Each customer journey is as unique as the retailer itself, so plan your physical and virtual strategies carefully

Many retailers are now taking advantage of applications that can make personalised offers to customers while they shop.

In the first article of this two-part series published on June 19, we introduced the concept of the "Storevolution" and discussed how retailers can apply innovation and disruptive ideas to transform the consumer journey and create a seamless shopping experience. Today, we will look at the different dimensions that make up a connected commerce environment for retailers seeking to evolve their stores from bricks-and-mortar to becoming future-ready.

The store of the future will not succeed by adopting technology for technology's sake. Instead, technology should be carefully selected and applied to suit the customer journeys identified by each retailer. Each customer journey is as unique as the retailer itself -- based on each store's niche, market segment, audience, assortment, go-to-market strategy and more.

Shoppers today expect higher levels of personalisation than ever before, thanks to websites that recognise them on the landing page and offer customised related offerings while they shop.

Because consumers are connecting into network via their individual profile, you can see in real time who is shopping, what's in their basket, what is on their shopping list, the value of the items in the basket, even where they are in the store.

That means you can deliver completely personalised promotions while consumers are shopping, alleviate the time consumers (and staff) must spend checking out, gain real-time insights into consumer behaviour and shopping patterns in-store, and harness smart algorithms that can help you avoid shrinkage.

That is why retailers need to understand the growing demand for a personalised, connected and convenient shopping experience. They need to reimagine the storefront or revolutionise their physical environment to engage with consumers to create the most accessible, available and amazing shopping experience.

Retailers need the agility to quickly adopt new technology and touchpoints to create the most satisfying customer journeys. That's what Storevolution is all about. It is a programme designed to help retailers understand key trends and compete successfully based on brand, the existing competitive landscape, current interactions with customers and more. The programme is based on the following four technology-rooted cornerstones:

1. Customer centricity: If you want to create a streamlined, consistent journey, you need to understand your customers. You need to create and maintain a specific profile for each individual and recognise the shopper as soon as she logs onto your website or enters your store.

Customer centricity is about capturing smart data, not big data. It is about gaining a 360-degree view of each consumer and developing a consolidated and integrated platform for global marketing campaigns. This knowledge can be used to customise promotions, rewards and other customer experiences.

2. Store digitisation: This focuses on mobility and the Internet of Things. The key will be secure management of these technologies so they don't open up the retailer and customers to unnecessary risk. Mobile device management software and a secure cloud orientation are central to effective store digitisation.

3. High connectivity: Unlike online retailers, existing bricks-and-mortar stores need to integrate new technologies and touchpoints into an existing legacy IT landscape. This can be a huge roadblock to innovation. Therefore, the most urgent task is adopting an open, connected commerce platform that allows for new touchpoints to be connected to any legacy application. The adoption of open technologies is important because no single vendor has a monopoly on all the technologies required for a customer journey.

4. Store as a service: The store-as-a-service cornerstone ensures your customer journeys are "always on" and secured through the support of a trusted retail partner via a service-based approach.

This is much more than software-as-a-service. Think of it as a journey-as-a-service, where all apps and touchpoints from multiple vendors are managed by a single partner and provided as a service. This partner ensures all of these technologies work together to provide a frictionless experience for both the retailer and its customers.

Retailers are searching for the answers to market disruption and attempting to put themselves in a position to navigate future changes that are largely unpredictable. Unfortunately, there is no "magic bullet" solution.

Instead, stores must fundamentally change their strategic mindset and focus on optimising customer experiences by enabling the customer journeys that make the most sense for their brand. Furthermore, they must work to build an open digital ecosystem to enable truly connected commerce.