Back to School season is here and the rollout of sales tax holidays across many states in the U.S in recent weeks has helped to fuel the annual shopping frenzy. According to the National Retail Federation's back to school survey spending is expected to be down this year. Still, back to school remains the second-largest shopping event of the year in the U.S., outmatched only by the holiday shopping season at the end of the year. Marie McGehee with the VES corporate communication team caught up with Scott Eason, global vice president of financial services and retail at Verizon Enterprise Solutions, to get his take on the current landscape.
"Today's consumers are literally armed with information at their fingertips. They expect to engage with companies when and how they want, using physical, digital or mobile channels to research products, make purchases and express opinions," said Eason.
"Gone are the days when retailers can simply stock the most popular items like backpacks, lunchboxes and sneakers; they're becoming brand showrooms designed to fully optimize every touch point and deliver a seamless customer experience," Eason continued.
Eason cites four key challenges that continue to grapple retail clients.
- Expanding their reach and engaging new customers in a competitive marketplace
- Ensuring that business is not lost due to power failures or outages; and information is always available for quick transactions and during peak times
- Increasing operational efficiencies to provide a unique customer experience
- Protecting customer information, and meeting and maintaining the compliance with industry and government regulations
"Integrated technology should be front and center in order for retailers to keep pace with today's ultra-connected world.
According to Eason there are six tech solutions that are foundational for the retail industry.
- Machine to Machine (M2M): M2M lets businesses provide hard-to-reach consumers with products and services that deliver tailored experiences in real time.
- Mobility: Many retailers are turning to mobility-based applications to target repeat customers and one-time shoppers to create a positive customer experience.
- Network: Network resiliency services help keep businesses running even if the landline network connection fails and support digital strategies and cloud-based applications in stores. Backup wireless network connectivity allows enterprises to sustain voice and data communications, protecting from costly downtime and negative public perception.
- Security: According to Verizon's annual Data Breach Investigations Report, multichannel retailers are among the most targeted when it comes to data breaches, second only to the financial services sector. With so much data flowing between computers, mobile devices and brick-and-mortar stores, Eason argues that security in the retail industry is about more than simply protecting credit card numbers.
"Retailers need a data-centric approach to security that helps them manage their reputation, achieve PCI Compliance and control costs," said Eason.
- Advanced communications: In a fiercely competitive market, unanswered calls can result in declining satisfaction rates and diminishing revenue. Providing optimal customer service is crucial for retailers to maintain the bottom line. Eason says that the deployment of Voice over Internet Protocol services (VoIP) allows retailers to combine voice, data and Internet traffic onto a single network - making data delivery and network management more efficient.
- Cloud: While managing servers, data centers and infrastructure is integral, Eason maintains that this is generally not a core competency for retailers.
"Retailers must be prepared to increase capacity especially to address cyclical seasons like back to school and respond to business continuity threats at any given moment. Events like tax or cyber holidays to environmental catastrophes such as hurricanes and floods can wreak havoc if a retailer does not have the right infrastructure," Eason continued.
To get out in front of these issues, Eason says that cloud-based solutions are increasingly being used as a means for retailers to increase capacity on demand across multiple channels while keeping costs down and maintaining performance.
Verizon Enterprise Solutions serves the retail industry by offering an extensive array of solutions - including intelligent networking, dynamic cloud, mobile workforce and security - aimed at transforming and enhancing the customer experience. For more information visit http://www.verizonenterprise.com/us/industry/retail/.
