Evolution of Retail to Cloud & Omni Channel

What is OmniChannel Retail?

Omni Channel Retail is a term widely popular and equally misunderstood amongst Retail professionals today. Retail models and technology have always been Customer oriented as this part of the supply chain directly confronts the consumers. To understand it completely one has to be aware of retail trends and transitions of the past few decades with the change in consumer behavior driving the Retailer and Retail Tech provider’s directions.?

Retail Trends Driving Retail Technology

Conventional Retail / Single Channel Retail - POS Registers

Conventional Retail was quite simple, physical shopping at stores with brick and mortar. Consumers were accustomed to this way of shopping as this was the only way to buy things. The cash register was invented in 1879 by James Ritty a storekeeper who wanted to solve the cash theft problem from his employees. These cash registers were operated Mechanically and were replaced by electronic Cash registers in 1979. The major retail problems were store management and cash and stock theft prevention. These registers served that purpose very well in their time.?

?????? First cash register “Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier”

The Multi-Channel Era ?- Desktop Applications

In 1979 when teleshopping was introduced by connecting televisions with telephones. Some businesses saw an opportunity in this and found it as another channel to reach the consumers. Later on, in the mid-nineties eCommerce was introduced when amazon started its first eCommerce store for books.?

Until the Mid nineties, although eCommerce and teleshopping were invented along with physical stores to reach consumers directly, businesses were either into physical shops or telemarketing or eCommerce stores (a few only). But with the advent of the World wide web and payment gateways like Paypal, more businesses turned to eCommerce along with their physical stores, and hence the ERA of Multi-Channel Retail started. Customers were present in Physical shops and online as well. Consumers preferred buying things from physical stores but were also getting comfortable purchasing things online, especially those which were not available from their nearest stores. This Brought need for Retail tech to adapt and innovate accordingly.?

Retail management systems evolved accordingly. Still, everything was being managed separately on separate software. eCommerce was being run separate from?physical retail and all channels were being run as stand-alone.

Omni Channel Transition - Cloud Retail Solutions

With the Digital transformation the world has seen recently, customers are Everywhere today and most businesses are selling both physically and online altogether. Physically,? products are being sold in retail shops, franchises, and shops in shops. Likewise, businesses are selling online from company stores and also from countless marketplaces. With these many channels activated It's very crucial for businesses to have a recurring customer base while managing these channels separately. This immense digitalization has almost removed the boundary between the physical and online markets. According to a Harvard study review, 73% of customers go thru multiple channels before making a purchase.

“Omni Channel Retail" gives a similar experience to all the customers irrespective of the channel they're interacting from, whether it’s a physical store or a desktop or a mobile app they’re purchasing from. For this to achieve all sales channels and supply chain operations need to be fully integrated with real-time and seamless data sync.?

TradeUnleashed provides a State of the Art Cloud Omni Channel Retail Platform which has been built for Modern Retail. Its Cloud POS keeps all retail locations in sync and real-time eCommerce integration with platforms like Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce and numerous marketplace places enables customers to have a unanimous experience across all sales channels. Modern Supply Chain and logistic Flows & integrations Enable the backend teams to make sure all these channels and customers are provided with uninterrupted stock and logistic support. Integrated accounting and? Powerful BI gives management complete visibility of the business to make the right decisions.

Here’s a link to book an appointment with the TradeUnleahed Omni channel retail consulting team.?

www.tradeunleashed.com/contact

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