Digital transformation for retail business 101 What is digital transformation for retail? Is it necessary and how can you implement it? We shed light on transforming your business operations, the customer experience and adapting your business model to align with expectations of the digital customer to cover every aspect of your business transformation.

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Digital transformation for retail business 101
What is digital transformation of a business?
It is the use of technology to radically improve performance or reach of enterprises. The Guardian
explains, it involves a “whole scale change to the foundational components of a business: from its
operating model to its infrastructure. What it sells, to whom and how it goes to market. A
transformation program touches every function of a business; from purchasing, finance, human
resource, through to operations and technology, sales and marketing.”
Why do retail businesses need digital transformation?
For a simple reason: customer expectations are changing, and rising. The shopping experience is
changing drastically in the B2C segment, and retail businesses need to stay relevant and fulfil these
expectations.
So what do customers want? A unified shopping experience that’s available on-the-go, which recognizes
shopper preferences and facilitates the experience of purchase with convenience.
 Your customers should be able to shop from various channels—brick and mortar, online, click
and collect etc., and still have the same experience, in product availability, resources, branding.
 As the retailer, you should be able to assess customer preferences from their previous
purchases and browsing history and make offerings accordingly.
 Influencers like product information, reviews and loyalty programs need to be readily available
across mediums for the convenience of the buyer.
How can you bring about digital transformation of your retail business?
Digital
tranformationof
aretailbusiness
Adapt the business
Digitize business
operations
Enrich the customer
experience

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Broadly, transforming your business to suit the digital age and customer covers these three areas.
Adapt the business to suit the digital world with digital services and products that complement your
existing products, explore new geographies and try out new technologies.
Go digital with your processes and operations to introduce agility, efficiency and encourage innovation.
Enriching your customers’ experience through digital transformation has the dual advantage of being
available to them on various touchpoints as well as gathering invaluable customer shopping data that
helps personalize the shopping experience and manage operations better.
Ignoring the need for digital transformation can have serious consequences for your business. “Digital is
at the heart of businesses and in my view it’s a reflection of the fact that customer behavior is
changing,” said Thomas Groot, the digital director of the AA company (Automobile Association), that
deals in car breakdowns in the UK and has seen significant business improvement with digital
transformation. “The digital age has accelerated that change and therefore businesses need to be fast at
changing themselves to meet that customer behavior.”