Aruba's Road to Digitalization report shows the future of retail.

[nusratjahan]

According to Aruba ’s new report , Road to Digitalization in Retailing , retailers must quickly modernize back-end systems and invest in the right talent to survive in a multi-channel world.

Every year, the challenge for retail's survival becomes increasingly complex.
The report published by Aruba presents the results of a study involving over 900 managers and non-managers from global retailers, as well as interviews with two industry experts: Gabrielle Hase, digital commerce strategy consultant, and Daniel Borboff, founder of ASOS Ventures. The report explains why, after years of hesitation, the time has come for the retail industry to embrace technology. This means making long-term investments within the workplace to achieve the essential goals of a better customer experience and a stronger bottom line.

To contextualize its recommendations, the study highlights five key trends:
Workplace Technology Delays: Retail has been slower buy bulk sms service to implement workplace technology than other industries. Nearly two-thirds of managers and employees surveyed said their organizations risk falling behind their competitors if new technology isn't implemented.
Employees must be equipped with technology: to be successful, the brick-and-mortar retailer of the near future must equip its staff with connected digital tools that allow them to provide more personalized services to each customer. Currently, less than two-fifths of the sample have access to cloud computing applications capable of introducing improved collaboration and productivity within the retail environment.
Need for deeper inventory and product assortment insights: Customers expect retailers to offer them the items they want, when they want them, and where they want them. Only by improving their data systems—and potentially making better use of RFID and electronic label reading technology—can retailers solve the perennial problem of knowing the exact status of their product assortment and its location at any given time.
Old silos must be broken down: The union of physical and digital will require breaking down the divisions and structures that currently exist within retail organizations so that internal systems can seamlessly merge and function together to deliver the personalized experiences customers expect today.
An opportunity to think long-term: Retailers must accept the need to make significant investments in both systems and people and find new ways to measure success and leverage both short- and long-term results.