In the last week, UCS Solutions hosted its annual Beyond Retail conference in both Johannesburg and Cape Town. This year's mega themes focused on two high-profile and very relevant topics, namely "The Customer is in Control" and "Cloud-Powered Retail".
Mega Theme One - "The Customer is in Control"
Paul Hinds, a Senior Executive at Beyond Analysis, UCS Solutions' partner in the space of customer analytics and insights, focused on big data and what can be done to turn customer data into valuable customer insights. Hinds referenced some of the excellent work Beyond Analysis had conducted with various European retailers, including Waitrose and Robinsons. He also shared the results of a pilot that both Beyond Analysis and UCS Solutions had conducted with a prominent South African retailer. It certainly went to prove that good customer insights can unlock significant business value across the retail enterprise.
Amanda Cromhout, the founder of Truth, is a specialist in the area of customer centricity and loyalty. Cromhout has been actively involved in many high-profile loyalty programmes, including Pick n Pay's "Smart Shopper", Edcon's "Thank U" and Woolworths' "W Rewards" programmes. She shared her perspectives on the key ingredients that are required to make loyalty programmes work. Her core message is that loyalty is not about points; it is about customer engagement. Shopping is an experience and people are loyal to experiences much more so than to product. In order to engage with customers and offer them a superior experience, customer insight is essential. This followed on from and reinforced the messages delivered by Hinds earlier in the morning. The other key message from Cromhout was to ensure that you "LOVE your most profitable customers and inoculate them against the inevitable seduction of a competitor".
In the final part of Mega Theme One, Jessica Knight, UCS Solutions' Senior Executive for Business Solutions, shared the findings of market research conducted by UCS Solutions on the state of online retailing in South Africa. UCS Solutions surveyed over 1 000 adults from across a broad spectrum of the population to assess their perspectives of online retail. Some of the results were surprising and confirmed that the population is ahead of the curve in terms of their appetite for online retail compared to what traditional retailers are currently offering them. Convenience and price were the two most common reasons for shopping online, while trust or a lack of and clarity around price, delivery and product were the three things that most caused customers to not "checkout".
The other interesting fact communicated by Knight was the fact that, of the top 10 online retailers identified, only three also had a bricks and mortar presence in South Africa. It would appear that pure play retailers are stealing a march on traditional retailers. These include the obvious international players like Amazon.com, but also the less obvious players that now offer delivery to South Africa. Marks & Spencer, Next, John Lewis, Gap, eBay, French Connection, to name a few, so it's definitely time to shape up in the online world!
Mega Theme Two - "Cloud-Powered Retail"
Chris Shortt, UCS Solutions' Senior Executive for Application Services, kicked off Mega Theme Two by bringing the cloud down to Earth. Data volumes are growing exponentially from a number of unstructured sources, and with that, the computing power needed to process the data quickly is becoming enormous. Cloud computing allows organisations to scale when required in addition to being able to offer information on multiple devices, anytime, anywhere. Would you really want 85% of your computing power to sit idle most of the time?
Shortt also quoted Cyriac Roeding, the CEO of Shopkick, who predicts that "the next five years will bring more change to retail than the last 100 years". Cloud-based applications such as Shopkick will fundamentally change the way shoppers shop, and this will have a dramatic effect on retail businesses worldwide. According to Shortt, it is imperative that retailers understand these changes now so that they can develop their cloud-based strategies before they are left behind.
Shortt was then joined on stage by Brent Kirkman, UCS Solutions' Executive for product innovation, and Renier Kriel, the founder of UCS Solutions partner 4iSoftware, for a demonstration of four cloud-based apps for retail. The most impressive of these apps, according to the audience, is the UCS Solutions Buyers App that allows buyers to interact with their enterprise via a mobile device. Imagine being overseas on a buying trip and having the ability to capture buying and product information easily without the need for Internet connection and then being able to synchronise this with the enterprise systems once the device is connected to a WiFi or mobile data network. Additionally, all supplier information is embedded in the app and allows orders for samples and products to be placed directly from the mobile device.
The common theme across both Mega Themes was that customers are now in control and retailers need to adapt their approaches and adopt the technologies that will allow them to interact with their customers in the way that their customers want to interact. The era of Consumer-to-Business has started.
The final presentation by renowned "intelligent disrupter" Barrie Bramley wrapped the whole event up by explaining what customers are going to do to change the audience's businesses. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter are giving people the tools to communicate in a much more effective way. Be it compliments or complaints, information seeking or knowledge sharing, social media has armed people with tools that make this easy. This is not a revolution, it is an evolution, much like the fax machine was so many years ago. Then, as in now, people don't really understand the full power of what they have, but when they do, it is sure to fundamentally change our worlds. Food for thought!
The event closed with lunch and the draw for the winner of two R5 000 gift vouchers for "A South African Experience". The winners, Chris Tugman, IT Executive at Massbuild, and Clare Theron, Customer Strategy Manager at Woolworths, received their prizes from Mark Belcher, UCS Solutions' Senior Executive for Business Development and Marketing.
Who attended Beyond Retail 2012?
There were over 120 attendees from the following businesses:
Pick n Pay, Clicks, Cape Union Mart, Telkom, SAP, DGB, BCX, Visa, Frost & Sullivan, Foschini, Spinneys Dubai, Shoprite, Woolworths, Ackermans, MiH Internet, Concepts, Dis-Chem, Studio 88, ITWeb, Massbuild, JD Group, Italtile and UPD
What did the attendees like about Beyond Retail 2012?
* "Excellent topics, great speakers, very informative"
* "Informative and easy to understand"
* "Good insights, interesting trends"
* "Interesting presentations and SA-specific insights"
* "Forward-thinking approach/use of interactive media and technology"
* "Focused on retail possibilities and not just focused on IT saves"
* "Very relevant to current market conditions. A new way of looking at loyalty"
Are you kicking yourself for missing Beyond Retail 2012? If so, mark your calendar now for Beyond Retail 2013.
* Beyond Retail 2013 - Johannesburg - Tuesday, 10 September 2013
* Beyond Retail 2013 - Cape Town - Thursday, 12 September 2013
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