Havaianas-Alpargatas

Scott Ziegler

A veteran with over 38 years of experience, Scott Ziegler has worked with some of the most iconic brands in the apparel world like VF Corporation, Columbia Sportswear, Adidas and Foot Locker. Presently working with Havaianas’, Brazilian flip-flop brand owned by Alpargatas, as Retail Director.

In your opinion, how has the Retail Tech landscape evolved over the years? What are some of the advantages of the current technological evolution?

The Retail Tech landscape has definitely changed over the years. In the past, the most important focus was speed of transactions and service at the point-of-sale.

Today, the focus is not only on speed of transactions and service, but also customer convenience and experience. The advantages of the new technologies include such things as increased assortment for customers to shop (Endless-Aisle), mobile payment options to limit wait time, virtual shopping, seamless/x-channel options such as Click & Collect, Click & Reserve, Ship-from-Store, Drop-Points for E-Com orders, 360 Inventory visibility and Customer Visibility across channels, all which improve customer convenience and experience.

What according to you are some of the challenges plaguing the Retail Tech landscape and how can they be effectively mitigated?

There are a few challenges and one of the biggest is the "speed of change" that is taking place within this landscape. Just when you think you have determined the needs of your customers and the direction you will take to satisfy those needs, the market/ customers demand a new technology or service. This can cause a large amount of changing direction and causing challenges for your entire organization if you continually look to make changes mid-stream.

Mitigation involves understanding the options available that make the most sense for your Brand or Business,to offer the best service to your customers and also fit your company's technology infrastructure and direction. The importance of setting the plan based on this criteria and working to perfect the options you choose to offer your customers, to make their shopping experience the best possible, cannot be underestimated.

Which are a few technological trends influencing Retail Tech today? What are some of the best practices businesses should adopt today to steer ahead of competitors?

The past few years have placed an emphasis on Digital and connecting all channels together to make shopping as simple as possible. Can I buy on-line and pick-up in store? Can I reserve on-line and buy in store? Can I pay in-store "hands free" or via mobile POS to avoid standing i n a line? Can I see which stores have the inventory available to make my trips to the shopping center or high-street as quick as possible? Could I connect virtually with the store to buy that key item without going to the shop? If the store does not have the item I want, can they order and send it to my home?

“As a Retailer, it is important to build the plan and avoid chasing after every new technology, however, maintaining a level of flexibility within your plan will be important as Retail and the Tech landscape will continue to evolve as we move forward”

All of these options are trends that have been accelerated during the pandemic and will continue to drive business going forward. Making the move to implement all or a select few of these important services for your customers is a must to stay competitive within the Retail environment.

For Havaianas, this has meant rolling-out Click & Collect in our Own and Franchise stores in 2021 and launching MobilePOS in all of our Own store locations, which will be offered to our Franchise Partners in 2022. In the new year we are also ramping-up our efforts to implement an Order-in- Store(Endless Aisle) option, E-Com drop points for on-line orders and we will be testing Virtual Shopping in select store locations.

Do you have any advice for industry veterans or budding entrepreneurs from the Retail Tech space?

As a Retailer, it is important to build the plan and avoid chasing after every new technology, however, maintaining a level of flexibility within your plan will be important as Retail and the Tech landscape will continue to evolve as we move forward.

At Havaianas we have discussed many Customer Service options and have assessed the viability of each. Through our process we have updated our priority list to reflect the changing Retail and Tech landscape. As an example, due to our current Tech infrastructure, we have made the decision to focus on Click & Collect and Order-in-Store (Endless Aisle) options and

walk away from the Click & Reserve option. Most importantly, the focus should always be on the customer and making their experience as simple and smooth as possible. Innovation is great and a must to continue to progress, however, if it is not "user friendly", for both the shopper and the retail staff, it will not be used to the fullest potential.