Retail Excellence Playbook
A new playbook for customer experience and operational excellence in 2021.
Deliver an intelligent retail experience
Retail customers expect shopping to be dynamic, interactive and social. They are looking for a unified, seamless and personalised shopping experience across all channels. To guarantee success, retailers need to make sure that the journey is as positive as possible.
That goes for both customers and employees. In a recent survey, almost 94% of retailers polled agreed that the employees in their organisations are viewed as a source of workplace advantage. But the majority of retailers have yet to consider or prioritise the proper investment needed to create a workplace environment that will attract and retail talented and engaged employees. Those retail leaders who have a well-planned and executed workplace experience see it as a clear differentiator for them.
To win with both customers and employees requires retailers to incorporate innovation into the very core of their organisation. Whether it’s new technology, process improvements or entirely new business opportunities or partnerships, innovative thinking comes from everywhere: top down, bottom up, inside, outside. And infused in and through all these areas is intelligence. That’s especially clear in areas like intelligent technologies and tools where AI and automation can help retail organisations take digital transformation efforts to the next level.
"It was important for us to update our systems, and we needed a partner who understood and could handle the extent of our digital transformation. For us, it was a learning experience at all levels of the company to grow and find out what it really meant to be process-oriented."
The benefits of an end-to-end retail organisational structure
A connected retail experience can increase customer and employee loyalty – not to mention sales. To achieve this, retailers must become what we call Future Ready. Now. This enables you to harness the power of experiences, analytics and innovation to deliver a unified commerce approach to sales, mobility and productivity, as well as optimised interactions between customers and your frontline workforce.
The result should be delighted customers and maximised efficiency.
Our retail expertise
Avanade is a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture. Our combined industry, strategic and technical expertise means we understand the unique complexities of the retail market.
We can help you create an intelligent retail experience. We can deliver innovations such as advanced store replenishment, master data synchronisation, assisted selling, next-generation retail management infrastructure, digital marketing, intelligent revenue growth, predictive analytics, and multichannel service and fulfillment.
Our retail expertise is extensive:
- We have over 2,400 retail industry professionals.
- We currently have more than 100 large retail projects worldwide.
- Eleven out of the world’s 40 largest retailers are Avanade clients.
- More than 700 of our global delivery people are focused on retail.
- We are well known in the industry for our innovative presence at NRF and other industry events.
Now is the moment to reimagine the store experience
Realise the intelligent store with Microsoft and Avanade.
Rethink the way forward
5 priorities to guide retailers through the pandemic and emerge from it successfully.
The New Retail Environment Means New Business Priorities
ON DEMAND - Strategies for reconnecting with Customers and Associates as the economy reopens.
Seattle Goodwill ‘grows up with technology’
Seattle Goodwill’s retail thrift business had aging business systems comprised of disconnected solutions supported by manual processes. We helped the nonprofit implement a new Microsoft Dynamics-based platform, covering the back office, stores and the warehouses.
Venca takes control of its digital marketing campaigns with style
Avanade implemented its new Adobe Campaign platform and integrated the solution with Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Marks & Spencer breaks through barriers to smarter working
Avanade helps major retailer gain an agile edge with Skype for Business and Microsoft Cloud PBX.
Modern Workplace
To boost competitive advantage, think beyond EX with modern platforms and optimised technology.
