Infographic – From Shelves To Screens: RetailTech Reigns
Modern customers approach shopping differently as they open both their real and virtual wallets, expecting the same personalization and service. And retailers are taking…..
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RETAIL AND CONSUMER PACKAGED GOODS
Reimagine Retail In The Era Of Data And AI
BECOME A DIGITAL-LED
AND
CUSTOMER-FIRST RETAIL
RECOGNIZED IN ALL THE QUADRANTS OF THE ISG® PROVIDER LENS™ 2023 RETAIL AND CPG SERVICES REPORT
Emerging technologies are reshaping the Retail & CPG business. Are you ready?
The retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries are undergoing a major shift in business due to elevated customer expectations, staffing challenges, new technology adoption, and changing business models. Future-focused retailer and CPG companies now need to be a tech-driven business with AI, data, and digital technologies embedded in every aspect, such as omnichannel customer experiences, associate productivity, operational costs, hyper-personalization, loyalty, fulfillment, security, brand marketing, direct-to-consumer strategy, inventory management, merchandising, in-store operations, retail media networks, and more.
HTC Retail and CPG business unit has been at the forefront of helping its customers navigate with ease in managing, rebuilding, and innovating their technology footprint for the last three decades. We bring our technology expertise combined with data and AI-specialized skills and industry domain knowledge to find innovative and cost-effective technology solutions for our retail and CPG clients.
Our solutions
OMNI-CHANNEL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Achieving a seamless and continuous store experience across the physical and digital realms has become essential, linking the customer journey from web browsing to mobile apps and in-store interactions. To accomplish this, you must prioritize enhancing loyalty programs, embracing emerging payment methods like Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL), implementing self-service checkouts, and offering various fulfillment options such as curbside delivery and buy online and pay in-store (BOPIS). We are equipped to support you with:
- eCommerce Digital transformation and expansion
- Next-generation loyalty programs
- End-to-end mobile app experience with in-store modes
- Digital store operations like BOPIS/curbside
- Frictionless payment technology implementations
- Digital retail marketplaces
- Digital QA & automation
ENGAGED EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
Frontline sales associates drive exceptional customer experiences. Retailers must leverage AI automation for mundane tasks, allowing more time for customer interactions. Increased digital technology adoption enhances efficiency and improves the employee experience across retail and CPG functions. We offer:
- Store associate empowerment tools
- Employee experience transformation
- AI-augmented future workforce
PERSONALIZATION AT SCALE
In the age of hyper-personalization, tracking customer behavior in-store and online and combining it with preference data is crucial for better personalizing the shopping experience. This involves creating unique messages and offers, providing smart product recommendations, and engaging customers through various channels. We can assist you with:
- GenAI-driven personalized content generation
- AI-enabled personalization across ‘sales and service’ customer journeys
- Smart product recommenders & eCommerce personalization
INSTORE OPERATIONS
Data and AI are transforming in-store operations, powering smart shelves, video analytics for shopper behavior, queue management assistance, stock replenishment, product placements, and store layout optimization. Key components of modernizing retail environments include self-checkout terminals, self-service kiosks, electronic shelf labels for dynamic pricing, and shelf-scanning robots for inventory management. Our offerings here include:
- Intelligent AI-enabled operations
- Finance operations outsourcing BPS services
- Automating back-of-store & DC operations
- Robotics for in-store & warehouse automation
MARKETING AND RETAIL MEDIA NETWORKS
The use of generative AI for creating compelling product copy, personalized to user segments, image optimization, summarizing product reviews, and responding to customer queries accelerates marketing reach and response. AI-powered marketing technologies enable personalized product recommendations, targeted campaigns, and tailored promotions, enhancing customer engagement. Retailers with robust loyalty programs can leverage first-party data to offer advertising opportunities to brands through Retail Media Networks (RMNs), a new source of revenue strengthened by eCommerce growth. We can power you with:
- Digital marketing operations
- AI-driven MarTech automation
- Marketing analytics
- MarTech optimization with data insights
- RMN AI suite
SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCY
Supply chains globally face numerous challenges, making it crucial for retailers and CPG brands to balance product supply and demand. Real-time tracking and visibility are essential for ensuring the on-shelf availability (OSA) of products. Data and AI improve forecasting and inventory management, mitigating stockouts and reducing shrinkage. We can help you with:
- Intelligent control towers and visibility solutions
- Fulfillment and last-mile delivery solutions
- Predictive analytics for demand forecasting
- Responsible supply chain and circular value chain
DIRECT TO CONSUMER (DTC)
DTC models have transformed traditional growth strategies, empowering smaller, customer-centric digital-native brands to compete with established companies. Today, all CPG companies prioritize leveraging digital channels for direct consumer engagement. Leading CPG brands have developed their own DTC websites and marketplaces to provide unique experiences and collect direct consumer data, enhancing experiences, optimizing delivery mechanisms like last-mile deliveries, innovating new products, and refining inventory management. Explore our services, including:
- DTC brand direct channel presence
- DTC personalization and marketing
- DTC customer insights and data platforms
- DTC distribution and fulfillment solutions
ANALYST MENTION
SPOTLIGHT ON OUR DATA AND ANALYTICS SERVICE PORTFOLIO
Key Engagements Where HTC Has Delivered Value And Impact For Retailers And CPG.
Key Engagements Where HTC Has Delivered Value And Impact For Retailers And CPG.
B2B and B2C eCommerce
We have modernized the eCommerce technology stack for multiple retailers, including a specialty retailer, where we overhauled the entire stack for the US eCommerce website. We also worked on establishing a unified North American-based eCommerce platform.
POS Modernization
POS systems are undergoing multiple changes with the increase in self-service checkout processes and new payment mechanisms. We have successfully modernized the POS system for a US Mid-West big box retailer by integrating it with the loyalty program for personalized engagement at all shopper interaction points.
Data Platforms and Insight Generation
We have ongoing strong partnerships with all major cloud service providers and data product vendors to help retailers and CPG companies modernize their data stacks by migrating them from legacy platforms and building insights in the consumption layer of the data platforms. HTCNXT, the Data and AI arm of HTC, has built in multiple accelerators and reusable components for data ingestion, transformation, MLOps, data governance, and security in its platform called MAGE. With such a strong background, we have implemented a data platform for a leading retailer as a part of their modernization platform to migrate customer, transaction, product, and supply chain data domains.
Automation
Automation optimizes retail and CPG operations across various areas: in-store self-service, theft detection, real-time inventory reporting, warehouse and fulfillment automation for supply chain management, and enhancing distribution center productivity. Corporate functions also benefit from robotic process automation (RPA) across marketing, sales, operations, and finance tasks. HTC's BPS (business process servicing) practice automates repetitive tasks, enhancing operational efficiency for retailers.
AI in Retail and CPG
HTCNXT is the Data and AI practice of HTC focused on implementing multiple AI use cases across retail and CPG. These include areas like
- Demand planning and forecasting to analyze historical sales data, market trends, and external factors in real-time to accurately forecast future demand and plan inventory accordingly
- Personalized marketing with AI-powered recommendation engines analyzes customer data to give personalized product recommendations, targeted marketing campaigns, and tailored promotions
- Inventory optimization use cases like shrink prediction, inventory tracking/ETA prediction and visibility solutions
- Other AI use cases include AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants, product catalog management with product tagging automation, and automated content generation using generative AI LLM models
JDA (Blue Yonder) & SAP Retail
We have expertise in various retail platforms, including JDA (Blue Yonder) and SAP IS Retail. Over the years, we have successfully executed end-to-end retail platform implementations, managed enhancements, and integrated these platforms with other applications like WMS (e.g., Manhattan) and TMS (Transportation Management Systems). For instance, for a frozen food retailer, we implemented all modules of SAP IS Retail, covering purchasing, store operations, merchandising, supply chain, pricing, CRM, and retail analytics. Additionally, for another specialized retailer, we rolled out SAP finance modules across stores in multiple US states.
Recently, HTC has established a specialized QA CoE for SAP testing, catering to the needs of a large US hardware retailer.
Analyst Insight
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From Shelves To Screens: RetailTech Reigns
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