Author: admin

How does ‘Endless Aisle’ enhance the retail customer experience!

Posted on by admin

Endless aisle is allowing customers to make use of technologies such as specially designed in-store kiosks or other intuitive systems to order items that are currently out-of-stock in that particular brick-and-mortar store. It is a concept that extends beyond the inventory that in tangible form is available in the store at a given point in time. Thus, endless aisle allows retailers to forge a strong link between customer demand and inventory. Retail companies that have been quick to embrace cross-channel strategies have already begun adopting the endless aisle technology to boost their sales further.

ETP Omni-channel Retail Solutions provide you with features such as Endless Aisle enabling you to deliver a unified brand-customer relationship across all channels.

The Omni-channel Transformation of Retail Businesses at ETP #Futuretail, Philippines

Posted on by admin
ETP #Futuretail, Philippines
Omni-channel Transformation of Retail Businesses

ETP Group, Asia’s leading Omni-channel Retail Solutions company hosted senior representatives from Philippines’ leading retail organizations to discuss future challenges and opportunities in an ever-changing retail landscape. The key discussion, “The Omni-channel Transformation of Retail Businesses in the Philippines”, was led by team ETP, including Mr. Naresh Ahuja, Chairman and CEO, Mr. Stephen Dodgson, Principal Management Consultant and Mr. Heherson Uy, National Sales Director – Philippines.

The discussion was part of the ETP #Futuretail 2018 event held at the Fairmont hotel in Makati, recently. Mr. Heherson welcomed the ETP #Futuretail guests and Mr. Stephen Dodgson shared an overview of ETP’s growing presence in Asia. Mr. Naresh Ahuja then shared insights on the growth of the Philippine retail industry in the context of Asia Pacific and the transition of traditional retail to modern retail, e-commerce and omni-channel retail.

Mr. Naresh Ahuja presented key growth data of retail sales in Asia in the coming years. He highlighted the significance of the retail space per capita in the Asian retail market. The presentation also shed light on the abundant opportunities at hand for the retailers in this dynamic region by adopting an omni-channel strategy for their businesses.

ETP then presented a live demonstration of ETP’s Omni-channel Retail Solutions during which, audience members were invited to come forth and personally experience the omni-channel journey by purchasing goods online and instantly collecting them from a pop-up store, setup exclusively for the event.  The audience also witnessed ETP’s Endless Aisle, Click and Collect and Click and Deliver solutions live, completing the O2O journey.

ETP will continue to drive the omni-channel transformation of retail businesses across Asia-Pacific, India and the Middle-East.

How to manage omni-channel orders effectively

Posted on by admin

Retail businesses across the globe are going all guns to enable themselves to constantly meet and exceed the hyper dynamic customer expectations while they are also dealing with the challenges and competition of the industry. Ultimately, it all boils to fulfilling the customers’ demands for products, services and experiences, as per their convenience, in a seamless manner. In simple words, giving the customer their desired products at the best perceived price, at the time and place they want it, without any glitches or hitches. This is the very essence of omni-channelizing the retail business. From the business point of view, for retailers, it is about achieving all of this while optimizing costs, reducing losses and risks and improving efficiency.

The best of part pf getting this right are that the benefits are multi-fold – increase in inventory turnover, reduction fulfillment costs, optimizing manpower cost, better productivity, enhance customer service, and the list goes on.

etp-blog-omnichannel-orders

But the main challenge for many businesses today is that they are still depending upon legacy systems which may not be at pace with these demands of the market and moreover do not support the operations when it comes to handling orders coming from different channels and fulfilling them using the best channel.  Here are three significant ways to handle omni-channel orders:

   1. Centralizing Order Management

A centralized order management system can enable control of all orders across the business as it could hold all the information from the order management process, including details of the order, sourcing, payments, and fulfillment. Moreover, a centralized solution will also factor in all the sales channels in the business operations. Therefore every fulfillment channel will have access to all the order information allowing the organization to appropriately allocate inventory based on factors such as stock levels, location and timing. So the entire order management process can be automated and controlled centrally, and even scaled if new channels are added.

   2. Enabling Better Inventory Visibility

One of the foremost challenges in implementing a successful omni-channel strategy is the lack of inventory visibility that emanates from disparate and siloed systems used to manage inventory. A centralized omni-channel order management system can enable a single view of the inventory and related information across all retail sales channels. This provides the visibility that is required to make strategic decisions that can help in improving cross-channel fulfillment, reducing mark-downs, tackling over-selling and under-selling, ensuring timely replenishment of stock. In turn, customers get real-time and true inventory information across the brand channels.

   3. Performing smart order allocation

Having the true picture of the inventory and stocks across channels and the related information along with the centralized control of the inventory will allow retail business owners to intelligently formulate business rules and algorithms to determine processes for inventory fulfillment. These business rules and logic can then be fed into the system that will automatically orchestrate and allocate orders across channels by routing it through the most suitable fulfillment center based on the criteria fed into the business logic.

Also Read: Why Is Luxury Retailing A Challenging Business

Why is luxury retailing a challenging business?

Posted on by admin

etp-blog-luxury-retail-challenges

Luxury products have always been one of the most admired and sought after products. So much so, that consumers of such products take pride in their possessions and are often considered to be of a higher class. They and their products are the ‘talk of the town’ most of the times in social gatherings and people like to be associated with such class conscious, brand loving and luxury seeking consumers. Luxury products therefore had few options and demanded a high cost of purchase deliberately tailored to a select set of consumers.

But now times have changed thanks to rapidly changing consumer mindsets and the very idea of “luxury” is evolving. The old-fashioned ideas that defined luxury as aspirational, high status, exclusive, wealthy, don’t really paint the exact picture of what customers perceive about luxury products. One of the drastic changes over the recent years is that the new age luxury isn’t for showoff.  Similarly other values that luxury brands exclusively attributed to, such as better quality and style, precise workmanship and great designs, are not exclusive any more to luxury.

Consumers’ tastes are evolving. There is an indisputable appeal for new products and services along with more choice of options yet having the flavor of uniqueness and exclusivity. This has given rise a various breeds of brands such as specialized ones and those that are highly customized to customer demands, thus increasing competition.

Further, along with changing tastes, customer shopping patterns and buying behavior have undergone a tremendous transformation. Traditionally, luxury shoppers heavily relied on physical retail to fulfill their desire for luxury goods. But now, multiple channels have come into the game and customers willingly switch between channels to get what they want. Seamless demand fulfillment across channels necessitates the reduction of various issues such as decrease in quality or other losses that are caused during the course of the supply chain. While older shoppers are still playing a significant role in the luxury market spends, millennials and Gen Zs are predicted to account for the larger growth in the coming years. Moreover, their new spending habits which are faster, more frequent, brand-conscious and trend-driven while being highly influenced by digital platforms.

All these are the modern day challenges that luxury retail businesses, especially the ones still depending heavily on the heritage and traditional processes are facing and there is one way out. They need to transform their retail businesses to omni-channel and employ the right omni channel retail software to exceed their customer expectations and fulfill their business goals.

Also Read: Moving From E-Commerce To Omni-Channel – Top 3 Challenges

Retail is all about…

Posted on by admin

1. The customer

It is the underlying truth and the ultimate reality for the modern day retail business. The customer has to be at the central focus of the business. Retail brands need to go beyond merely understanding their customers. They must yearn to learn more about their customer so much so that they know every customer well enough to be able to service them appropriately and effectively.

2. The detail

The entire retail business is made up of blocks of processes and operations which need to work together and in tandem for the business to run successfully. As such, attention to details is a must in order to ensure the smooth functioning of the entire business. Moreover, the importance of having details at the granular level can go a long way in enhancing the business, for example having customer details such as which products were searched, which locations were preferred, and so on can help retailers create tailored offerings to their customers.

etp-blog-retail-is-detail

3. The 4+1 Ps

This basic principle still holds good. The four Ps i.e. product, price, place, and promotion – are some of the basic foundations of building a successful retail business, add to that another P which stands for the ‘people’ involved in the business – made up of the employees and even the customers. The success mantra for any retail business can be summed up as – ‘having the right products, at the right place and the right channels, at the right price, at the right time, with the right promotions, and driven by the right people and the right processes’. The right retail technology can definitely ensure that the various processes and operations run smoothly for the business to succeed well.

4. The customer experience

The importance of understanding and knowing the retail consumers cannot be stressed more. These are necessary factors to be able to create and offer shopping experiences that can have a positive and memorable impact on customers thus resulting into loyalty, repeat sales and even attracting newer customers to the business. The customer experience in this modern-are retail spans across the entire customer journey and therefore it is essential that retailers leverage each stage of this journey to cement their relationship with the customers.

Tips for Fashion Retailers to Succeed in this Age of Retail

Posted on by admin

Last year and at the start of this year, the retail industry has seen many retail giants shuttering and some more lined-up to follow the same fate as the year progresses. Even well-known fashion retail brands such as J. Crew, Abercrombie & Fitch, GAP and a few others were among this list. While all this can seem to be gloomy and dampening for the brick-and-mortar retail businesses, as a matter of fact the situation is not as grave as it perceived.  Besides, as some fashion brands including Nordstrom and H & M have already opened new stores, there are others like Aldi who are set to expand with new stores in the market.

Due to the stimulus of digitization, on the one hand, the influence of online shopping and mobile will definitely continue to have an impact on the shopping habits of the consumers. But on the other hand, brick-and-mortar retail still has that one factor that online hasn’t been able to provide; and that is the ‘touch and feel’ experience. This is something that shoppers really fancy, especially when it comes to fashion and comfort. However, this solely is not enough for physical retailers to sustain and succeed. So below are a few tips as to what fashion retailers must do to succeed in this age of retail.

Fast is in

When it comes to fashion, trends are constantly changing. Every season, or every festival there seems to be new styles that come up. To add to this, people are also influenced by their favorite celebrities and look forward to ape their style. Thus, fashion retailers have to be quick in getting their assortments to match up with the new trends in demand, and ensure that this keeps happening as and when trends change. Fast fashion is all about being fast and keeping pace with the consumers who with a blink of an eye can shift loyalties or switch channels if they don’t find what they are looking for.

Data driven design

An important aspect of constantly staying up in the game to match the demands of the consumers as well as ‘be in’ with the trend is to know and understand both these factors. Data analytics play a key role in enabling retail brand owners to get a firm grasp of these attributes and then infuse the findings into the design process so that the end products fit the bill when it comes to customer satisfaction. Similarly, the store and planogram designs can be influenced by the insights extracted from the analytics in order to improve the overall experience and boost sales.

Amplifying the store

For fashion stores to succeed, it is necessary to have the right product, at the right place, at the right time. This means the location of the stores plays an important role in boosting sales. However it is extremely necessary to also consider factors such as rents and overheads of having stores at prime locations. In order to strike the right chord between the two and reduce risks of overheads, retail owners must use their stores as fulfillment centers for online orders, offer showrooming, offer value added services, and so on. Employing the right omni-channel retail software to integrate online and mobile channels with the stores will allow fashion retail brands to enhance their overall presence and also amplify their stores’ sales and enhance customer experiences.

Targeted brand marketing

Gone are the days where heavily relying on celebrity endorsements on television or print media advertisements would drive customers to flock at the stores. While such traditional means are still necessary, fashion retail marketers must channelize the marketing of the brand through more personal and targeted mediums. Using social media or mobile channels to communicate brand messages or using geo-location based marketing to attract shoppers, running tailored promotions or building relationships at the individual level within the stores, are some of the many approaches fashion retail brands must leverage to make the right impact.

Understanding Millennial Shopping Behavior is Important for Retail Brands.

Posted on by admin

Millennials enjoy a seamless experience while expecting a high level of convenience across multiple devices and touch-points when it comes to shopping. There has been a profound influence of smartphones and social media in everyday life. Millennials use these mediums substantially and on-the-fly to get assistance while they are shopping in a brick-and-mortar store as well as to search for coupons and other offers.

Though Millennials generally love to shop in a store, they demand cross-channel capabilities so that they can acquire whatever information and help they seek from any channel that is most convenient to them during the shopping journey. To summarize, Millennials and the newer generations expect a lot more, a lot faster, at their own convenience and at desirable prices. All this has forced retail businesses to evolve and this is an ongoing process.

The below infographic depicts certain important trends about Millennial shopping:

etp blog understanging millenial

Millennials have been one of the game changers for the retail industry, demanding versatility, flexibility, convenience, and speed from retail brands. Going forward, this generation along with the Gen Y and Gen Z are set to disrupt the retail industry further. It is high time, retail brands take the right steps to understand these consumers and be able to satisfy their demands.

The 3 I Mantra for New Age Retail

Posted on by admin

etp-blog-3i-for-omnichannel

The retail industry has been a trendsetter in adopting technology and digitization. As a result, the industry has been revolutionized by the disruptions caused due to the influence of advanced technologies. In fact, the evolution of the retail industry still continues as businesses and consumers collaborate over trade to further influence the need for progressive transformation.

As the power is now in the hands of the consumers, they are driving retail businesses to constantly strive towards not only focusing on the customer, but also conceptualizing and creating experiences that customers can relish and cherish. Be it brick-and-mortar or e-commerce retail companies, every business is looking to capture a large chunk of the customers’ attention and wallet. As a consequence, the competition has intensified leading to a situation where retailers have only one way out – perform or perish. In order to stay in the game, retailers must look at the 3 I mantra: integration, intelligence and innovation.

Integration: Today’s shoppers are not ordinary shoppers, they are a new breed of shoppers who demand convenience and want speed. Moreover, they want to be associated with retail brands that are tech savvy like them and have more than one channel for interacting and shopping. These new breed of shoppers are ‘omni-channel’ shoppers. Thus retailers need to integrate their channels, operations and processes to be able to provide that omni-channel shopping experience that can leave a mark on the customer.

Intelligence: Again drawing inspiration from the customers, retail businesses need to be ready and prepared for their customer who is equipped with information that allows them to make smart and better decisions. In order to better understand the customer, retail companies must capture as much data as possible about their customer and have the data about their product and service offerings along with the knowledge of their operations and processes. Having this comprehensive information, retail owners must derive the intelligence from the data and use it to enhance their business.

Innovation: Every modern day consumer is attracted to new advancements that happen in the market – be it products, services or offerings. The lesson to learn from this is that retail brands must constantly seek to innovate. They must always look out for new ways to create shopping experiences that are unique and innovative. Using innovation – right from production to packaging and marketing of the products, to sales and post sales services, throughout the entire shopping experience will definitely appeal to consumers and will make them crave for more.

Retail businesses seeking to do something new and unique in their space must equip their business with the right retail technology that enables integration, provides intelligence and aids innovation.

ETP Omni-channel Technology Partner at ReTechCon 2018

Posted on by admin

ETP Omni-channel Technology Partner

ETP Group was the Omni-channel Technology Partner at the recently concluded Retail Technology Conclave – ReTechCon 2018 held on 12-13 June 2018 at the Renaissance Convention Centre, Mumbai, India. With the participation of more than 600 delegates from over 150 retail and technology organizations, the event was a huge success and a great platform to understand what the technology solution providers have to offer to the retail industry.

At the event, ETP hosted leading retailers from various verticals where the team conducted live demos to showcase ETP’s product offerings and to share and understand the opportunities, strategies and technological innovations related to the omni-channel transformation of retail businesses.

Mr. Rajkumar Jagasia, Executive Director, ETP Group shared insights on how ETP is helping leading retailers in India to deliver a seamless experience to their customers in this omni-channel age.

ETP Group had sponsored the ReTech Startup Award at the event indicative of ETP’s encouragement and investment in the bright future of retail technology in India. Mr. Rajkumar Jagasia, Executive Director, ETP Group and Mr. Neev Ahuja, Country Manager – India, ETP Group also presented the ReTech Startup award.

At ETP, we continually push beyond the ordinary and develop omni-channel retail solutions that enable brick and mortar retailers to embrace unified commerce and drive their brands and customer relationships in a seamless manner. ETP has helped in bridging the gap between the offline and online world by connecting the ETP V5 Suite with e-commerce and social media channels and with third-party applications. ETP V5 Omni-channel Retail Solutions empower you to deliver a unified omni-channel experience with features such as Click and Collect, Click and Deliver, Endless Aisle, and a holistic view of the inventory and of the customer. This is done using real-time integration of ETP’s POS, CRM and Promotions engine with webstores and marketplaces using ETP Connect’s secured web services framework, which has the ability to see and manage order flows.

How omni-channel enables frictionless retail

Posted on by admin

etp blog omni-channel-frictionless-retail

Picture this – a young, tech-savvy and discerning shopper wants to buy a mobile phone. She researches on the internet for the latest and best phones in the market. Overwhelmed with options during her research, she realizes and determines her needs and the configuration that will best suit them and then refines her search for the phone. She picks a few options of phones of different brands and variants. While on the way back from the office the next day, she drops by a mobile store and checks out the phones she had picked up earlier and a few others as well that interest her while at the store With all the information at her disposal, she zeros down on the phone she wants to buy but decides to wait. Her desire to buy the phone fizzles down however she comes across advertisements of offers going on for the phones she had considered earlier and this spikes her interest again. The next day she selects the best offer and places an order for the mobile phone through her own hand-held device and chooses to collect it from a near buy store within 24 hours of ordering, get her used devise exchanged and make the payment at the store. While she goes to pick up and pay at the store she stumbles upon a set of headphones that she likes instantly and decides to bundle that with her phone purchase, hands over her used phone, makes the payment and walks out with the new product.

The above mentioned is one of the many scenarios of the complicated shopping process that involve different permutations and combinations of the various stages of the shopping journey intermingled with the various retail channels customers can use to interact and shop. Moreover, there is a whole set of operations and systems that need to be running at the back-end to support such complex, dynamic and comprehensive shopping processes. One of the biggest challenges for retailers’ of today, in the age where ‘customer is king’, lies in tying these channels, systems and operations together, in a way that the entire retail shopping process becomes friction-less and retail brands are able to deliver a seamless experience to their customers. To counter this challenge there is one sure shot solution and that is ‘omni-channel’.

Omni-channel essentially necessitates that the different channels not only be connected but also integrated. In order to accomplish this, various systems and operations must therefore be integrated in a manner that enables the systems and processes and the channels to work as a cohesive unit. Further, the data and information flow across the various processes must be streamlined in a way that there is one single version of the truth and a uniform representation of the brand across all the channels. In other words, accurate and real-time inventory and customer information must be accessible and available across the business operations and processes, and channels. Having said that, it also must be easy to manage all these systems, operations and information centrally for better control and risk mitigation. When all this is achieved, it will lead to unified commerce where the customers can enjoy seamless experiences due to frictionless operations and processes.

Therefore it is necessary for retail brands who are looking to not only strike the right chord with their customers and improve their operations but also planning to scale up their operations or add more products/channels or even expand in other geographies, to select an omni-channel retail software partner who has the domain expertise and is trusted by market leaders.