The Store: The Next Frontier of Digital Experience
So I suppose this blog post might seem a little confusing to those of us thoroughly convinced of the march toward supremacy by the Web in the area of customer experience. Without question we have seem some real innovation in the last several years by retailers looking to deliver rich, personalized shopping experiences on the Web. To be sure, digital natives are experiencing a wave of new and more engaging shopping experiences at their fingertips (on all three screens).
I know my store systems buddies will be smiling broadly at what they are about to read….
The majority of shoppers still build intimate relationships with brands and retailers in the store. Even for multi-channel shoppers (typically those who research on-line and buy in store), the store represents the all-important execution channel, and consequently a critical channel to exert a last-chance influence on the customer (retail pundits still contend that 70% of all purchase decisions are made at point-of-purchase).
Because of the importance of the store in the customer experience value chain there is an emerging focus on delivering experience innovation in the store. Traditional kiosk strategies are being evaluated (most now agree the ‘website-on-a-stick’ model is officially dead), in-store TV networks and digital signage solutions are extremely hot and consumer mobile pilots are hitting a broad group of brands.
I am a big fan of branded, self-service (read: next gen kiosk), large LCD, multi-touch environments in retail stores. The value for the consumer is a highly functional, and immersive kiosk that connects to loyalty programs, customer information, special offers, etc. It can present the digital catalog in an interesting way, and can direct customers to departments or the location of merchandise. The value for the retailer is that it delivers on customers’ digital expectations, off-loads work from floor associates who usually seem invisible to customers anyway, and hooks into existing store infrastructure. Now clearly a solution like this fits best in a large format store, or one where the availability of store associates can be an issue.
Take a look at what Razorfish is doing in this area at their customer experience blog:
http://emergingexperiences.com/
I am responsible for eCommerce and cross-channel retailing for Microsoft’s Retail Industry Team. In this capacity, I have worked with many global retailers to assess eCommerce and cross-channel retailing strategies and how technology and business processes can be used to accomplish strategic initiatives.
I leverage my background in retail supply chain and consumer experience technology to align retailers’ customer facing application portfolios with the realities of retail enterprise applications and enterprise data paradigms.
Prior to joining Microsoft, I held positions at Oracle Retail, Retek, and Accenture. At Oracle Retail, I was a product manager responsible for supply chain execution systems. While at Retek I held functional architecture responsibilities for Retek’s supply chain execution systems, including integration with other ERP functional areas such as merchandising, financials, order management and point-of-sale. In my role at Accenture, I was responsible for leading custom development and implementation teams for large retail ERP projects, including direct-to-consumer operations. I have been quoted in industry publications and have lectured at a variety of venues.
My retail solutions experience includes verticals such as hypermarket, grocery, specialty, soft lines, C-store and hard lines. This experience included traditional brick-and-mortar as well as multi-channel fulfillment models.
