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What does 2013 hold for retail?

Fujitsu is the IT partner of many of the UK’s largest retailers, and hence can comment on this article with some authority. As the report suggests, we are seeing many retailers increasingly use all viable routes to market in order to drive customer intimacy and improve the customer experience. Critically, we are also seeing a change in working relationships between the Marketing Department and the IT Department, in order to enable these type of activities to be implemented quicker and easier. The article suggests that “analytics” (i.e. “Big Data”) helps improve customer intimacy. We agree. However, gathering, holding and mining this data will mean a greater investment in the technology behind this – for example in data storage and access. Additionally, in-store Wi-Fi, transferring customer data quickly and safely, plus the use of tablet devices in the customer space requires a fast, secure and reliable data network. Initiatives such as “multi-channel in reverse” and pop-up stores create new demands – such as the ability to switch on and off services as and when required – perhaps on a “pay per use basis”, to enable marketers to try new ideas, fail fast, and move on. This is rarely prevalent in retailers’ existing IT capabilities, and is likely to cause angst between the respective CMO and CIO, unless it is addressed in a more innovative way, now. This is at the heart of much of this. Fujitsu believes that 2013 will see this trend within retailers – i.e. creating a symbiotic relationship between their Marketing and IT Departments – gaining even faster momentum, as every retailer strives to gain competitor advantage in their customer engagement strategy. Simon Carter, marketing director, Fujitsu UK & Ireland

Wed, 2 Jan 2013

4:29 pm