“We live in a digital world; our lives are digital, our conversations are digital,” highlighted Ankur Gupta, Senior Director of Big Data at Sears Holdings Corporation.
The 2015 edition of Future Retail Summit opened with Mr Gupta delivering the international keynote, The integrated retailer: seamlessly connecting the digital and physical shopping experience. Now in its fourth year, the 2015 Future Retail Summit is the forum where the industry meets to do business.
“We began our digital journey because we wanted to become a dynamic retailer. “To this end we needed to make sure that both channels – online and in-store – talk to each other,” commented Mr Gupta.
David Launay, Senior Sales & Marketing Engineer at Silverpop, an IBM Company shared this insightful formula: Behaviour + Profile data + Realtime rules = Perfect Experience. He reiterated the importance of providing customers with relevant information, customised for a local experience, and connection to the brand. “It is all about understanding your customers. We need to connect the online and offline behaviour, and have a single view of the customer,” Mr Launay said.
Mr Launay stressed that the focus must be on what the customer needs, not just what the retailer wants to sell. He shared insight into the trend that it is no longer ‘B2B’ or ‘B2C’, but rather ‘C2B’ – customer-to-business.
Zsuzsanna Bonyhádi, Regional Marketing Manager MEAT at GE Lighting revealed how Intelligent Lighting can transform retail experience. “We can enhance customer experience with “Smart ready” stores with “online-like” intimacy and capability. There is a new opportunity to merge the physical and the digital world…”, she said.
“Retail is getting tougher and is much more competitive as new brands enter the market and gross leasable area increases. Retailers have to work smarter and more efficiently to succeed. To achieve this, there are two key areas that provide the opportunities for growth – brand consistency and world class customer service,” emphasised Mark Johnson, International Retail Operations, Head of Landmark Group.
A forum like Future Retail Summit allows industry leaders to come together to learn about the latest international retail trends and better understand the Middle East’s global attractiveness.
