Oracle - Solutions for Retail

Digital Innovation in the Age of Consumer Choice

Create tomorrow, today.

Oracle Cloud

The retail sector is one of the industries most affected by digital business transformation, so retail is one of the most rapidly changing verticals across the world. It’s often at the forefront of technological endeavours to keep pace with the evolving needs of a 24/7 customer base.

The challenges for retailers are countless: how to respond to the new shopper expectations; how to bridge the gap between digital and physical shopping experiences; how to modernise the back-office processes… In a series of three ebooks, Oracle provides answers to these challenges.

This ebook dives into digital innovation in the age of consumer choice; the other two ebooks explore how to leverage data for profitability and personalisation, and agile operations respectively.

Digital Transformation in Retail

Today’s digital consumer has become hooked on the real-time, personalised world of the current digital landscape, and they expect their retail providers to follow. Consumers know what they want, and they want it now. And experience is leading, so retailers are no longer selling products; they’re selling the experience of buying.

Digital consumers are channel-agnostic and use digital tools throughout their shopping journey. They expect a seamless, easy and frictionless shopping experience across multiple touchpoints, and their mobile device plays a big part. When in a store, shoppers get out their smartphones, and the lines between digital and physical disappear.

The Internet of Things and the immersive experiences in virtual and augmented reality will serve to perpetuate this, because digital consumers are hungry for innovative experiences. They demand innovative shopping possibilities, and engagement that goes beyond excellent customer experience. Self-service, self-checkout, and finding information and support for themselves are now the norm.

Digitisation of the Supply Chain

Additionally, the expectations at supply-chain level are crucial – and all too often, highly fragmented and far from digitised. Speed, time and transparency are key.

Fortunately, new digital possibilities provide new ways to both decrease costs and increase innovation in the supply chain. Customers demand visibility of where their ordered product is in the supply chain and exactly when it will be delivered. Same-day and click-and-collect delivery options must be possible but at a cost. By feeding retail data into the supply chain, it’s possible to react faster to demand spikes – and significantly improve retail margins.

The key is to connect customer-facing systems with supporting systems and data from suppliers, partners and logistics in a single view. This is where the challenge lies, especially for retailers who work with tier-two and tier-three suppliers that have to anticipate and respond to changes across a vast supply chain.

If you can’t get insights into your stock levels, lead times, and delivery costs, how can you connect that data back to customers and other dependent systems to propose the most cost-effective or profitable option? Similarly, your pricing and promotion strategies depend on crystal-clear insights; the kind you can only get when you understand all the pieces of your retail puzzle.

Getting the data you need becomes more complex as you add partners into the mix, or if you’re part of a franchise.

Emerging Technologies

The following are just some of the technologies currently impacting
the retail industry, and changing the shopping experience:

Mobile. This has changed the industry massively, and consumers use their phone in and out of the store. Apart from smartphones, mobile wearables are also shaking up the digital world. Customers can now browse stores with virtual reality (VR) goggles and try on items without ever physically touching them.

The Internet of Things. All of the data being produced from all kinds of devices will become important to retailers, who will utilise it to personalise shopping experiences and put the right products in front of the right customers at the right time.

Artificial intelligence. AI allows retailers to understand their customers’ preferences and anticipate purchasing decisions before they do.

Beacons. Beacons alert retailers when customers are in the vicinity of their store so they can communicate with them in a targeted way.

VR and AR. Both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are empowering consumers to experience an object without ever holding it in their hands.

Take a Connected-Platform Approach

New shopper experience and supply-chain innovations bring a range of benefits – but they also introduce new challenges. How do you show a consistent presence to the customer? How do you consistently get the data you need? How do you ensure you connect best-in-class applications? How can you keep ahead of new industry trends?

If you take a bolt-on approach to data and systems, you will be unable to solve these challenges. If you’re using different point systems to manage retail and supply-chain operations, you’re preventing the two from fully sharing data and delivering on the promise of organic channels.

As your supply-chain or retail operations grow, bolt-on systems can seem like an inevitability – but they don’t have to be. By adopting a platform for your entire retail experience, you can create a strong, scalable foundation for innovation. Developing a connected retail platform can help you deliver new retail experiences, connect shopfront and back-office systems, deliver a superior customer experience and improve margins.

Oracle’s Digital Solution for Retail

Almost every day, it seems, novel technologies emerge that allow retail brands to delight their customers in new ways. Sometimes, knowing which technologies to invest in (and which to ignore) can be the difference between success and failure. Oracle delivers a complete digital solution that enables the integration of store infrastructure, consumer engagement and supply technologies. An integrated platform built on cloud-based systems gives brands the flexibility to transform at a fast pace.

The Components of a Complete Retail Cloud Platform

  • Customer Experience
    Connected Experiences
  • Workforce
    Engaged Employees
  • Finance
    Streamlined Operations
  • Supply Chain
    Intelligent Insights
  • Data and Analytics
    Connected Intelligence

CX Cloud

Oracle CX Cloud Suite is an integrated set of applications that span the entire customer lifecycle from marketing to sales, and commerce to service.

HCM Cloud

Use a single global human resources solution that aligns common global HR processes, supports local compliance needs across multiple countries, and engages your workforce.

ERP Cloud

Streamline your enterprise business processes with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Cloud. With ERP Cloud Financials, Procurement, Project Portfolio Management and more, you can increase productivity, lower costs, improve controls and bring greater insight to the business.

SCM Cloud

With capabilities that include product innovation, strategic material sourcing, outsourced manufacturing, integrated logistics, omnichannel fulfilment, and integrated demand and supply planning, Oracle Supply Chain Management (SCM) Cloud is the most comprehensive SCM suite to meet requirements.

Big Data and Analytics Cloud

Oracle Analytics Cloud delivers business analytics for traditional data and big data across the entire enterprise.

Multi-layer security
Data-driven at every level
Tailored to your industry

Your Digital Store Partner

While choosing the right cloud platform is an essential first step towards delivering the retail experiences of the future, it’s just one part. You’ll also need a range of immediate and ongoing expertise to help you migrate and integrate your existing systems and data, and to make the biggest and best improvements to your retail experience.

Oracle can help with this too. We’ve worked with retailers across all geographies to help them find the solutions they need to integrate different channels, deliver the best customer experiences and optimise margins.

You may also be interested in reading about:

Get in touch with us today
to see how we can help you.

Integrated Cloud Applications & Platform Services

We're here to help

Engage a Sales Expert

Trial

Try Oracle Cloud

Sign up by topic