The retail industry is going through a revolution with digital penetrating every aspect of the retail business.
Digital technologies have changed customer habit and opened new windows of retail concepts. From 22-plus-year-old Amazon to much younger companies like Birchbox, Jet, and Warby Parker, digital has its upper hand on them.
Retailers have showed great interest in adopting cloud technology, reflecting their desire to modernize commerce apps.
The main factor driving the digital transformation in the retail industry is empowered customer and stiff competition in the market.
Data from market research firm Forrester recently found that 32 percent of retailers have already adopted public cloud platforms globally.
The market situation has changed in a way that retailers must head to cloud to stay ahead of the competition.
Market studies reveal that retailers are of the view that cloud’s benefits outweigh potential risks, even in the face of concerns around security, privacy, and data ownership.
Moreover, retailers have overcome many of the security, data residency, and loss-of-control concerns that previously held them back from using cloud.
Therefore, traditional retailers must use cloud to increase business agility effectively to respond to digital disruptors, decrease time-to-market to more quickly reach empowered customers and to refocus investments to drive differentiating innovation.
According to Forrester, spending on all types of cloud services, including cloud apps (SaaS) and platforms, is growing at a 22 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
To encourage the cloud adoption, the global public megacloud providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Salesforce, have continually lowered prices. They have also improved performance and security, and innovated with new services and apps.
Since cloud offers higher scalability and optimized costs, it can be of significant importance to the retailers. In a foreword note to an upcoming report, Markets and Markets says that Chief Information Officers of major retail chains view cloud very optimistically.
As the retail industry sail through a competitive environment, demanding and learned consumers, the sector has to adopt newer technologies to maintain higher service levels and to attract and retain more number of customers.
Retailer-cloud vendor deals
Business technology major Oracle recently announced that ABC Fine Wine & Spirits has upgraded the Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service with the assistance of SkillNet Solutions.
The US-based ABC Fine Wine & Spirits operates 130 stores across Florida, selling beer, wine, spritis, cigars and gourmet food items.
In February, software giant Microsoft announced its cloud deal with India e-commerce company Flipkart, which will adopt Microsoft Azure as its exclusive public cloud platform.
