Forrester Research today suggested that business agility, a top priority for Chinese retailers, requires new architectures to integrate offline and online operations.
China’s retail innovators such as Suning, JD .com and Yihaodian use agile offline to online (O2O) architectures to gain an edge as digital businesses.
Forrester said Internet companies are disrupting the retail industry in China and the growing online population of metropolitan Chinese consumers and resellers is adding fuel to fire.
Charlie Dai, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said: “Traditional retailers need to focus on pervasive business agility and accelerate their customer-oriented digital business transformation through agile O2O architecture.”
- Maximize Customer Experience with Digital Business Agility
Implementing a unified data platform using offline integration techniques is the first step in providing a consistent online and offline customer experience. An agile application framework leveraging predictive analytics, social platforms, and gamification is the key to pervasive customer engagement and high-performance eCommerce.
- Expand Collaborative Ecosystem with the Cloud
Cloud solutions can help retail companies collaborate throughout the entire ecosystem with players including manufacturers, resellers, independent software vendors, and service providers. Retailers should help engage ecosystem partners for mutually beneficial growth.
- Support Business Growth with A Reliable, Scalable System Architecture
Reliable infrastructure design is a prerequisite for traditional retail companies looking to launch their eCommerce offerings, while scalable application architecture is critical to support continuous business growth. Retailers should consider seamless consolidation of the two for operational excellence.
