{"id":74243,"date":"2024-05-24T11:57:33","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T09:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intellias.com\/?post_type=blog&p=74243"},"modified":"2024-07-11T11:57:04","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T09:57:04","slug":"the-future-of-retail-defining-digital-technologies-for-sustainable-growth","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/intellias.com\/future-of-retail-defining-digital-technologies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future of Retail: Defining Digital Technologies For Sustainable Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"
Till, stock, and two sales associates \u2014 that\u2019s how many retailers got started in the middle of the last century to later grow into multi-nation, cross-channel enterprises, counting thousands of branches, employees, and customers.<\/p>\n
Big-box retailers entered the digital age with a lot of heritage. For some its strong brand affinity and substantial local customer bases. For others \u2014 it\u2019s a massive estate of legacy software systems, which stall the progress in digital initiatives.<\/p>\n
In both cases, the sheer scale of operations makes it hard to \u201cgo agile\u201d with the help of technologies. Something as simple as adding contactless payment processing<\/a> can take a couple of weeks for smaller retailers and months of meticulous planning, procurement, and installation for larger players.<\/p>\n Similarly, almost every retail SaaS vendor offers hot-key access to increased productivity, operational savings, and targeted promotions with its toolkit. The problem, however, is that such toolkits rarely scale to the required size.<\/p>\n Technology is often promoted as a \u201cmagic bullet\u201d to whichever obstacle the company is facing. And while technology indeed can be a powerful remedy to the cause, it\u2019s a tool to an end, not a solution in itself.<\/p>\n <\/div> \n <\/div>\n To usher in the future of retail larger players need a step-by-step strategy for progressive evolution, aligned with the business goals and the new shaping forces on the market.<\/p>\n Retail Innovation<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Consumer spending represents 60%<\/a> to 70%<\/a> of the total gross domestic product (GDP) in mature economies with the retail industry, driving a substantial part of it.<\/p>\n When rising interest rates and inflation hit the market, retailers are the first to experience the squeeze effect of growing materials, logistics, and merchandising costs against declining consumer spending.<\/p>\n That said, consumer spending never dries up completely, but rather it shifts across product categories and fluctuates in terms of purchase cycles. B2B buyers with better cash flow tend to create \u2018just-in-case\u2019 surpluses before another price hike, while others might want to delay some of the bigger-ticket purchases.<\/p>\n Likewise, as pricing becomes a more sensitive issue, both B2B and B2C consumers shop around for deals and seek out better customer experiences (CX).<\/p>\nFrom present to the future of retail: Building a path forward to profitability<\/h2>\n
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