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Why does Cloud Networking Architecture Support the Omnipresent Customer Experience?

Posted by Marbenz Antonio on December 1, 2022

Investment in people is investment in your future | ERNI

We are all aware of the significant revenue impact that digital channel delay has. Every 100ms of latency costs one percent in sales, according to a well-known Amazon research from more than ten years ago. The Black Eyed Peas have been at the top of the UK and US singles charts when that survey was conducted in 2009, while Gordon Brown was the prime minister. The period was significantly different. However, the significance of network access to support retail sales has increased since the pandemic.

The retail industry has been struggling lately, with lockdowns forcing many brick-and-mortar companies to start rethinking their operations. Businesses that depended on high street foot traffic and in-store engagement had to develop new strategies for connecting with their most important customers.

Today, despite the UK being thankfully free of lockdowns, the industry is still dealing with slow economic development and a cost of living problem that will eventually result in lower customer spending, which will further hurt revenues and profit margins. So in such a volatile environment, how can retailers protect their futures?

Integrating Bricks and Clicks

Although the pandemic probably made the drop in foot traffic worse, the high street has significantly lost influence over the past 10 to 15 years. However, the growing influence of e-commerce should not spell the death of in-person purchasing. Instead, it should signal the start of a new era and provide the motivation for redefining how people purchase.

In shopping experience must be integrated with online buying. The fundamentals of offering a simple click-and-collect approach should play an important role in most retailers’ go-to-market strategy since consumers still want instant results. However, for this to be successful, retailers must have real-time inventory management and linked systems so that employees on the ground may tag products and instantly update statuses using mobile devices. This means that every store essentially plays a hybrid role, functioning as both a warehouse and a place to shop.

Diversify Experiences

The best retailers understand how important it is to provide a consistent look, feel, and experience for their brand across a variety of platforms. Customers will interact with a business across a variety of touchpoints during the buying process, whether they are in-person, online, through a web app, or on social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. Each of these touchpoints needs to provide a reliable and consistent user experience.

Argos and Habitat have been incorporated by grocery stores like Sainsbury’s as a result of the market concentration of retail brands. Customers gain from expanded product lines, new products, and new brands that are all available under one roof and are accessible both online and in-store when such actions are taken.

Citrix has observed multiple cases of this, ranging from bookstores that sell high-end coffee to more conventional clothes and food stores that introduce new and distinctive brands to appeal to different customers. Retailers now have better access to what their customers want and how, where, and when they want to buy it thanks to data-driven decision-making.

Putting a Personal Touch on It

It seems that there is still work to be done for merchants to provide truly personalized experiences for their audiences, even if Citrix has access to more buyer, persona, and customer data than ever before. Only 6% of consumers, according to data from AI company Coveo, think online buying experiences are always relevant. According to the same study, 93% of consumers anticipate that their online shopping will be at least as good as their in-store experience. Therefore, there is a significant gap between what consumers believe is achievable and how they see the situation.

A secure, flexible, and dependable network is needed to support all of this. Retailers must make sure they have the appropriate infrastructure in place to serve as the foundation of this innovation as they connect technologies like AI and data analytics to automate the process of offering such personalization.

The majority of corporate retailers will normally need to switch to a multi-cloud infrastructure in order to guarantee a smooth and hassle-free supply of content to customers through cutting-edge and nimble networking. Associated systems then deliver content and updates to customers from the nearest cloud data center, lowering latency, improving the buying experience, and eventually boosting discussion at the finish line.

Stores can create a more complete portrait of their customers based on their purchasing and engagement histories when they combine a seamless and quick shopping experience with connected data across multiple platforms. This allows them to serve their customers with goods and services that are in line with their interests.

The most successful retailers will survive and thrive because of the combined value they provide to customers through both in-person and online involvement. With competitors only a tap or click away, the retail sector is facing conditions that have never been more difficult. However, companies that provide the proper infrastructure to support their digital delivery may actually change their entire customer journey, delivering an omnipresent experience at scale – while maintaining their own brand characteristics across those channels.

 


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