people-centric solution approach to resolve the entire disarray with the proper use of technology. Being a small firm helps Assemble better comprehend the retailers’ situation to guide them to ‘unleash the true power of technology’ and transition smoothly from employing outdated systems to becoming digitally-run organizations.

One client that benefited highly from Assemble’s customer-attentive services was a Fortune 50 retail company that generated a large number of marketing assets and collateral, both digital and physical. The retail company already had a team of thousands of designers and marched ahead to hire more fresh talent right out of design schools. While the client gradually turned production, specific, low efficiency production, the rising cost caught up to them. The client asked the Assemble team to assist through the challenge of maintaining higher efficiency of marketing designs while saving money. “We worked for six months to come up with the solution, which helped the client save $3.6 million in the subsequent year. Now, they are saving $3 million a quarter! And their team can focus on creating value, rather than mindless asset generation," mentions Norberg.

As the company strides abreast of the technology evolution in the retail space, on a concluding note, Norberg says, “Retail is one of those industries that has embraced technology since day zero. Yet, it has not necessarily done it strategically. We see that the maturation point is far from within the retail market’s grasp, and we strive to work with clients to help them achieve that.”