Cloud Computing and Its Increasing Importance in Retail

For years, retailers have been trying to keep up with the physical and virtual world and customer demand for personalized experiences. This demand has intensified with the global pandemic, and studies show 65% consumer base has changed their online buying behavior.??

There has been a significant change in consumer shopping platforms. Customers are expecting relevant content anytime, anywhere, and in the format suitable to their device. Influencing product trends through social media reviews, extensive product research online, and expecting a seamless omnichannel experience is what they are rooting for.???

For staying relevant in the business, retailers are under a lot of pressure to deliver new capabilities faster. An increasing number of people have realized the critical role of the cloud in their technical reinvention.??

Rather than migrating everything at once, the retailers should prioritize based on some criteria what migrates first.?

• The application should be suited to take advantage of cloud-enabled capabilities such as data streaming and Artificial Intelligence.?
• The application and process should drive maximum value for the customers. ?

Plenty of retailers still think the cloud is a costly affair, but the mindset and momentum of the industry are gradually shifting towards innovating the ideas.??

We need to know the common applications retailers consider a priority.?

Common applications for Migration to?the?cloud:?

• Real-time inventory:

Real-time inventory view is in need today and is also a foundation of a successful omnichannel presence. And it’s often seen that the inventory systems and stocks don’t update in real-time.??

Cloud data platforms help construct a single real-time source of current status for inventory levels across all channels and for all users. They do this by connecting data pipelines and combining all the data.??

• Pricing and margin management:

Pricing and margin are still believed to be manual processes. And with data spreading across different channels like social media, the web, etc., it becomes difficult to manage and cumbersome.??

Cloud Implementation assists you in enabling automated updates of in-store and online prices. It also helps integrate real-time inventory, utilize machine learning, and manage markdowns in real-time.??

• Website and recommendation-engine personalization:

Retailers are in need of a 360-degree view of the customer through data reconciliation, attribution across multiple channels, and integration with partner data sources.??

Cloud can help with website and recommendation-engine personalization through real-time data aggregation and curation, 360-degree view of the customer, personalization based on past preferences, and using AI to make future recommendations.??

• Loyalty-program management:

Loyalty programs are one of the traditional ways to retain customers, but that too is facing various technical difficulties?like data being isolated at the store level and not being processed in real-time.??

The cloud helps quickly integrate multiple data resources and enables a unified view of customers across channels.?And also, cloud-based capabilities help retailers curate personalized digital promotions based on real-time big-data analysis.???

Choosing what the organization needs?are?what matters the most. That is what sets the foundation of the business.??

These are the basic considerations a retailer?has to?make before migrating to the cloud. It can be overwhelming, especially for the?first-timers?but once done, it makes your job so easy and straightforward with better results and relevancy in the market.??

Bitscape?is one such cloud solution providing company. We have cloud experts that have experience in all kinds of Migration and setups necessary for a business online. Our experts are experienced in this field and thus know what they are doing for the company. This is what we’ve been doing for a long time now and thus have gained a lot of experience and a customer base with it.??