First it was globalization with increasing competitive pressure, which the media seemed to discuss endlessly a few years ago, and now it's supposed to be digitalization. Or even better: everyone is talking about the digital transformation.
All sectors are affected, but the retail industry is not only under particular pressure but also faces many new challenges that it has to deal with in order to meet customer expectations in the long term and, of course, to remain marketable. And there we have it again, our famous buzzwords. But how urgent is digitalization really?
Increasing digitalization and the associated technology is having an ever greater impact on our everyday lives, with smartphones and tablets in particular changing our habits in many areas. The number of customers who are increasingly social and mobile in the digital world is also growing steadily. We have content and topics of all kinds available digitally around the clock, tailored to our own needs. This means that the actual procurement of goods and services is becoming an increasingly important part of the digitalized world. This is having an ever greater impact on customers' purchasing behavior.
According to a recent study, almost half of those surveyed prefer to shop in stores.
Nevertheless, in addition to the stationary shopping experience with its scents, colors and shapes, the customer expects more variety and flexibility from the (retail) trade or from their favorite retailer in terms of availability and access to the range. This example will certainly give you a good idea of exactly what this means: http://t3n.de/news/endgegner-e-commerce-stationaerer-handel-542458/. Retailers must now learn to respond to the expectations and needs of customers, who are used to accessing information anytime and anywhere on their smartphone or tablet. Companies that also have a bricks-and-mortar store find it particularly difficult to link their processes with those of the online business in a meaningful way.
But what specific options are there for responding to this change?
In our core business area Microsoft Dynamics, we are already supporting a large number of companies of all sizes and from a wide range of industries on their path to digitalization.
Let's stay with the online store first.
The "Magento - Webshop Order Entry Interface" is an add-on solution for digital transformation and connects the retail company's systems to a webshop system for the automatic transfer of orders.
The smartphone or the possibility of spontaneous mobile purchases via a retailer app as a further path to digitalization? Yes, because the above-mentioned study also states that 40 percent of customers can imagine using an app from one or their retailer, provided the retailer offers a mobile ordering process.
The associated mobile checkout covers the need that arises or is awakened at the moment - anytime, anywhere. By simply scanning or clicking a barcode/QR code or a purchase link, the order process can also be linked to the payment process.
And an online store is not even a prerequisite. Readhow and where we are already successfully using the buy button or find out more at www.lchoice.de. We also present this add-on solution "@NAV - smart order entry: One Click Mobile POS" for QR code-based (repeat) orders in our monthly product reading series at the end of the newsletter.
In order to be able to operate even better in this area, i.e. to process a larger number of orders faster, digitalization offers numerous opportunities to shorten order throughput times and deliver goods to customers more quickly. This poses particular challenges for warehouse processes, logistics and infrastructure. The key question that arises at this point is how existing data can be better utilized and how the consistency of the information flow in the company and in the systems can be ensured.
The options already presented and those that follow will show you how to meet the requirements of digitization in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV area, among others.
The add-on solution "Mobile Warehouse" supports picking in the warehouse with reference to sales orders, production orders or other withdrawals.
Other "universal apps" offer you access at any time and from anywhere via web browser, tablet and smartphone and help you not only to automate processes with the help of workflows but also to digitize and further process them thanks to intelligent document management systems. We have already provided you with a detailed description of this in our Newsletter issue March 2016 shown.
We support you along the way and help you to realize the possibilities of this highly exciting subject area. Get in touch with us!
