Why Make Innovation Part of Your Omnichannel Strategy

Retailers today are under a lot of pressure to take advantage of new technologies and to choose ones that will have a good ROI. But as retail becomes more omnichannel and customer-centric, which technologies will have the most benefit for retailers, and where should you, as a retailer, invest?

This was one of the prevailing themes at Retail & Brand Experience World Congress in Barcelona this year, where brands debated how to be innovative at a time when retailing is undergoing so much change.

Retailers should think about what they want to be in 5 years and how they can deliver the kind of experience their customers expect. They also have to think about what they can do that will benefit them in the short term as well as in the long term.

Leverage the Assets You Already Have

Make sure customers are happy in your store and engaged with your brand. Choose technologies that can ultimately resolve customer-centric problems and really deliver clean, easy-to-navigate, in-store experiences. And look for technologies that leverage the assets you already have.

Openbravo believes companies should invest in an integrated technology platform which allows them to leverage the information they already have, reduce errors, and speed up their operations to improve customer service.

Real-time visibility at the POS empowers staff to offer a higher quality customer experience and the opportunity for “quick wins.” But it’s also good for the long-term because without it, it’s impossible to move into the next generation of retail.

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

Many retailers are still working with complex and at least partly obsolete and silo-ed systems, and they are afraid of losing their previous investments. But these retailers also miss out on the cost savings, speed, and efficiency gained from integration.

Technology today should work to simplify processes and make it easier for staff to do their jobs well. It takes courage to move onto an integrated platform, but Openbravo is confident that it works and that it will be stable.

Make Innovation Evolutionary, Not Revolutionary

Retailers need to innovate with a cause, and really innovate in a way that is relevant to their business. They also need a technology platform that will not only handle today’s solutions, but also those of tomorrow.

Artificial intelligence is one example of a technology that retailers may want to test in a few stores and gauge its effectiveness before fully investing in the solution. Software subscriptions like Openbravo allow you to adopt a more entrepreneurial mindset and experiment more. You can pay for what you use, add functionalities with connectors, and do run pilot projects, which makes testing technologies more cost-effective than ever.

The POS of the future will probably look very different from how we envision it today, so it’s important to have a technology that can adapt easily. Choose a system that is agile and configurable enough innovate incrementally and to experiment.

There is no silver bullet for success. There will be plenty of technologies that will come out in the next few years that you may want to test, and you need to be prepared for that from a technology perspective.

Need help executing a strategy for innovation? Find out more about Openbravo’s Professional Innovation Services today!