Agile operators in retail have a unique opportunity to reimagine themselves

Consumer expectations are constantly evolving, but the past year has brought about a more dramatic shift in behavior than businesses in the retail sector could ever have anticipated.

Research from McKinsey confirms that consumers across the Gulf, South Africa and Turkey are spending a great deal more time shopping online than before COVID-19. Indeed, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are experiencing particularly high rates of new or increased users in online deliveries.

As a result, the long-term outlook for retailers is completely different, with potential customers not only changing where they spend, but also how they spend. Moving forward value and convenience will serve as the primary drivers in determining how these new choices are made.

The shift in landscape has created considerable opportunity for agile retailers of all sizes, particularly those operating in e-commerce. It’s perhaps not surprising then that 78 percent of SMEs in the retail sector are very optimistic about the next 12 months. The Mastercard Middle East and Africa SME Confidence Index shows at least 70 percent of SMEs in retail are expecting their revenue to grow or remain steady over the coming year.

But as retail companies embrace this new season of growth, industry experts are encouraging them to look beyond now to what’s next for retail and reimagine their businesses accordingly. Ultimately, it’s the innovations that retailers implement today which will better position them to take advantage of the higher intensity digital economy going forward.?

The challenge for many, especially when it comes to smaller business, will be finding the budget to replace existing infrastructure. However, opting for a solution like Microsoft Cloud for Retail can allow retailers to innovate as they go. The platform is designed to give retailers the flexibility to adopt the capabilities they need to address their most pressing business needs, be it better knowing customers, empowering employees, building resilient supply chains, or reimagining retail.

Below I outline a few of the ways, retail businesses can gain quick wins by drawing on the power of the cloud.

?Truly personalised experiences

Personalised customer experiences can have a significant impact on sales revenue, particularly when it comes to online sales. Research from Bigcommerce.com shows that a more personalised shopping experience can reduce bounce rates by as much as 30 percent. But in order to provide truly valuable recommendations, retailers need to know their customers well. Using features such as Intelligent Recommendations and product search can uniquely tailor experiences for customers by helping them find what they want.

?More advanced product search

Product search is another fundamental aspect of most e-commerce sites. But the challenge is that it often only works well for top products when the search queries are similar to the product description. This is a significant concern given most shoppers will abandon a site that returns poor research results. Bringing a solution that draws on more advanced AI can go a long way to helping solve this. Microsoft Bing for Commerce is a new technology that provides the next evolution of product search. It’s a SAAS solution for retailers that brings the power of Microsoft’s AI to the product search as well as to the ecommerce site’s personalisation and product recommendations.

?Seamless pickup and delivery

Once the sale has been made, getting the product into the actual hands of the customer is an equally important part of the experience. Retailers need to know how to streamline their operations to ensure the delivery process is as seamless as possible to support customers at every point of the sales cycle. This can be as simple as streamlining the pick-up using simplified processing and customer notifications or empowering employees with greater customer insights to foster longer-lasting relationships.

These are just a few of the ways a product like Microsoft Cloud for Retail, which is built to cater for your unique business needs, can accelerate the digital transformation of your company.?

With consumers across the region eager to explore new shopping experiences, the door is open for retailers big and small to reimagine their offerings and take advantage of new growth potential. The challenge for most businesses within the sector will be to begin adapting their operations so that they can transform along with the market as consumer behaviour continues to evolve.?