Some of the top retailers have revealed their business benefits after making investment in innovative technology solutions — ahead of the National Retail Federation’s Big Show NRF19 on January 13-15, 2019 in the US.
ALSO READ: NRF 2019: Retailers want retail technology innovation
Innovation is the foundation of retail technology companies in order to assist their customers to improve growth.
Collaborative marketplaces or storefronts-as-a-service are becoming mainstream in 2019, says STORES Magazine Editor Susan Reda.
WeWork is introducing WeMRKT, a shared retail space within existing WeWork locations to host pop-ups and experiments in retail.
Neighborhood Goods, near Dallas, is offering an opportunity to set up shop to direct-to-consumer businesses.
Tulip, the mobile platform for retail stores, added customers such as Chanel, Mulberry, David Yurman, De Beers Jewelers and Veronica Beard, while existing customers like Coach, Saks Fifth Avenue, Kate Spade, Michael Kors and Bonobos have expanded the business with Tulip.
Ali Asaria, CEO of Tulip, said: “The intimacy and personal experience that defined retail decades ago is being brought back by brands that are investing in tech for associates that enhances the engagement with customers.”
CRM supplier Salesforce is supporting retailers to transform shopping experience at retail chains. Salesforce has already assisted retail chains such as Rituals Cosmetics, Brunello Cucinelli, The Container Store, Crocs, Mulberry, Shinola and more, to enhance shopping experiences by deploying innovative solutions.
Brunello Cucinelli, an Italian luxury ready-to-wear brand, moved its ecommerce business to Commerce Cloud in 2016 to extend its luxury shopping experience online and has since quadrupled its ecommerce revenues.
The Container Store, a retailer of storage and organization products in the United States, uses Service Cloud and Sales Cloud to provide its service agents and sales team with a unified platform for customer engagement. The Container Store achieved decrease in the time it took to schedule installations from up to five days to minutes, and eliminated 100 percent of installations not paid for.
The Kroger Co., the third largest retailer in the world, is using Marketing Cloud to hyper-personalize the grocery experience for its millions of customers. The company achieved 40 percent increase in clicks.
The Michaels Companies, North America’s largest specialty provider of arts, crafts, framing and more, is deploying Marketing Cloud to engage its customers with personalized content, promotions and offers.
Mulberry, a British lifestyle brand, is deploying Salesforce to create better shopping experience between online and in-store.
Net-a-Porter, a luxury fashion destination, used Salesforce to unify 270 data streams into a single view, resulting in a better understanding of sales impact and ROI across its global marketing programs. The company achieved an annual time savings of more than 2,000 hours (that equates to more than 40 hours per week across approximately 25 team members).
Overstock.com, a retailer, deployed Service Cloud to empower associates to deliver personalized customer service across multiple channels. Overstock.com transitioned approximately 1,000 associates across multiple facilities to Service Cloud in days.
Rituals Cosmetics, an European cosmetics brand, has doubled its U.S. business year-over-year, with plans to launch 10 standalone stores and multiple points of sale with travel, retail and wholesale partners annually. Rituals Cosmetics grew its online business by 70 percent in one year.
Laura Ashley, an international lifestyle retailer, has selected Oracle Commerce Cloud to support its global online business.
Rajani Baburajan
