How digital progress is shaping up
Coming as no surprise, digital has only continued to rise in importance when it comes to any retail business. This is marked by a fairly recent movement. Companies have started to scale and refine their digital processes, showing different levels of maturity in knowing their importance
Furthermore, since a lot of bigger retailers have started to invest more and more in these technologies, some market pressure has been taken off. This has caused digital technology to start to close the gap in revenue growth. Out of all of these technologies, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been recognized as the number one game-changer for retail. But here’s the kicker: despite this fact, AI still isn’t in the top 5 spending priorities for retailers.
3 steps to match up with other retailers’ digital
What are the top 5 spending priorities for retailers? Every company is a little different, but here are some key items to consider for future investment for your business:
- Developing new KPIs. We are now in a period of extreme digital growth. With this growth comes a change in what customers expect from retailers. Overall, it’s about committing to the customer’s overall experience and since the features that make up that experience are changing, so should your KPIs regarding the measurement of such features.
- Commit to reinvestment in technology. To piggy-back on that last point, this period of extreme digital growth for retailers is also calling for more of a need to stay competitive digitally than ever before. Companies are learning to scale back or scale forward their digital technology as needed. However, if you’re looking to advance your technological capabilities, then you need to put a strong emphasis on reinvesting a larger portion of your company’s profits into technology development.
- Lean towards investment in AI. The implementation of AI in retail has gained tremendous popularity. It swiftly climbed to recognition as the #1 retail game-changer in under 2 years. At this point, you need to have some level of investment in this technology. However, it’s also paramount not to invest too much right now, as a lot of its uses still have yet to be proven fully.
While these are great items for the executive to invest in, note that this list will continue to grow. In other words, be sure to keep an eye on future developments while you decide where to invest, as the expansion of this list will only increase fulfillment costs for your business.
Other game changers in the digital technology space
As discussed, Artificial Intelligence certainly takes first when it comes to game-changing technologies. In fact, over 25% of survey respondents deemed it so (beating the next highest score by 12%). Here are some other game-changing technologies and how you can move forward with them.
- Data Analytics. Among retailers, 17% listed the ability to accurately use and interpret data as the #1 game-changing technology. This is especially important for inventory management. Luckily, amazing systems like OrderDynamics have been developed that make it easier than ever to collect, analyze, and interpret the data behind your ordering process.
- The Cloud. This one scores 12% on the same survey. It’s becoming more and more important to store and protect information remotely (and responsibly) via the cloud. Being on the subject of the acceleration of digital, there are many issues that can arise without being prepared with the cloud. For example, storing your data in-house is not secure at all, and makes you prone to hacking and information theft.
- Digital Transformation. Overall digital transformation was also ranked as the #1 game-changer by 12% of survey respondents. This one shouldn’t come as a surprise. If you’re just now thinking of making the first steps to take your company digital, then I’m afraid you’re falling behind.
