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Transforming
Store Operations and Customer Experience
Mobility takes retail operations to the next level




                     Authors:
                     Satya Krishna
                     Sriram Anantharaman
                     Hari Krishnamurthy
                     Chinmay Sohoni
                     Shobha Gujjari




     FEBRUARY 2012
Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                TABLE OF CONTENTS
                                                Abstract 	                                                                                                                   3
                                                Excerpts	                                                                                                                    4
                                                Market Trends, Potential & Opportunity 	                                                                                     4
                                                Trends in Mobility 	                                                                                                         4
                                                Trends in Retail 	                                                                                                           5
                                                Impact of Mobility 	                                                                                                         5
                                                Impact on Consumer	                                                                                                          6
                                                Impact on Retail Industry & Processes 	                                                                                      6
                                                Impact on Technology 	                                                                                                       7
                                                Drivers for Adoption 	                                                                                                       8
                                                Challenges in the Retail Value Chain	                                                                                        9
                                                Role of Mobility across Retail Value Chain	                                                                               10
                                                Retail Connect – HCL Mobility Solution for Retailers	                                                                     12
                                                Key Solution Features	                                                                                                     13
                                                Why Retail Connect? 	                                                                                                     14
                                                Conclusion	                                                                                                               15
                                                About the Author 	                                                                                                        16
                                                About HCL	                                                                                                                18




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Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                Abstract
                                                Retailers are in the process of building mobile applications, seeing an opportunity
                                                to enable one-to-one marketing and improve customer experience. Retail supply
                                                chains have become increasingly global and complex, presenting greater challenges
                                                in managing supply and demand. New customers and distribution channels have
                                                developed, enhanced by technological innovations and geographical expansion.
                                                Existing channels are under pressure and require constant change to retain
                                                market position. Retailers have long used mobile devices for inventory purposes,
                                                but now they are racing to catch up with their customers’ broad use of mobility.
                                                There is a strong demand for customer-facing mobility solutions and solutions
                                                for mobilizing store associates to enable better customer service. In countless
                                                ways, mobility is boosting business productivity, speed and responsiveness. Tools
                                                like notebook computers, PDAs, cell phones, Wi-Fi networks and Virtual Private
                                                Networks (VPNs) have turned ‘business on the move’ into ‘business as usual’.
                                                At the same time, a number of organizations have also implemented mobility in
                                                a tactical and piecemeal manner, not realizing the gains possible from adopting a
                                                true strategic approach to mobility.
                                                The potential benefits of becoming a mobile enterprise are – utilizing new ways
                                                of streamlining operations, reducing costs, increasing workforce productivity and
                                                cash-on the power of real-time response. We believe mobility will let companies
                                                transcend distance and connectivity issues, create a virtual, personalized space for
                                                collaboration and empower front-line workers to make better, faster decisions.
                                                This whitepaper elaborates the vision to show how mobility will impact/ influence
                                                the consumer shopping experience and improve retail value chain processes, by
                                                enhancing workflow, increasing the speed of business transactions with near real-
                                                time communication between enterprise systems and personnel and providing
                                                better modes of reporting and management for a variety of stakeholders across
                                                the retail value chain.

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Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                Excerpts
                                                Retailers and consumer packaged goods manufacturers around the globe invest
                                                significantly more than $100 bn in programs designed to achieve an agreed rate
                                                of “sell-through”, whether online or in-stores. Most of the investments go dead
                                                because organizations fail to empower the execution of their sell-through plan
                                                in stores and fail to provide consumer experience continuity between online and
                                                offline shopping experiences.

                                                Retailers are constantly attempting to achieve a balance between improving daily
                                                operations and enhancing customer experience. To improve and continuously
                                                deliver value to all stakeholders in the current business scenario, it is important
                                                for the retailer to continuously deliver higher levels of customer service and
                                                simultaneously bring down the costs of their business operations.

                                                At HCL, we believe that any solution engineered, should be in line with the
                                                retailer’s growth and expansion strategy conceived for the next five years.
                                                Therefore, we align our thoughts to address the various business challenges in
                                                the retail ecosystem, by offering you ‘Retail Connect’ -- an integrated solution
                                                suite for the retail industry.

                                                Our solution aims to overcome the present day challenges in line with the
                                                current technology trends in mobile space, enabling real-time performance
                                                improvement at store and opportunities to enhance customer experience and
                                                increase profitability.


                                                Market Trends, Potential & Opportunity
                                                Trends in Mobility

                                                The number of wireless devices in the United States has surpassed the country’s
                                                total population (according to 2011 CTIA survey). Hence, effectively, there
                                                is more than one wireless device per person. There is also a large amount of
                                                diversity inherent in mobility. More than three billion people and almost over
                                                half of our small planet are equipped with mobile phones and this is just the tip
                                                of the iceberg.

                                                The changing business models are leading to web-based and mobile-based
                                                applications. As this gets evolved further, almost 40% of the operations will
                                                be done using mobile channels. The consumers are getting more demanding
                                                and impatient, seeking purchase information faster to make quick and informed
                                                decisions.

                                                Increase efficiency & productivity at all touch-points - Mobility is boosting
                                                business productivity, speed and responsiveness. All the touch-points in retail
                                                stores, such as pre-store planning, checkout, outside store, at shelf use and usage
                                                at home, among others are being made more efficient by using mobile channels.



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Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                Manage store operations & employee effectiveness - Retailers are leveraging
                                                mobility to make their store operations efficient, improving their customer
                                                experience and also increasing the effectiveness of their internal staff.

                                                Growth in business and consumer spending on mobile internet has exceeded
                                                expected estimates. In terms of business investment, expenditures on mobile
                                                marketing in the US alone are forecast to exceed $1 bn in 2011 and $1.5 bn in 2012.
                                                Pacing this growth in revenue is the consumer adoption rate for smartphones
                                                and other internet-capable mobile devices which is a critical determinant of
                                                potential market size. Research agencies predict that by 2015 over 36% of all US
                                                consumers are expected to be using mobile internet.

                                                Improving consumer experience & purchase cycle - Mobile usability
                                                improves the customer experience dramatically due to the advances in the device
                                                technology and the best practices for the design and development of software,
                                                small screens and touch screens.

                                                Trends in Retail

                                                Consumer’s tendency to rely on mobile devices to seek real-time purchase
                                                input - The ability to quickly share photos and compare prices through a growing
                                                number of applications is having an immediate impact on the consumer’s
                                                purchase decision. Mobile has been an effective medium to access peer opinion
                                                and customer advocacy which is an integral part of buying behavior.

                                                Retailers will extend their traditional CRM strategies through the mobile
                                                channel - Immediate opportunities exist for retailers to leverage the convenience
                                                of the mobile channel to alert customers of new/ seasonal sales, update customer
                                                order status and distribute personalized coupons. Another likely extension is the
                                                use of Near Field Communication (NFC) at stores for recognizing personalized
                                                mobile coupons sent to the customer. Using NFC-enabled mobile payment
                                                gateways at Point of Sale (POS) terminal reduces the overall billing transaction
                                                time. The investment required for these enabling technologies is quite minimal.
                                                In fact, it should be viewed as an extension of existing CRM initiatives.

                                                Leverage mobile communications for efficient inventory management
                                                and gaining traction - The retailers need to tailor messages for the mobile
                                                channel. Text limitations, mobile site capabilities and handset variations are the
                                                parameters defining mobile communication strategies. Mobile is an efficient way
                                                to alert loyal consumers about specific item sales or a particular promotion and
                                                many more strategic ways to move excess inventory and manage them efficiently.
                                                By extending eCommerce strategies into the mobile environment, retailers are
                                                taking advantage of their web experiences to develop an integrated strategy that
                                                has the potential to create a unique mobile retail channel.


                                                Impact of Mobility
                                                Mobility has affected not only consumer experience and purchase decisions
                                                but also the way retailers manage their internal process flows and their alliance
                                                relationships. This has changed the nature of business processes and has opened
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Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                the door for new, transformational business models. Mobile technology will also
                                                call for changes in the systems and infrastructure that support the business, with
                                                implications for networks, devices, databases and applications.

                                                Impact on Consumer

                                                The impact of mobility on the consumer has been in a number of ways. Mobile
                                                offers an immediate opportunity for retailers to connect with their customers in
                                                a meaningful way. Mobile communications have led to even more power in the
                                                hands of individuals taking us to an era of the hyper-connected consumer.

                                                Enhanced shopping experience - Mobile services integrated into the
                                                shopping experience, such as self-scanning and mobile payments, are helping
                                                consumers to get what they want more quickly. Even simple services such as
                                                mobile shopping lists can help consumers manage their lives better. The hyper-
                                                connected consumer will increasingly demand right information and tools at the
                                                right time to make good choices. Mobile services like extended packaging, allow
                                                consumers to choose products that are aligned with values such as health and
                                                well-being, respect for the environment and ethical choices.

                                                Mobility provides enlightenment of consumers to know more than ever about
                                                their choices. The consumers can now make comparisons and shop for the
                                                best price with ease. They get what they want, when they want it and influence
                                                the opinion, in positive or negative, of thousands or even millions of other
                                                consumers.

                                                This has also created challenges for businesses with a highly networked
                                                environment. How do they best find out what consumers want, offer them
                                                differentiated products and services and create and maintain a powerfully positive
                                                brand image?

                                                Impact on Retail Industry & Processes

                                                Mobilization has penetrated the retail business process at the task-management
                                                level. With remote task administration, work is centrally-assigned, modified,
                                                optimized and redistributed to available resources. Mobilized workflows
                                                have increased self-sufficiency, and decreased time to completion. Real-time
                                                monitoring has led to reduced downtime. Mobile reporting has empowered the
                                                managers to make timely and better decisions with improved access to real-time
                                                situational information.

                                                Consumer Insights - As the hyper-connected customers weave mobile
                                                interaction into their daily lives, retailers can gain greater insights into customer
                                                needs. This brings out the unprecedented opportunities for enhancing customer
                                                interaction and intimacy. Using the information from mobile tools, retailers can
                                                employ rules-based rendering techniques to present highly customized, relevant
                                                and timely offers. Moreover, by giving customers what they want — more ways
                                                to interact with their product and services providers — retailers also strengthen
                                                their relationships.



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Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                Improving internal & supply chain processes - This mobilized approach has
                                                changed the way businesses manage their internal and supply chain relationships,
                                                primarily in terms of information flow. Work task context awareness has brought
                                                improvements in the way tasks are assigned and performed as status information
                                                is dynamically monitored by performance alerting support systems. Mobile data
                                                capture and viewing provides real-time visibility for “live” information streams,
                                                while optimized data delivery supports many kinds of end devices.

                                                Innovations in the business ecosystem - Beyond the changes in internal
                                                operations, mobilization has changed the way companies are working with their
                                                business partners, leading to the development of business “ecosystems”. The
                                                free flow of information means greater innovation as partners collaborate under
                                                a shared vision supported by an integrated infrastructure. The synchronization
                                                of mobile workforces and central information systems is a value-add for all
                                                participants, providing new and better ways to orchestrate the development of
                                                global markets.

                                                Impact on Technology

                                                The impact of mobility on technology has been manifold, offering more choices,
                                                ease to consumer and creating efficiency and productivity for retailers.

                                                Functionality-driven benefits to consumers - Retailers have begun taking
                                                advantage of technologies such as RFID to enable mobile consumers to browse
                                                circulars on the handset, find additional information about products and make
                                                purchases with the snap of a camera phone.

                                                Customers can now use their smartphones as a mobile shopping cart. Once a
                                                customer gets near his favorite store (which can now be detected in present day
                                                smartphones with integrated GPS) he can be alerted about ongoing seasonal
                                                promotions and clearances in no time. Integrating this application with social
                                                networks can allow the customer to experience first-hand reviews from his
                                                closest friends about the chosen merchandize and ongoing best deals. Once
                                                the customer expresses his wish to pay, the smartphone can be programmed to
                                                connect to a mobile gateway for the store by taking the customer’s most preferred
                                                credit card details and generate an e-bill and an invoice for the store pickup or a
                                                direct store delivery.

                                                Processes-driven changes for employees - Mobile technology has emerged as
                                                a necessity and is no longer seen as a luxury anymore. The continuing spread of
                                                mobile technology will have a dramatic impact on the way retailers do business
                                                in the years to come. The latest mobile technologies have also improved the
                                                way employees interact with core business systems. The personalization lets
                                                employees set application and device preferences to customize their interaction,
                                                in terms of work flow, content, formatting, accessories and features. Store-
                                                level merchandizers and field agents enabled with advanced mobile technology,
                                                will bring more efficiency in store-level execution of category assortments,
                                                promotions and delivery operations. Companies that embrace mobile technology
                                                will witness improvements in productivity and operational efficiency that were
                                                unimaginable a few years ago.

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Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                Drivers for Adoption
                                                Mobile retail has evolved from being seen as an alternate channel by retailers, to
                                                becoming an opportunity capable of giving them an edge over their conventional
                                                competitors. The progressive mobile trends in the retail space are fuelled by
                                                the drivers identified below, leading to the adoption of mobile technology in
                                                retail firms.

                                                •	 Multi-channel integration - Bringing web and store experiences together
                                                   will maximize return-on-investment in both channels (for example, by
                                                   allowing customers to order in stores for home delivery, or vice versa).

                                                •	 Customer engagement and loyalty - Retailers are trying to find new ways to
                                                   get consumers into stores and interact with them to influence their behavior
                                                   toward repeat buying and impulse buying, with minimal delay or friction in
                                                   the transaction.

                                                •	 Staff enablement - Giving employees the ability to train, access product
                                                   information, take orders and complete payments from anywhere in the store,
                                                   will make them more productive.

                                                •	 Mobile commerce coming of age – The mobile device, from acting as
                                                   a connective tissue connecting print and online media, has now become an
                                                   important channel especially for retailers to create lucrative revenue and brand
                                                   establishment.

                                                •	 Mobile coupons becoming mainstream - Mobile coupons allow retailers to
                                                   have a highly targeted coupon distribution system as compared to traditional
                                                   mechanisms, leading to much higher consumer engagement and returns on
                                                   investment. Coupons, combined with new age technology such as QR codes
                                                   and NFC, make mobile purchasing as simple as a daily routine activity.

                                                •	 Integration of social networking with mobile devices - Increased speed of
                                                   information dissemination on social networks through mobile devices, makes
                                                   mobile devices the perfect partners for the social networks. In fact, Facebook
                                                   and Twitter applications are amongst the most popular downloads from the
                                                   App Stores across device types. Consumers increasingly count on feedback
                                                   from peers and connections for pre-purchase decision making. Location-
                                                   based services allow for contextual information search and dispersal.

                                                •	 Mobile is an integral part of the purchase decision process - Consumers
                                                   are increasingly using their mobile devices in their purchase process. From
                                                   searching for information and evaluation of alternatives, to purchasing the
                                                   product and broadcasting post-purchase feedback.

                                                	    Consumers are also increasingly using mobile devices to access other popular
                                                     websites to gain benefits of collective purchasing.

                                                At HCL, we believe that any solution engineered, should be in line with the
                                                retailer’s growth and expansion strategy conceived for the next five years.
                                                Therefore, we align our thoughts to address the various business challenges in
8                                               © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                the retail ecosystem, by offering you ‘Retail Connect’ -- an integrated solution
                                                suite for the retail industry.

                                                Our solution aims to overcome the present day challenges in line with the current
                                                technology trends in mobile space, enabling real-time performance improvement
                                                at store providing opportunities to enhance customer experience and increase
                                                profitability. The solution also extends across every echelon throughout the retail
                                                value chain for potential improvements in data & process visibility, cycle time
                                                reduction in business decision making activities & improved co-ordination of
                                                workforce across the value chain


                                                Challenges in the Retail Value Chain
                                                Retailers and consumer packaged goods manufacturers around the globe invest
                                                significantly more than $100 bn in programs designed to achieve an agreed rate
                                                of “sell-through”, whether online or in-stores. Most of the investments go dead
                                                because organizations fail to empower the execution of their sell-through plan
                                                in stores and fail to provide consumer experience continuity between online and
                                                offline shopping experiences.

                                                Retailers are constantly attempting to achieve a balance between improving daily
                                                operations and enhancing customer experience.

                                                To improve and continuously deliver value to all stakeholders in the current
                                                business scenario, it is important for the retailer to continuously deliver higher
                                                levels of customer service and simultaneously bring down the costs of their
                                                business operations. Considering the current retailing scenario, the primary
                                                challenges across the value chain are:

                                                •	 Challenge to enhance productivity of daily retail operations

                                                     ❚❚   Inability to drive business processes due to:
                                                          -	 Lack of real-time insight on store/ warehouse workforce availability
                                                             and lack of real-time information to communicate with customer/
                                                             colleagues
                                                          -	 Unmanaged workforce at supply chain echelons to attend real-
                                                             time promotion labeling, ad-hoc and seasonal in-store/ warehouse
                                                             replenishment, in-store customer service, etc
                                                          -	 Lack of real-time supply chain disruptions ensuring resilient logistics
                                                             and fulfillment operations
                                                          -	 Lack of real-time visibility and traceability to supply chain distribution
                                                             and direct store delivery operations
                                                          -	 Lack of real-time information on seasonal impacts affecting status quo
                                                             of retail operations such as desired stock to shelf lead times and other
                                                             key performance terms




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Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                       -	 Lack of real-time insight into key performance indicators on store
                                                          performance like customer traffic, best and worst selling merchandize,
                                                          inventory levels, etc

                                             •	 Challenge in providing supreme customer service
                                                  ❚❚   Need to improve customer intimacy
                                                       -	 Lack of store colleague capability to sustain and improve quality of
                                                          service
                                                       -	 Customers requiring sufficient responsiveness from store manager and
                                                          colleagues on ad-hoc interactions
                                                       -	 Customer unable to receive real-time individualized promotional offers
                                                          or deals based on personalized buy list

                                                  ❚❚   Reach greater heights to understand customer better to match their
                                                       expectations
                                                       -	 Customer expects discounts via mobile coupons to be used readily at
                                                          store
                                                       -	 Customer preference for easy in-store navigation (POG View); zoom
                                                          in/out in any crowded day
                                                       -	 Customer prefers to have a single view of product/ price/ stock across
                                                          channels on his mobile device
                                                       -	 Customer prefers to know about alternate products available at the
                                                          store or with the retailer at any point of time, anywhere


                                             Role of Mobility across Retail Value Chain
                                             Mobile as a new communication channel definitely finds its place across the retail
                                             value chain to fructify this differentiation.

                                             Given the retail value chain as a whole, retail stores thrive as a most promising
                                             environment for gaining new insights about customer buying behavior and daily
                                             sales operations, wherein technology is greatly used as an accelerator for greater
                                             business benefits (Gartner, February 2011).




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Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                             ‘Retail Store’

                                             Mobile applications in the hands of a store manager or store colleague is
                                             perceived to enhance the overall store performance with the real-time insight
                                             into daily store operations saving shop floor personnel’s valuable time. Peer-
                                             to-peer messages like simple status message on receiving or cycle counting
                                             operations, ad-hoc replenishment requests, labor allocation/ completion statuses
                                             and real-time feeds that promise visibility into inventory availability across brick
                                             & mortar and online stores with a single swipe of a finger. A dashboard for the
                                             store manager is looked as a single source of real-time information for sales,
                                             customer footfall trends, sell-through performance, category performance, labor
                                             availability, etc.

                                             Customer experience functions like alternate styles check, information on next
                                             in-date, consultative selling and in-store shop floor enhancements improve and
                                             strengthen the image of the store and store personnel within the customers’
                                             mind. Mobility in the hands of customer can also enable him to quickly shop
                                             yet pick the best-selling items in the retail store as per his personalized wish list
                                             via a built-in store navigation application in his very own smartphone. Fashion
                                             merchandize can be given a 360-degree view and an augmented reality experience,
                                             to make the customer feel the experience of owning the wished merchandize in
                                             a matter of seconds.


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                                             ‘Retail Supply Chain’
                                             Supply chain promises to be the next improvement area, where next age
                                             smartphone applications can be leveraged to obtain real-time insights into
                                             warehousing and distribution operations. Accuracy of every pick operation can
                                             be improved if “guided picking” can be made a reality. Field force consultants
                                             can be suggested the best possible route to deliver customer orders and pick
                                             merchandize at intermediate locations thus optimizing every route traversed.
                                             Quick insights to replenishment patterns would make supply chain managers
                                             more agile and ensure availability of the right merchandize, at the right locations
                                             and at the right time.

                                             ‘Retail Enterprise’
                                             Mobile applications are constantly finding their way into smartphones of senior
                                             and middle management corporate executives who increasing use their mobile
                                             phones as a smarter medium to know their business operations. Smartphones
                                             can also be programmed to present a list of reasons or ‘root causes’ pointing out
                                             to a dip in sales or margin or merchandize out-of-stock scenarios during times of
                                             seasonal rush. Buyers and merchandizers would then walk into a supplier review
                                             meeting with just their iPad where they can discuss the supplier performance
                                             in comparison to other best in class suppliers for the same category. CRM and
                                             marketing teams find mobiles as the fastest channel to reach a customer and
                                             get his attention in the minimum possible time span to pass on personalized
                                             promotions/ mobile coupons to sustain customer loyalty.


                                             Retail Connect – HCL Mobility Solution for
                                             Retailers
                                             Retail organizations need partners who possess knowledge, expertise and
                                             personnel working on multiple mobile platforms, tools and technologies to assist
                                             in mobile enablement of key strategic business processes and thereby achieve
                                             their organization goals.

                                             Retailers and consumer packaged goods manufacturers carefully plan their
                                             new product introductions as well as their pricing and promotions policy. They
                                             allocate store space, production, and transportation capacity and optimize their
                                             merchandize mix, devising intricate schemes for joint advertising, offers and
                                             displays but fail to execute a sell-through plan. It is not technological complexity,
                                             but the innovation and usability factor in a mobile application that creates a
                                             competitive differentiator for organizations.




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Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                                                                                                           Sales Force
                                                                                        Dashboards                                         Automation
                                                                   Mobile Portals      (Store/Corp.)                                                         Task & Service
                                                                    (Enterprise)                                                                              Management



                                                                                                          Product            Virtual
                                                                                                           Guide             Reality
                                                      Workflow                      Customer
                                                                                                                                                                       Customer Order
                                                     Management                     Experience                                                 Planogram
                                                                                                                                                                          Capture



                                                                       Mobile                                 Order & Inventory
                                                                      Websites                                  Management                                    Mobile
                                                                                              Store                                                          Coupons
                                                                                                                                   Distribution
                                                                                            Navigator                              Management



                                                           Track’n’
                                                            Trace                                                                                                        Store
                                                                                                                                                                        Locator




                                                      Packaged
                                                      Enterprise                                                                                                           Mobile
                                                        Apps                                                                                                              Payments


                                                                          Corporate                    Supply Chain                    Store             Consumer




                                             Key Solution Features
                                                 Mobility Centre of Excellence

                                             •	 Alerts – These would improve operational performance of store managers,
                                                reducing the waiting time for pending approvals. It also keeps the store
                                                manager and colleagues informed on real-time production needs and also
                                                interact with one another. It has the ability to readily indicate out-of-stock
                                                data and attend to real-time replenishment. This can also lead to enhancing
                                                customer experience with location-based services.
                                             •	 Store performance dashboards – These dashboards will enable the store
                                                manager to monitor store traffic/ sales in real-time and provide EOD
                                                snapshots in a single view. This provides the capability to measure performance
                                                in multi-dimensional views and attend to employee performance in real-time
                                                insights. Compare actual, forecasted, previous day store performance at every
                                                level of detail within the store.
                                             •	 Workforce management – This readily matches store personnel availability
                                                to tasks and obtain real-time status of pending tasks. It also provides
                                                instantaneous updates to store personnel with information on tasks to be
                                                completed and approve work force task allocation.
                                             •	 Planogram – This is a ‘Virtual Store Shelf ’ which can virtually arrange shelf
                                                layouts and dynamically add merchandize to shelf, reducing cycle time in
                                                planogram resets.
                                             •	 Item/ Inventory Lookup - Identify retail, UOM, variety available as styles,
                                                item location within store, current stock on hand, nearest replenishment
                                                center and PO ETA date. It obtains real-time monthly or weekly price history
                                                for a chosen item and provides multi-channel inventory visibility.
                                             •	 Mobile POS - This will have a unique customer-based log-in and NFC-
                                                enabled mobile coupons. This would enable up-sell and cross-sell across
                                                channels, improve customer experience by avoiding long queue waiting time



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Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                  and complete the sale on floor. It also provides the ability to modify the list
                                                  of merchandize in an unbilled sale transaction.
                                             •	 In-store Navigator - This will enable the store colleague to help the customer
                                                in visualizing the location of the preferred merchandize and provide the
                                                ability to identify the merchandize as per a customer’s wish list. This has an
                                                integrated ‘Alerts’ functionality which would enhance the customer experience
                                                at the store.
                                             •	 Corporate Dashboards - This would provide corporate performance on-
                                                the-go in one swipe, the capability to drill down to region/ district/ state/
                                                store and also have role-based performance for corporate users and provide
                                                a comparison with the last year data.
                                             •	 Vendor Performance - A key benefit would be performance view of the
                                                multiple measurements related to partners and effective periodic vendor
                                                reviews. Compare the vendor performance to other vendors, giving a
                                                consolidated view across partners and specific vendor performance across
                                                the timeline.


                                             Why Retail Connect?
                                             •	 Provides a truly convenient shopping experience - Stores need to be
                                                designed to create an environment that is easy to shop and provides customers
                                                with the necessary tools, information and services required to make an
                                                informed and confident purchase.
                                             •	 Store Performance - Retailers are challenged between the demanding and
                                                divergent expectations of improving customer service and managing costs.
                                                An effective store management strategy can drive cultural change by adopting
                                                technology and putting the store managers back on the selling floor, better
                                                organizing store workflows and simplifying the buying process.
                                             •	 Deliver a flexible product/ service offering - Retailers need to be able to
                                                tailor their offerings to meet customer needs across different segments, local
                                                markets, shopping occasions and product categories. The store should be
                                                designed and operated with flexible options that allow customers to shop the
                                                way they want to.
                                             •	 Retailers must regain focus on the total experience - The market drivers
                                                described above are forcing retailers to re-examine their core value proposition
                                                and how it is delivered to customers. Retailers need to re-orient their thinking
                                                to place greater focus on the total retail experience to differentiate themselves
                                                from their competitors.
                                             •	 Workforce Productivity & Optimization – Efficient workforce planning
                                                and management tools can help store managers re-deploy their workforce
                                                from departments where they are not needed to parts of the store where
                                                customers are gathered. Retailers are challenged to create a “pool” of talent
                                                that will ultimately be groomed to become store managers. Retailer growth
                                                plans are often eclipsed by absence of talent pool to become store managers
                                                in new locations.
                                             •	 Proven Capabilities of HCL in Retail & Mobility Solutions – HCL has
                                                an established Center of Excellence (CoE) dedicated to Enterprise Mobility


14                                           © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                  and have gathered deep expertise in building solutions in the retail mobile
                                                  space, including mobile applications for pricing and availability, order status
                                                  and product search management, mobile POS applications, cross-platform
                                                  migration of mobile applications and developing mobile-enabled websites.
                                             •	 HCL Alliances & Domain Skill-sets - HCL has strategic partnerships
                                                with all key players in the mobility ecosystem -- Mobile Original Equipment
                                                Manufacturers (OEMs), Telecom Service Providers, Mobile Platforms and
                                                Software Vendors and Enterprises. With 3000+ person years of experience
                                                and 150+ projects under the belt, HCL’s experience is extendable to
                                                customers seeking de-risked and reliable outcomes in their mobile solution
                                                implementations.
                                             To summarize, Retail Connect addresses the following key concerns
                                             for a majority of retail organizations:
                                             •	 Need for a better communication medium to understand customer preferences
                                                and match customer expectations
                                             •	 Need to align shop floor workforce and thereby improving store and
                                                warehouse location performance
                                             •	 Need to drive operational (daily tasks) business processes across the value
                                                chain


                                             Conclusion
                                             In conclusion, Mobility has emerged as a key channel impacting consumers,
                                             employees and processes in the retail industry. Mobility is radically changing the
                                             buying behavior of consumers and is reshaping the retail workplace itself.
                                             Mobility, in the hands of customer, has enabled him to quickly shop yet pick the
                                             best selling items in the retail store as per his personalized wish-list via a built-in
                                             store navigation application in his very own smartphone. Fashion merchandize
                                             can be given 360-degree view and an augmented reality experience, to make the
                                             customer feel the experience of owning the wished merchandize in a matter
                                             of seconds. Such is the possibility to enhance customer experience by bringing
                                             the store to the customer. Leading retailers are already reaching consumers with
                                             mobile services that make them more productive in the store and engage them in
                                             unique ways that transform the shopping experience.
                                             Leading retailers have excelled in significantly improving the customer experience
                                             and streamlining their warehouse operations and inventory processes. Mobility
                                             devices like wireless handheld devices or handheld computers have been utilized
                                             to enable customer service, personalized shopping, retail payments at the
                                             point-of-sale, real-time data and statistics in the field as well as other inventory
                                             management processes, including those with distribution centers.
                                             With the emergence of new and powerful mobility tools, employees can now
                                             work productively from virtually anywhere. Its growing potential to strengthen
                                             organizational performance has moved mobility from the sidelines to the
                                             mainstream of Information Technology. Organizations aiming at maximizing
                                             corporate performance must incorporate mobility as a fundamental component
                                             of their strategic plans.

15                                           © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                             About the Author
                                                                  Satya Krishna
                                                                  Solutions Principal – Retail
                                                                  Satya is a Retail Business Consultant with 13 years of experience
                                                                  with global retailers. He has been involved in many transformational
                                                                  initiatives across the retail value chain involving supply chain
                                                                  optimization,      multi-channel      integration,    merchandizing
                                                                  modernization, business process re-engineering and IT strategy
                                                                  definition. Satya is a Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)
                                                                  from APICS.
                                                                  Currently Satya leads the Retail Domain Solutions Group at HCL,
                                                                  which is responsible for creating new solutions to drive innovation
                                                                  and thought leadership across the retail business unit.


                                                                  Sriram Anantharaman
                                                                  Deputy General Manager
                                                                  HCL’s Mobility Center of Excellence
                                                                  Sriram is a key member of HCL’s Mobility Center of Excellence
                                                                  and brings close to 21 years of cross industry experience. He has
                                                                  been with HCL since 2002, and has led large distributed teams
                                                                  and delivered business critical programs for clients globally. Sriram
                                                                  has handled multiple roles ranging from project management,
                                                                  consulting services to creating innovative lines of IT services.
                                                                  Leveraging his expertise around Enterprise Solutions, CRM,
                                                                  Mobile Applications and Solution Outlining, he has established an
                                                                  experienced team focused on Mobile Solutions and Applications. .
                                                                  Sriram has also been a speaker at numerous IT conferences and
                                                                  events. An evangelist for customer centric IT solutions, he works
                                                                  with the mobility team to constantly go beyond known technology
                                                                  boundaries.


                                                                  Hari Krishnamurthy
                                                                  Business Manager – Retail Solutions

                                                                  Hari currently works with HCL’s Retail & CPG vertical solutions
                                                                  team. He has over 7+ years of consulting experience as a Retail
                                                                  and CPG Industry Solutions Principal. He worked as the Solution
                                                                  Architect for HCL’s ‘Retail Connect’ – a new Mobility-based solution
                                                                  catering the end-to-end Retail value chain. He is experienced in
                                                                  conducting business analysis and defining business requirements
                                                                  for large business transformation and IT enhancement programs
                                                                  on mobility and retail supply chain & multi-channel commerce.




16                                           © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012




                                                                  Chinmay Sohoni
                                                                  Sr Management Trainee – Mobility CoE


                                                                  Chinmay has an experience of four years in the IT Services and
                                                                  Software Product Development, majorly in the Mobility space.
                                                                  He holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science & Engineering
                                                                  and an MBA in International Business. Currently, he is an integral
                                                                  part of the Mobility Centre of Excellence at HCL in roles such as
                                                                  Business Analyst and Consultant. He has worked on projects across
                                                                  business domains that include Retail, Healthcare, Travel & Logistics
                                                                  and Energy & Utilities.


                                                                  Shobha Gujjari
                                                                  Sr Management Trainee – Mobility CoE
                                                                  Shobha has close to 6 years of experience in the IT Services &
                                                                  Product Development industry, working across BFSI and Telecom
                                                                  domains. She holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science
                                                                  & Engineering and an MBA in IT. She is a key member of the
                                                                  Mobility Center of Excellence in HCL and has worked on projects
                                                                  across BFSI, Retail, Manufacturing and Healthcare & Life Sciences.
                                                                  She was instrumental in devising a consulting approach for mobile
                                                                  strategy, enabling enterprises to adopt mobility targeting their
                                                                  employees and consumers alike.




17                                           © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
CUSTOM APPLICATION
SERVICES

ENGINEERING AND
R&D SERVICES

ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
SERVICES

ENTERPRISE
TRANSFORMATION SERVICES

IT INFRASTRUCTURE
MANAGEMENT

                          ABOUT HCL
BUSINESS PROCESS
OUTSOURCING               About HCL Technologies
                          HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company, working with
                          clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their businesses. Since
                          its inception into the global landscape after its IPO in 1999, HCL focuses on
                          ‘transformational outsourcing’, underlined by innovation and value creation, and
                          offers an integrated portfolio of services including software led IT solutions,
                          remote infrastructure management, engineering and R&D services and BPO.
                          HCL leverages its extensive global offshore infrastructure and network of
                          offices in 26 countries to provide holistic, multi-service delivery in key industry
                          verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Services, Public
                          Services and Healthcare. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of ‘Employees First’
                          which empowers our 83,076 transformers to create real value for customers.
                          HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues
                          of US$ 3.9 billion (18,334 crores), as on 31 December 2011 (on LTM basis).
                          For more information, please visit www.hcltech.com

                          About HCL Enterprise
                          HCL is a $6 billion leading global technology and IT enterprise comprising two
                          companies listed in India - HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. Founded
                          in 1976, HCL is one of India’s original IT garage start-ups. A pioneer of modern
                          computing, HCL is a global transformational enterprise today. Its range of
                          offerings includes product engineering, custom & package applications, BPO,
                          IT infrastructure services, IT hardware, systems integration, and distribution of
                          information and communications technology (ICT) products across a wide range
                          of focused industry verticals. The HCL team consists of 88,000 professionals of
                          diverse nationalities, who operate from 31 countries including over 500 points of
                          presence in India. HCL has partnerships with several leading Global 1000 firms,
                          including leading IT and technology firms. For more information, please visit
                          www.hcl.com

                          © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.

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HCLT Whitepaper: Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience

  • 1. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience Mobility takes retail operations to the next level Authors: Satya Krishna Sriram Anantharaman Hari Krishnamurthy Chinmay Sohoni Shobha Gujjari FEBRUARY 2012
  • 2. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 3 Excerpts 4 Market Trends, Potential & Opportunity 4 Trends in Mobility 4 Trends in Retail 5 Impact of Mobility 5 Impact on Consumer 6 Impact on Retail Industry & Processes 6 Impact on Technology 7 Drivers for Adoption 8 Challenges in the Retail Value Chain 9 Role of Mobility across Retail Value Chain 10 Retail Connect – HCL Mobility Solution for Retailers 12 Key Solution Features 13 Why Retail Connect? 14 Conclusion 15 About the Author 16 About HCL 18 2 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 3. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 Abstract Retailers are in the process of building mobile applications, seeing an opportunity to enable one-to-one marketing and improve customer experience. Retail supply chains have become increasingly global and complex, presenting greater challenges in managing supply and demand. New customers and distribution channels have developed, enhanced by technological innovations and geographical expansion. Existing channels are under pressure and require constant change to retain market position. Retailers have long used mobile devices for inventory purposes, but now they are racing to catch up with their customers’ broad use of mobility. There is a strong demand for customer-facing mobility solutions and solutions for mobilizing store associates to enable better customer service. In countless ways, mobility is boosting business productivity, speed and responsiveness. Tools like notebook computers, PDAs, cell phones, Wi-Fi networks and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have turned ‘business on the move’ into ‘business as usual’. At the same time, a number of organizations have also implemented mobility in a tactical and piecemeal manner, not realizing the gains possible from adopting a true strategic approach to mobility. The potential benefits of becoming a mobile enterprise are – utilizing new ways of streamlining operations, reducing costs, increasing workforce productivity and cash-on the power of real-time response. We believe mobility will let companies transcend distance and connectivity issues, create a virtual, personalized space for collaboration and empower front-line workers to make better, faster decisions. This whitepaper elaborates the vision to show how mobility will impact/ influence the consumer shopping experience and improve retail value chain processes, by enhancing workflow, increasing the speed of business transactions with near real- time communication between enterprise systems and personnel and providing better modes of reporting and management for a variety of stakeholders across the retail value chain. 3 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 4. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 Excerpts Retailers and consumer packaged goods manufacturers around the globe invest significantly more than $100 bn in programs designed to achieve an agreed rate of “sell-through”, whether online or in-stores. Most of the investments go dead because organizations fail to empower the execution of their sell-through plan in stores and fail to provide consumer experience continuity between online and offline shopping experiences. Retailers are constantly attempting to achieve a balance between improving daily operations and enhancing customer experience. To improve and continuously deliver value to all stakeholders in the current business scenario, it is important for the retailer to continuously deliver higher levels of customer service and simultaneously bring down the costs of their business operations. At HCL, we believe that any solution engineered, should be in line with the retailer’s growth and expansion strategy conceived for the next five years. Therefore, we align our thoughts to address the various business challenges in the retail ecosystem, by offering you ‘Retail Connect’ -- an integrated solution suite for the retail industry. Our solution aims to overcome the present day challenges in line with the current technology trends in mobile space, enabling real-time performance improvement at store and opportunities to enhance customer experience and increase profitability. Market Trends, Potential & Opportunity Trends in Mobility The number of wireless devices in the United States has surpassed the country’s total population (according to 2011 CTIA survey). Hence, effectively, there is more than one wireless device per person. There is also a large amount of diversity inherent in mobility. More than three billion people and almost over half of our small planet are equipped with mobile phones and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The changing business models are leading to web-based and mobile-based applications. As this gets evolved further, almost 40% of the operations will be done using mobile channels. The consumers are getting more demanding and impatient, seeking purchase information faster to make quick and informed decisions. Increase efficiency & productivity at all touch-points - Mobility is boosting business productivity, speed and responsiveness. All the touch-points in retail stores, such as pre-store planning, checkout, outside store, at shelf use and usage at home, among others are being made more efficient by using mobile channels. 4 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 5. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 Manage store operations & employee effectiveness - Retailers are leveraging mobility to make their store operations efficient, improving their customer experience and also increasing the effectiveness of their internal staff. Growth in business and consumer spending on mobile internet has exceeded expected estimates. In terms of business investment, expenditures on mobile marketing in the US alone are forecast to exceed $1 bn in 2011 and $1.5 bn in 2012. Pacing this growth in revenue is the consumer adoption rate for smartphones and other internet-capable mobile devices which is a critical determinant of potential market size. Research agencies predict that by 2015 over 36% of all US consumers are expected to be using mobile internet. Improving consumer experience & purchase cycle - Mobile usability improves the customer experience dramatically due to the advances in the device technology and the best practices for the design and development of software, small screens and touch screens. Trends in Retail Consumer’s tendency to rely on mobile devices to seek real-time purchase input - The ability to quickly share photos and compare prices through a growing number of applications is having an immediate impact on the consumer’s purchase decision. Mobile has been an effective medium to access peer opinion and customer advocacy which is an integral part of buying behavior. Retailers will extend their traditional CRM strategies through the mobile channel - Immediate opportunities exist for retailers to leverage the convenience of the mobile channel to alert customers of new/ seasonal sales, update customer order status and distribute personalized coupons. Another likely extension is the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) at stores for recognizing personalized mobile coupons sent to the customer. Using NFC-enabled mobile payment gateways at Point of Sale (POS) terminal reduces the overall billing transaction time. The investment required for these enabling technologies is quite minimal. In fact, it should be viewed as an extension of existing CRM initiatives. Leverage mobile communications for efficient inventory management and gaining traction - The retailers need to tailor messages for the mobile channel. Text limitations, mobile site capabilities and handset variations are the parameters defining mobile communication strategies. Mobile is an efficient way to alert loyal consumers about specific item sales or a particular promotion and many more strategic ways to move excess inventory and manage them efficiently. By extending eCommerce strategies into the mobile environment, retailers are taking advantage of their web experiences to develop an integrated strategy that has the potential to create a unique mobile retail channel. Impact of Mobility Mobility has affected not only consumer experience and purchase decisions but also the way retailers manage their internal process flows and their alliance relationships. This has changed the nature of business processes and has opened 5 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 6. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 the door for new, transformational business models. Mobile technology will also call for changes in the systems and infrastructure that support the business, with implications for networks, devices, databases and applications. Impact on Consumer The impact of mobility on the consumer has been in a number of ways. Mobile offers an immediate opportunity for retailers to connect with their customers in a meaningful way. Mobile communications have led to even more power in the hands of individuals taking us to an era of the hyper-connected consumer. Enhanced shopping experience - Mobile services integrated into the shopping experience, such as self-scanning and mobile payments, are helping consumers to get what they want more quickly. Even simple services such as mobile shopping lists can help consumers manage their lives better. The hyper- connected consumer will increasingly demand right information and tools at the right time to make good choices. Mobile services like extended packaging, allow consumers to choose products that are aligned with values such as health and well-being, respect for the environment and ethical choices. Mobility provides enlightenment of consumers to know more than ever about their choices. The consumers can now make comparisons and shop for the best price with ease. They get what they want, when they want it and influence the opinion, in positive or negative, of thousands or even millions of other consumers. This has also created challenges for businesses with a highly networked environment. How do they best find out what consumers want, offer them differentiated products and services and create and maintain a powerfully positive brand image? Impact on Retail Industry & Processes Mobilization has penetrated the retail business process at the task-management level. With remote task administration, work is centrally-assigned, modified, optimized and redistributed to available resources. Mobilized workflows have increased self-sufficiency, and decreased time to completion. Real-time monitoring has led to reduced downtime. Mobile reporting has empowered the managers to make timely and better decisions with improved access to real-time situational information. Consumer Insights - As the hyper-connected customers weave mobile interaction into their daily lives, retailers can gain greater insights into customer needs. This brings out the unprecedented opportunities for enhancing customer interaction and intimacy. Using the information from mobile tools, retailers can employ rules-based rendering techniques to present highly customized, relevant and timely offers. Moreover, by giving customers what they want — more ways to interact with their product and services providers — retailers also strengthen their relationships. 6 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 7. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 Improving internal & supply chain processes - This mobilized approach has changed the way businesses manage their internal and supply chain relationships, primarily in terms of information flow. Work task context awareness has brought improvements in the way tasks are assigned and performed as status information is dynamically monitored by performance alerting support systems. Mobile data capture and viewing provides real-time visibility for “live” information streams, while optimized data delivery supports many kinds of end devices. Innovations in the business ecosystem - Beyond the changes in internal operations, mobilization has changed the way companies are working with their business partners, leading to the development of business “ecosystems”. The free flow of information means greater innovation as partners collaborate under a shared vision supported by an integrated infrastructure. The synchronization of mobile workforces and central information systems is a value-add for all participants, providing new and better ways to orchestrate the development of global markets. Impact on Technology The impact of mobility on technology has been manifold, offering more choices, ease to consumer and creating efficiency and productivity for retailers. Functionality-driven benefits to consumers - Retailers have begun taking advantage of technologies such as RFID to enable mobile consumers to browse circulars on the handset, find additional information about products and make purchases with the snap of a camera phone. Customers can now use their smartphones as a mobile shopping cart. Once a customer gets near his favorite store (which can now be detected in present day smartphones with integrated GPS) he can be alerted about ongoing seasonal promotions and clearances in no time. Integrating this application with social networks can allow the customer to experience first-hand reviews from his closest friends about the chosen merchandize and ongoing best deals. Once the customer expresses his wish to pay, the smartphone can be programmed to connect to a mobile gateway for the store by taking the customer’s most preferred credit card details and generate an e-bill and an invoice for the store pickup or a direct store delivery. Processes-driven changes for employees - Mobile technology has emerged as a necessity and is no longer seen as a luxury anymore. The continuing spread of mobile technology will have a dramatic impact on the way retailers do business in the years to come. The latest mobile technologies have also improved the way employees interact with core business systems. The personalization lets employees set application and device preferences to customize their interaction, in terms of work flow, content, formatting, accessories and features. Store- level merchandizers and field agents enabled with advanced mobile technology, will bring more efficiency in store-level execution of category assortments, promotions and delivery operations. Companies that embrace mobile technology will witness improvements in productivity and operational efficiency that were unimaginable a few years ago. 7 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 8. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 Drivers for Adoption Mobile retail has evolved from being seen as an alternate channel by retailers, to becoming an opportunity capable of giving them an edge over their conventional competitors. The progressive mobile trends in the retail space are fuelled by the drivers identified below, leading to the adoption of mobile technology in retail firms. • Multi-channel integration - Bringing web and store experiences together will maximize return-on-investment in both channels (for example, by allowing customers to order in stores for home delivery, or vice versa). • Customer engagement and loyalty - Retailers are trying to find new ways to get consumers into stores and interact with them to influence their behavior toward repeat buying and impulse buying, with minimal delay or friction in the transaction. • Staff enablement - Giving employees the ability to train, access product information, take orders and complete payments from anywhere in the store, will make them more productive. • Mobile commerce coming of age – The mobile device, from acting as a connective tissue connecting print and online media, has now become an important channel especially for retailers to create lucrative revenue and brand establishment. • Mobile coupons becoming mainstream - Mobile coupons allow retailers to have a highly targeted coupon distribution system as compared to traditional mechanisms, leading to much higher consumer engagement and returns on investment. Coupons, combined with new age technology such as QR codes and NFC, make mobile purchasing as simple as a daily routine activity. • Integration of social networking with mobile devices - Increased speed of information dissemination on social networks through mobile devices, makes mobile devices the perfect partners for the social networks. In fact, Facebook and Twitter applications are amongst the most popular downloads from the App Stores across device types. Consumers increasingly count on feedback from peers and connections for pre-purchase decision making. Location- based services allow for contextual information search and dispersal. • Mobile is an integral part of the purchase decision process - Consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices in their purchase process. From searching for information and evaluation of alternatives, to purchasing the product and broadcasting post-purchase feedback. Consumers are also increasingly using mobile devices to access other popular websites to gain benefits of collective purchasing. At HCL, we believe that any solution engineered, should be in line with the retailer’s growth and expansion strategy conceived for the next five years. Therefore, we align our thoughts to address the various business challenges in 8 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 9. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 the retail ecosystem, by offering you ‘Retail Connect’ -- an integrated solution suite for the retail industry. Our solution aims to overcome the present day challenges in line with the current technology trends in mobile space, enabling real-time performance improvement at store providing opportunities to enhance customer experience and increase profitability. The solution also extends across every echelon throughout the retail value chain for potential improvements in data & process visibility, cycle time reduction in business decision making activities & improved co-ordination of workforce across the value chain Challenges in the Retail Value Chain Retailers and consumer packaged goods manufacturers around the globe invest significantly more than $100 bn in programs designed to achieve an agreed rate of “sell-through”, whether online or in-stores. Most of the investments go dead because organizations fail to empower the execution of their sell-through plan in stores and fail to provide consumer experience continuity between online and offline shopping experiences. Retailers are constantly attempting to achieve a balance between improving daily operations and enhancing customer experience. To improve and continuously deliver value to all stakeholders in the current business scenario, it is important for the retailer to continuously deliver higher levels of customer service and simultaneously bring down the costs of their business operations. Considering the current retailing scenario, the primary challenges across the value chain are: • Challenge to enhance productivity of daily retail operations ❚❚ Inability to drive business processes due to: - Lack of real-time insight on store/ warehouse workforce availability and lack of real-time information to communicate with customer/ colleagues - Unmanaged workforce at supply chain echelons to attend real- time promotion labeling, ad-hoc and seasonal in-store/ warehouse replenishment, in-store customer service, etc - Lack of real-time supply chain disruptions ensuring resilient logistics and fulfillment operations - Lack of real-time visibility and traceability to supply chain distribution and direct store delivery operations - Lack of real-time information on seasonal impacts affecting status quo of retail operations such as desired stock to shelf lead times and other key performance terms 9 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 10. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 - Lack of real-time insight into key performance indicators on store performance like customer traffic, best and worst selling merchandize, inventory levels, etc • Challenge in providing supreme customer service ❚❚ Need to improve customer intimacy - Lack of store colleague capability to sustain and improve quality of service - Customers requiring sufficient responsiveness from store manager and colleagues on ad-hoc interactions - Customer unable to receive real-time individualized promotional offers or deals based on personalized buy list ❚❚ Reach greater heights to understand customer better to match their expectations - Customer expects discounts via mobile coupons to be used readily at store - Customer preference for easy in-store navigation (POG View); zoom in/out in any crowded day - Customer prefers to have a single view of product/ price/ stock across channels on his mobile device - Customer prefers to know about alternate products available at the store or with the retailer at any point of time, anywhere Role of Mobility across Retail Value Chain Mobile as a new communication channel definitely finds its place across the retail value chain to fructify this differentiation. Given the retail value chain as a whole, retail stores thrive as a most promising environment for gaining new insights about customer buying behavior and daily sales operations, wherein technology is greatly used as an accelerator for greater business benefits (Gartner, February 2011). 10 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 11. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 ‘Retail Store’ Mobile applications in the hands of a store manager or store colleague is perceived to enhance the overall store performance with the real-time insight into daily store operations saving shop floor personnel’s valuable time. Peer- to-peer messages like simple status message on receiving or cycle counting operations, ad-hoc replenishment requests, labor allocation/ completion statuses and real-time feeds that promise visibility into inventory availability across brick & mortar and online stores with a single swipe of a finger. A dashboard for the store manager is looked as a single source of real-time information for sales, customer footfall trends, sell-through performance, category performance, labor availability, etc. Customer experience functions like alternate styles check, information on next in-date, consultative selling and in-store shop floor enhancements improve and strengthen the image of the store and store personnel within the customers’ mind. Mobility in the hands of customer can also enable him to quickly shop yet pick the best-selling items in the retail store as per his personalized wish list via a built-in store navigation application in his very own smartphone. Fashion merchandize can be given a 360-degree view and an augmented reality experience, to make the customer feel the experience of owning the wished merchandize in a matter of seconds. 11 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 12. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 ‘Retail Supply Chain’ Supply chain promises to be the next improvement area, where next age smartphone applications can be leveraged to obtain real-time insights into warehousing and distribution operations. Accuracy of every pick operation can be improved if “guided picking” can be made a reality. Field force consultants can be suggested the best possible route to deliver customer orders and pick merchandize at intermediate locations thus optimizing every route traversed. Quick insights to replenishment patterns would make supply chain managers more agile and ensure availability of the right merchandize, at the right locations and at the right time. ‘Retail Enterprise’ Mobile applications are constantly finding their way into smartphones of senior and middle management corporate executives who increasing use their mobile phones as a smarter medium to know their business operations. Smartphones can also be programmed to present a list of reasons or ‘root causes’ pointing out to a dip in sales or margin or merchandize out-of-stock scenarios during times of seasonal rush. Buyers and merchandizers would then walk into a supplier review meeting with just their iPad where they can discuss the supplier performance in comparison to other best in class suppliers for the same category. CRM and marketing teams find mobiles as the fastest channel to reach a customer and get his attention in the minimum possible time span to pass on personalized promotions/ mobile coupons to sustain customer loyalty. Retail Connect – HCL Mobility Solution for Retailers Retail organizations need partners who possess knowledge, expertise and personnel working on multiple mobile platforms, tools and technologies to assist in mobile enablement of key strategic business processes and thereby achieve their organization goals. Retailers and consumer packaged goods manufacturers carefully plan their new product introductions as well as their pricing and promotions policy. They allocate store space, production, and transportation capacity and optimize their merchandize mix, devising intricate schemes for joint advertising, offers and displays but fail to execute a sell-through plan. It is not technological complexity, but the innovation and usability factor in a mobile application that creates a competitive differentiator for organizations. 12 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 13. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 Sales Force Dashboards Automation Mobile Portals (Store/Corp.) Task & Service (Enterprise) Management Product Virtual Guide Reality Workflow Customer Customer Order Management Experience Planogram Capture Mobile Order & Inventory Websites Management Mobile Store Coupons Distribution Navigator Management Track’n’ Trace Store Locator Packaged Enterprise Mobile Apps Payments Corporate Supply Chain Store Consumer Key Solution Features Mobility Centre of Excellence • Alerts – These would improve operational performance of store managers, reducing the waiting time for pending approvals. It also keeps the store manager and colleagues informed on real-time production needs and also interact with one another. It has the ability to readily indicate out-of-stock data and attend to real-time replenishment. This can also lead to enhancing customer experience with location-based services. • Store performance dashboards – These dashboards will enable the store manager to monitor store traffic/ sales in real-time and provide EOD snapshots in a single view. This provides the capability to measure performance in multi-dimensional views and attend to employee performance in real-time insights. Compare actual, forecasted, previous day store performance at every level of detail within the store. • Workforce management – This readily matches store personnel availability to tasks and obtain real-time status of pending tasks. It also provides instantaneous updates to store personnel with information on tasks to be completed and approve work force task allocation. • Planogram – This is a ‘Virtual Store Shelf ’ which can virtually arrange shelf layouts and dynamically add merchandize to shelf, reducing cycle time in planogram resets. • Item/ Inventory Lookup - Identify retail, UOM, variety available as styles, item location within store, current stock on hand, nearest replenishment center and PO ETA date. It obtains real-time monthly or weekly price history for a chosen item and provides multi-channel inventory visibility. • Mobile POS - This will have a unique customer-based log-in and NFC- enabled mobile coupons. This would enable up-sell and cross-sell across channels, improve customer experience by avoiding long queue waiting time 13 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 14. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 and complete the sale on floor. It also provides the ability to modify the list of merchandize in an unbilled sale transaction. • In-store Navigator - This will enable the store colleague to help the customer in visualizing the location of the preferred merchandize and provide the ability to identify the merchandize as per a customer’s wish list. This has an integrated ‘Alerts’ functionality which would enhance the customer experience at the store. • Corporate Dashboards - This would provide corporate performance on- the-go in one swipe, the capability to drill down to region/ district/ state/ store and also have role-based performance for corporate users and provide a comparison with the last year data. • Vendor Performance - A key benefit would be performance view of the multiple measurements related to partners and effective periodic vendor reviews. Compare the vendor performance to other vendors, giving a consolidated view across partners and specific vendor performance across the timeline. Why Retail Connect? • Provides a truly convenient shopping experience - Stores need to be designed to create an environment that is easy to shop and provides customers with the necessary tools, information and services required to make an informed and confident purchase. • Store Performance - Retailers are challenged between the demanding and divergent expectations of improving customer service and managing costs. An effective store management strategy can drive cultural change by adopting technology and putting the store managers back on the selling floor, better organizing store workflows and simplifying the buying process. • Deliver a flexible product/ service offering - Retailers need to be able to tailor their offerings to meet customer needs across different segments, local markets, shopping occasions and product categories. The store should be designed and operated with flexible options that allow customers to shop the way they want to. • Retailers must regain focus on the total experience - The market drivers described above are forcing retailers to re-examine their core value proposition and how it is delivered to customers. Retailers need to re-orient their thinking to place greater focus on the total retail experience to differentiate themselves from their competitors. • Workforce Productivity & Optimization – Efficient workforce planning and management tools can help store managers re-deploy their workforce from departments where they are not needed to parts of the store where customers are gathered. Retailers are challenged to create a “pool” of talent that will ultimately be groomed to become store managers. Retailer growth plans are often eclipsed by absence of talent pool to become store managers in new locations. • Proven Capabilities of HCL in Retail & Mobility Solutions – HCL has an established Center of Excellence (CoE) dedicated to Enterprise Mobility 14 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 15. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 and have gathered deep expertise in building solutions in the retail mobile space, including mobile applications for pricing and availability, order status and product search management, mobile POS applications, cross-platform migration of mobile applications and developing mobile-enabled websites. • HCL Alliances & Domain Skill-sets - HCL has strategic partnerships with all key players in the mobility ecosystem -- Mobile Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Telecom Service Providers, Mobile Platforms and Software Vendors and Enterprises. With 3000+ person years of experience and 150+ projects under the belt, HCL’s experience is extendable to customers seeking de-risked and reliable outcomes in their mobile solution implementations. To summarize, Retail Connect addresses the following key concerns for a majority of retail organizations: • Need for a better communication medium to understand customer preferences and match customer expectations • Need to align shop floor workforce and thereby improving store and warehouse location performance • Need to drive operational (daily tasks) business processes across the value chain Conclusion In conclusion, Mobility has emerged as a key channel impacting consumers, employees and processes in the retail industry. Mobility is radically changing the buying behavior of consumers and is reshaping the retail workplace itself. Mobility, in the hands of customer, has enabled him to quickly shop yet pick the best selling items in the retail store as per his personalized wish-list via a built-in store navigation application in his very own smartphone. Fashion merchandize can be given 360-degree view and an augmented reality experience, to make the customer feel the experience of owning the wished merchandize in a matter of seconds. Such is the possibility to enhance customer experience by bringing the store to the customer. Leading retailers are already reaching consumers with mobile services that make them more productive in the store and engage them in unique ways that transform the shopping experience. Leading retailers have excelled in significantly improving the customer experience and streamlining their warehouse operations and inventory processes. Mobility devices like wireless handheld devices or handheld computers have been utilized to enable customer service, personalized shopping, retail payments at the point-of-sale, real-time data and statistics in the field as well as other inventory management processes, including those with distribution centers. With the emergence of new and powerful mobility tools, employees can now work productively from virtually anywhere. Its growing potential to strengthen organizational performance has moved mobility from the sidelines to the mainstream of Information Technology. Organizations aiming at maximizing corporate performance must incorporate mobility as a fundamental component of their strategic plans. 15 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 16. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 About the Author Satya Krishna Solutions Principal – Retail Satya is a Retail Business Consultant with 13 years of experience with global retailers. He has been involved in many transformational initiatives across the retail value chain involving supply chain optimization, multi-channel integration, merchandizing modernization, business process re-engineering and IT strategy definition. Satya is a Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) from APICS. Currently Satya leads the Retail Domain Solutions Group at HCL, which is responsible for creating new solutions to drive innovation and thought leadership across the retail business unit. Sriram Anantharaman Deputy General Manager HCL’s Mobility Center of Excellence Sriram is a key member of HCL’s Mobility Center of Excellence and brings close to 21 years of cross industry experience. He has been with HCL since 2002, and has led large distributed teams and delivered business critical programs for clients globally. Sriram has handled multiple roles ranging from project management, consulting services to creating innovative lines of IT services. Leveraging his expertise around Enterprise Solutions, CRM, Mobile Applications and Solution Outlining, he has established an experienced team focused on Mobile Solutions and Applications. . Sriram has also been a speaker at numerous IT conferences and events. An evangelist for customer centric IT solutions, he works with the mobility team to constantly go beyond known technology boundaries. Hari Krishnamurthy Business Manager – Retail Solutions Hari currently works with HCL’s Retail & CPG vertical solutions team. He has over 7+ years of consulting experience as a Retail and CPG Industry Solutions Principal. He worked as the Solution Architect for HCL’s ‘Retail Connect’ – a new Mobility-based solution catering the end-to-end Retail value chain. He is experienced in conducting business analysis and defining business requirements for large business transformation and IT enhancement programs on mobility and retail supply chain & multi-channel commerce. 16 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 17. Transforming Store Operations and Customer Experience | FEBRUARY 2012 Chinmay Sohoni Sr Management Trainee – Mobility CoE Chinmay has an experience of four years in the IT Services and Software Product Development, majorly in the Mobility space. He holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science & Engineering and an MBA in International Business. Currently, he is an integral part of the Mobility Centre of Excellence at HCL in roles such as Business Analyst and Consultant. He has worked on projects across business domains that include Retail, Healthcare, Travel & Logistics and Energy & Utilities. Shobha Gujjari Sr Management Trainee – Mobility CoE Shobha has close to 6 years of experience in the IT Services & Product Development industry, working across BFSI and Telecom domains. She holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science & Engineering and an MBA in IT. She is a key member of the Mobility Center of Excellence in HCL and has worked on projects across BFSI, Retail, Manufacturing and Healthcare & Life Sciences. She was instrumental in devising a consulting approach for mobile strategy, enabling enterprises to adopt mobility targeting their employees and consumers alike. 17 © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
  • 18. CUSTOM APPLICATION SERVICES ENGINEERING AND R&D SERVICES ENTERPRISE APPLICATION SERVICES ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION SERVICES IT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT ABOUT HCL BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING About HCL Technologies HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company, working with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their businesses. Since its inception into the global landscape after its IPO in 1999, HCL focuses on ‘transformational outsourcing’, underlined by innovation and value creation, and offers an integrated portfolio of services including software led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management, engineering and R&D services and BPO. HCL leverages its extensive global offshore infrastructure and network of offices in 26 countries to provide holistic, multi-service delivery in key industry verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Services, Public Services and Healthcare. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of ‘Employees First’ which empowers our 83,076 transformers to create real value for customers. HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues of US$ 3.9 billion (18,334 crores), as on 31 December 2011 (on LTM basis). For more information, please visit www.hcltech.com About HCL Enterprise HCL is a $6 billion leading global technology and IT enterprise comprising two companies listed in India - HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. Founded in 1976, HCL is one of India’s original IT garage start-ups. A pioneer of modern computing, HCL is a global transformational enterprise today. Its range of offerings includes product engineering, custom & package applications, BPO, IT infrastructure services, IT hardware, systems integration, and distribution of information and communications technology (ICT) products across a wide range of focused industry verticals. The HCL team consists of 88,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, who operate from 31 countries including over 500 points of presence in India. HCL has partnerships with several leading Global 1000 firms, including leading IT and technology firms. For more information, please visit www.hcl.com © 2012, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.