Retailers in the modern era are facing unprecedented challenges and disruptions, surpassing the changes experienced in the past century.
The influence of the internet, cloud technology, and more recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has accelerated the rate of change, empowering consumers with easy access to retailers offering diverse product selections and transparent pricing.
Today, customers expect information and products anytime, anywhere, and their purchasing journey is no longer linear.
To thrive in this evolving landscape, retailers must buckle up, embrace change, and deliver exceptional customer experiences, as failure to do so can render them into relics of irrelevance.
To achieve success, retailers must establish a technology foundation that seamlessly integrates front-end and back-end operations, provides a unified view of the customer, ensures consistent delivery of outstanding experiences, and possesses the flexibility and scalability required for growth.
What challenges are impeding retailers from delivering great customer experiences?
The disruptions in retail have brought forth several challenges that hinder retailers from effectively competing in the market:
- Ageing, disconnected IT systems: Many retailers rely on numerous legacy points systems, which are heavily customised and difficult to integrate. This results in fragmented data across different systems and high costs associated with updates and integrations. Traditional ERP systems, designed primarily for back-end processes, fall short of delivering exceptional customer experiences.
- Inconsistent data: To create a seamless experience, retailers must ensure consistent data across all customer touchpoints.
- Employee impediments: Without the necessary tools and access to personalised data, employees are unable to provide standout experiences that resonate with customers.
These challenges restrict retailers’ ability to adapt to market disruptions and emphasise the need for connected systems that enable the delivery of remarkable customer experiences.
What are the must-haves of customer-focused business technology?
In this hyper-competitive environment, here are five crucial pillars for building a unified customer experience with the right technology:
- 360° customer view: Retailers must consolidate all customer data, including purchase history, returns, and preferences, into a single repository.
- Innovative experiences: Flexible platforms enable the creation of innovative and immersive experiences that go beyond traditional eCommerce.
- Intelligent order orchestration: Retailers need to intelligently manage orders and optimise inventory utilisation to better serve customers.
- Unlimited expansion: Scalable platforms are necessary for retailers to expand globally and offer new products and services cost-effectively.
- Single cloud platform: With the rapid pace of change, relying on a patchwork of on-premise systems becomes impractical. Outstanding customer experiences require a cloud-based platform.
NetSuite: A modern, cloud-based business system for retail
Retailers face a critical decision between relying on multiple-point solutions with a traditional ERP or adopting a modern, cloud-based business system.
NetSuite provides an all-encompassing solution that integrates back-end systems and front-end engagement into a single cohesive system.
Using NetSuite, retailers can fulfil the essential business requirements for outstanding customer experiences, including a 360° customer view, innovative experience platforms, advanced order management, and scalable cloud-based architecture.
WHY CHOOSE FINANSYS AS YOUR NETSUITE SOLUTION PROVIDER
FinanSys is a full-service NetSuite Partner with a proven track record of success. We’ve been implementing ERP and financial management solutions for over two decades in a range of industries. To us, it’s not just work — we take pride in the quality of the solutions we deliver and we aren’t satisfied until your projects meet the highest standards. Our team takes keen interest in understanding your requirements and each project, large or small, is done with unmatched attention to every detail.
