Panel Discussion: “Changing the Face of Loyalty Marketing”
An interesting panel discussion featuring Eric Singleton, CIO of Chico’s, Sahal Laher, CIO of Brooks Brothers, and Gayatri Patel, Director of Global Data Infrastructure at eBay, covered topics ranging from customer data protection to cloud technology.
Laher highlighted the importance of developing strategies around channel-agnostic behaviors. “You need visibility across all channels,” he emphasized.
Separately, on the topic of data analytics, he again called out the importance of focusing on supply chains: “Data goes beyond consumers. The data across the supply chain allows you to better predict demand. The whole paradigm is enhanced, compared to where you used to operate without data.” The promised land, he said, is getting to the union of data from the consumer and product side concurrently. According to Laher, the cloud is key to breaking down data silos. “In the old days, we had siloed stovepipe data sources. The use of the cloud represents a whole new method. You can capture data and push it to the cloud, and have access to that data globally.”
At the end of the discussion, the panelists offered their opinions on the future of retail 10 years from now. They all focused on the customer need for instant gratifaction, speed, and immediate fulfillment. Eric Singleton also added an interesting twist on this idea, stating that “we’ll see a tremendous rise in in-home manufacturing. I strongly believe that it’ll be nothing to produce a range of products in home.”
Panel: “The 2015 Agenda: Retail CIOs Reflect on Emerging Technology Trends”
This panel featured retail CIOs talking about some key technological issues facing retailers this year. There’s an idea that CIOs are less concerned now than in previous years about channel integration. Instead, they’re thinking about the whole customer experience.
On Omnichannel: Michelle Garvey of ANN Inc described how a company with disparate businesses–where the assortment and distribution vary across several variables like region–might have a more difficult time in achieving overall omnichannel success.
The Omnichannel Retail Supply Chain
How Technology Delivered in the Cloud Will Separate the Winners and Losers in the Eyes of Consumers.
Connecting with Trading Partners
Up to 80% of supply chain data resides outside the four walls of an enterprise, with trading partners. Retailers are increasingly investing in cloud-based collaboration platforms that bring data from each supply chain stakeholder to the cloud, where it’s shared in real-time. These networks allow companies to communicate easily, spread the IT costs over the entire network, align shipping and distribution needs, and improve the procurement process.
The growing use of collaborative tools between businesses is greatly reducing supply chain ineffi ciencies. Retailers that choose not to participate will endure less than stellar rates, operations in a silo, and higher costs of using traditional, license-based systems.
Download the White Paper: The Omnichannel Retail Supply Chain
On Security: In the future, retailers’ assets–the information they collect about people–may be digital, as well as physical. Security needs to be looked at holistically, from a total corporate risk perspective as well as a technology perspective. The Internet of Things will increase the “surface of attack.” But security will need to be solved by business strategy, not just IT strategy.
On Collaboration: Retailers need to collaborate more, with suppliers and customers. Consumer experience will vary, and will require different levels of engagement with individuals. Some customers will want to opt into a certain level of engagement, but not go any further. Others might only respond to certain types of outreach. This idea further cements the fact that demand will continue to grow more complex and volatile.
On Process: David Massey of Beale’s Inc. spoke about the important a need for a system that can solve the problem of having inventory shipped from distribution centers and stores, while enabling optimal inventory assortment.
On Technology: According to Michelle Garvey, there are 3 reasons companies upgrade technology:
BIG !deas Session: “Fulfilling the Promise: A Segment of One”
Bright and early this morning was a talk by Afshin Goodarzi of 1010data about how granular data can revolutionize the retail industry. He opened with a sharp definition of the term “analytics”–gathering raw data to answer business questions. According to Goodarzi, in the past computational limits forced restrictions on both the kind of data gathered and the types of questions asked. Retail analysts had to divide customers into broad segments like age, gender, geography, etc. when they created their predictive models of demand. At best, these were averages that catered to the middle of the road client. At worst, they were estimates that fell short of reality. Now, the computational limits have been removed. Where developing a single model in the past used to be incredibly time consuming and computationally intensive, now it’s possible to generate millions of models in minutes.
So what do you do with this power? First, you gather tremendously granular data, over a long period of time. This allows you to dispense with what’s known as a “frame bias,” or the inherent bias in the way you ask a business question. Fast, powerful computing allows you to restate your business problem over and over again in many different ways, overcoming any single bias. And you can assess the different answers. It also lets you ask “silly” out-of-the-box questions, which actually might reveal interesting and previously undiscovered information. Granular information, on an individual level, overcomes the problem of averages being poor predictors. And the best part is that aggregating all that indivdual data allows you to build from the ground up.
Goodarzi mentioned how taking customer data on an individual level can combine with granular data in stores, distribution centers, all the way up the supply chain. From customer to manufacturer, granular data can provide visibility and insight into volatile demand in a way previously impossible. He summarized the need for granular data with an interesting question: “What’s the color of gold?” It’s a trick question – there isn’t a single color. When you break down gold to the nano scale, there are actually five different colors from red to green that make up what we see collectively as “gold.” Unless you get granular information, you don’t get the full picture of what something is.
The BIG Show: NRF 2015 Blog, Day1 | Day 2 | Day 3