JULY - 2022retailtechinsights.com8IN MY OPINIONOne of the reasons why I love working in the retail industry is the fact that it evolves in a rapid pace while it gives us the opportunity to learn something new every day. If someone told me a decade ago that we will work with real time information, provided by RFID or AI, and will be able to create personalized solutions by customer profile, I would have thought this is something out of this world. Looking at my daily work today, this is exactly what I do. The retail industry has been transforming into a smart, digitalized landscape with advanced technologies. While in 2020 the retail apocalypse thought us that we must adopt or die, there were many who only focused on their e-commerce presence and placed less attention on their physical stores. Although e-commerce is vital, the physical retail space is a must since shopping is a lifestyle and experience that will always remain important to the customers. We are physical beings; the 5 senses are critical to our decision making. Retail is about the people. Now the question is how to reinvent the retail space to suit the new norms. It seems like that recently the customer journey is simplified since in recent years the customers developed a minimalist mindset therefore integrated channels and data driven solutions are necessary to push the right products to the stores and to customers. Customers are making decisions faster therefore incorporating digital features, apps, and smart tech into the physical store will help to close sales. Smart retail and smart stores became a trending topic among retailers, but since it is a relatively new phenomena, we do not have a best practices guideline, at this point most organizations are taking risk to try to adopt to new digital trends. While McKinsey suggested that traditional offline stores should be redesigned and centered on customer engagement and experience, we also must consider our obligation to our shareholders which is growing a profitable business. After seeing organizations failing with their smart initiatives, as part of my Ph.D. journey, I started to research on smart retailing and smart stores. Interviewed organizations and decision makers on transformation, and the following key success factors were found. By Gen Lehn, Country Head - Inditex Vietnam, PT. Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk (IDX: MAPI)KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR SMART RETAIL STORE TRANSFORMATION
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