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What retail CEOs need to know to lead their business into the future

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Shifting consumer behavior is changing the face of the retail industry. The skillset that today’s retail CEOs require to lead a company into the future is going through changes, too. Flexibility, and the ability to foresee trends and move in the right direction quickly have become two necessary traits for tomorrow’s CEOs. “The business is changing so quickly and dramatically that you have to have people who are able to adapt,” said Paula Williamson-Reid, president of Reid & Co Executive Search LLC.   According to the report “The DNA of the Future Retail CEO” from the World Retail Congress,retail CEOs also need:   – a good understanding of retail products   – knowledge of store operations  – a data- and insight-driven approach to digital commerce and omni-channel.  “[When we recruit], we’re looking for a leader — whether it’s a marketer, a merchant or a head of operations — to have an understanding of how to build a business based on technology and a strong data foundation,” confirms said Kathy Ventura, managing partner, consumer and marketing practice at Caldwell, an executive search consultancy firm. “Then, they have to take that data and [apply it to] building an experience for customers.”   Flexibility, speed of action, product and operations knowledge, expertise in data analysis – this is a very demanding list of attributes. Unsurprisingly, the report by the World Retail Congress admits that few of today’s CEOs have the needed skillset. “Out of 10, only about four retail CEOs would qualify if they had to re-apply [for their jobs],” says Bijou Kurien, former President & CEO at Reliance Retail, India.    Luckily, CEOs are not alone in managing their retail companies. Two key elements can make the difference between shooting in the dark and creating an effective, data-based company strategy:   1. Having competent employees and consultants who help steer the business.  2. Using the right technology.   But how to choose the right technology, when IT moves even faster than consumers? It pays off to concentrate first on what goals you want to achieve, and then analyze what technology can help you get there. Here are 3 tips for CEOs to stay on top of the newest technological, financial, and retail trends.  1) Get a single overview of your core business functions  To understand where your business is heading and how to steer it, you need a vision that is clear, comprehensive, and timely. If you are using pieced together systems, no matter how well integrated, you cannot gain the real-time visibility you require. Worse, you risk having to make decisions based on data that’s old, partial, or plain incorrect. A unified commerce system brings together the various software solutions used to run the retail business, from back-end to front-end and across all channels, into one platform. You can then track financials along with inventory, sales, customer satisfaction, and all other moving pieces of retail within the same software platform, getting the visibility you need to make both long-term and day-to-day business decisions.  And when you are working with consistent, reliable data, then you have the right setup to add business intelligence tools. These Artificial Intelligence-powered system can help you make the most out of your data, connecting various aspects of your company into a meaningful overview and giving you insights that lead to even smarter business decisions.  2) Set the goals for your company, but be ready to adapt to change  Retail changes quickly, but a retail leader needs to decide which twists and turns aren’t worth following, and which ones matter. Richard Branson has said that the head of the company must set the vision, but be ready to change course when needed. Perhaps launching pop-up stores has never made sense within your business strategy until now – but the tide might be changing. It can make sense to jump on a new trend if the project fits with the overall vision of the company and it helps you keep up with the industry and consumers.   For example, during the Covid-19 crisis UK supermarket Morrisons partnered up with Amazon Prime to increase its reach to as many customers as possible nationwide. The company also launched a new shopping service to let vulnerable and elderly people order grocery via television and phone service. “Expanding this fast home delivery service to more cities will help us to play our full part in feeding the nation,” said David Potts, Morrisons CEO, underlining how sometimes it makes sense to take a counterintuitive step – such as opening a phone ordering service in the era of omni-channel, or teaming up with a competitor – if it serves the company’s vision.  3) Know how your retail business is doing and where it is going  Writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry famously said that “a goal without a plan is just a wish.” Strategic retail CEOs don’t make wishes for the company. Instead, they set goals, make a plan to reach them, and track their success on the way. If the retail goal is to sell more products online, a data-driven CEO needs to know where sales were before setting the goal, what data to monitor, and how to keep track of the data to know if the goal is being met. This is where key performance indicators, or KPIs, come in. KPIs are exactly the measures that a CEO needs to track how the company is doing financially and beyond. And this is where having adopted unified commerce can make a true difference. A unified commerce platform helps you collect and maintain in one place the data for all the KPIs you need to track. It also enables you to easily split the data between channels, product types, products, locations, and more, so you get the level of detail you need for your decisions.   “Do CEOs understand technology and data? No, probably not,” says Christine Cross, Advisory Board Member at River Island and Monsoon Accessorize. And a CEO who does not have a data-driven strategy won’t be able to lead the company to success. “It’s a bit like being a pilot of an A380 and not understanding what the controls do,” Cross adds.  Don’t be left behind as retail moves into the future. Be the strategic leader your company needs, but don’t try to do it on your own: get the right systems and data to inform and support your business decisions. Contact us to know more about how a unified commerce platform will drive you, and your business, into tomorrow and beyond. 

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Bring predictability to your revenue pipeline with Dynamics 365 Sales

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Most companies use sales pipeline data to gauge a very generalized picture of future sales. But imagine if your company’s data was accurate enough to predict next month’s revenue within a few cents? If an organization can standardize on top-performing sales processes and establish an accurate, targeted picture of the customer, pipeline data becomes far more reliable—and future sales become far more predictable. Insurance brokerage and advisory company Willis Towers Watson (WTW) collected extensive sales data across systems within the organization, but they lacked a centralized system to view the collected data. The company adopted Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales to capture data in a single system where they could extract insights to optimize sales practices and prioritize high-converting customers. By using insights to drive success into sales practices, WTW has increased the reliability of their sales pipeline, making future revenue far more predictable. “In January, we ran our numbers based on prior performance and predicted almost to the penny what the number would be for new business going forward. Probably very few companies have been able to do something like that.”—Luis Maurette, CRB Global Head of Sales and Client Management, WTW Sales predictability can be increased when sales leaders have two key things: An accurate picture of high-conversion customers: Seller conversion rate will increase and sales cycles will close faster if you can provide your sellers a picture of your highest-converting customers. With the right tools, customer profiles can easily be developed from the characteristics of existing customers—sales intelligence you already have. According to LinkedIn, 74 percent of sales intelligence users said the tools are extremely critical or critical in closing deals. Better, faster sales processes: According to McKinsey, sales performance management can drive up to a 10 to 20 percent increase in revenue per salesperson. That means if you leverage tools that help you identify sales best practices and standardize them across your company, your sales cadence becomes predictable. Fast access to data, fewer systems to pull data from, and easy collaboration with teammates and stakeholders optimize processes, and in turn makes sales cycles faster. Identify customers more accurately, win more customers A better understanding of the customers leads to higher conversion rates. Marcelo Fama, Head of Latin America CRB Ops at WTW says that with the new capabilities offered by Dynamics 365 Sales and Microsoft Relationship Sales (which includes LinkedIn Sales Navigator), “We identify more opportunities sooner with the highly effective, automated triggers in the sales process that come with the platform.” At WTW, they are now able to target unique audiences because of data in Dynamics 365, and have accelerated the sales process because clients recognize right out of the gate that they understand their clients’ needs. Increase speed and collaboration with Teams When sellers can quickly access account managers and subject matter experts for quick information within the context of a deal, sales cycles close faster. WTW plans to leverage the integration of the One Microsoft platform to optimize their sales processes. With Microsoft Teams embedded in Dynamics 365 Sales, sellers can share and edit CRM records within the context of chats and channels, providing the seamless collaboration between segments and regions critical to closing deals. “We have aspirations to become even more connected as a company and to accelerate growth through standardized processes,” says Maurette. Success depends on making it stick Historically, the failure rate for large-scale change efforts like new customer relationship management (CRM) programs has been as high as 70 percent. WTW reversed this trend and within six months of rapid deployment, 90 percent of WTW sellers were up to speed and using the new tools to work faster and more efficiently. “In my 18 years at WTW, I don’t think we ever expected staff to adopt anything at above 80 percent, let alone a sales platform. It’s just outstanding.”—Jim Blaney, Head of Sales and Client Management, Corporate Risk and Broking, North America, WTW By tapping into the true value of Dynamics 365 Sales, WTW makes more data-driven decisions with consistency across the company rather than decisions based on guesswork. And the company has a deeper understanding of its clients and can better create targeted campaigns and deliver relevant, personalized services. Learn more about Dynamics 365 Sales Want to learn more about Dynamics 365 Sales? contact us today at info@tridentinfo.com

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Why it makes sense to move your retail management software to the cloud

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As a successful retailer, chances are you are already running some of your IT functions in the cloud. That’s smart. The next logical step is to move your entire retail management system to the cloud, and go from the on-premises version to its software as a service (SaaS) one. But even if you know that the cloud is experiencing exponential growth, and that you will, one day, take the leap, you may be hesitant to do it now. Perhaps you are afraid you’re not ready for the change. Perhaps you have security concerns. Maybe you can’t clearly identify which practical, day-to-day benefits you’d get from moving to the cloud. Whichever your reasons, you want the best for your business, and you care about staying competitive. You want to make the right decision, and employ technology that will propel you forward today and tomorrow. While you are debating whether the cloud is for you, here are 8 good reasons why you should consider migrating your system. 1. Stay up to date, automatically With traditional on-premises software, businesses are responsible of keeping their hardware and software up to date. In order to stay current (and safe), they’d need to purchase new hardware every few years, and to update their software every few months. But in reality, retailers usually have more pressing concerns than keeping track of the latest software patch or upgrade. And if the company is using multiple software solutions and there are integrations in place, a system upgrade can become a costly and lengthy project. As a result, many companies end up with outdated IT environments that work, but don’t really support the business, and may even hinder it. In the worst cases, this old tech might reduce the company’s ability to grow and take on new projects, or stay on top of consumer demands. When you are using SaaS in the cloud, all these concerns belong to the past. You don’t need to worry about periodic maintenance, or to budget for expensive and complicated software upgrades. Instead, your supplier takes care of updating your software regularly. And if you have configured your add-ons correctly, you can maintain all your extensions, and even your configurations. SaaS software guarantees that you are always, automatically, on the latest version, and can use all the new functionality that comes with it. 2. Enhance productivity with intelligence One of the biggest advantages of the cloud is the advanced computational power it offers. Tasks that until yesterday were too complex for even the most powerful computer, for example predicting future sales patterns, are now within reach of any retailer. Businesses can run their data into Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) powered tools available in the cloud, and without having to pay for extra servers or data scientists, they can get the answers they need, with minimal effort, very rapidly, and at a fraction of the cost than comparable on-prem technology. There is a wide variety of AI tools available in the cloud, giving businesses infinite possibilities to improve their effectiveness and productivity. AI can also help make smarter decisions, and deliver more personalized, to the point customer service. Would you like to send personalized promotions and special deals to your customers based on their shopping history and specific tastes? Are you thinking about adding a chatbot or virtual agent as a first-line customer support? Or perhaps you’d like to offer intelligent search on your e-commerce site? When you run your software in the cloud, all these initiatives are accessible to you, and can be started within a very short timeframe. But AI can do much more than help deliver bespoke customer experiences. You can use optimize your inventory with advanced forecasting that can factor seasonality, promotions, trends, and product substitutes and complements into your forecasts. You can refine your hiring practices with intelligent talent acquisition solutions. You can simplify searches across your catalog for both staff and customers using AI-powered accurate product tagging applied to images. When you infuse your business with intelligence, you also make it more proactive, agile, and profitable. 3. Guarantee business continuity with a reliable infrastructure With traditional in-house IT setups, businesses are at constant risk of downtimes and failures. On-site servers can’t usually guarantee a consistent performance, and if a key piece of your hardware breaks down, you may be left unable to serve customers or close sales – and could even risk losing your business data. As regards reliability, a traditional infrastructure usually necessitates a disaster recovery plan, requiring you to build redundancy, carefully monitor conditions, having dual firewalls and more – in short, you need to budget for time-consuming, expensive, complex monitoring. Switch to SaaS software, and you can step away from all of these problems. Even if you experience a hardware failure – say your computers or servers break down – you won’t lose your data, as it is safely stored in the cloud and can be accessed when and as you need to. The cloud also guarantees higher reliability. Large cloud services like Microsoft Azure, with expansive resources and entire dedicated teams, have already built in redundancy, from failover hardware to datacenters located across the world. As a result, Azure, the service where the cloud-based version of LS Central resides, can guarantee 99,995% uptime, and top security features.  4. Respond quickly to changing market conditions You know how important speed of action is in the retail industry. Yet, traditional IT environments are all but agile: even a project as simple as adding new servers or applications can be very time consuming. First, your IT staff needs time to procure the hardware or software that will fit within the current infrastructure. Then they have to set it up and test it, and finally, they’ll have to go through implementing it. In the past, this process was the only way to implement change. Today, this is an outdated and ineffective way of operating – especially when the businesses you are competing against are agile and unburdened by traditional infrastructure, such as e-commerce players. To stay

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3 aspects to consider when migrating to Dynamics 365 in the cloud—it’s like building your next dream house

Microsoft Dynamics 365 /

Migrating your on-premises business applications to the cloud can be like building your very own dream home. It’s incredibly exciting and will be perfect for your unique needs but can feel daunting when going at it alone. Ensuring you have a strong plan is crucial. Let’s explore this metaphor a bit more as we examine three critical components in your cloud journey and how you can leverage the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Migration Program all along the way. Much like a top-notch architect and contractor makes building your dream home easier, the Dynamics 365 Migration Program enables on-premises customers to simplify and accelerate their move to the cloud. It offers end-to-end migration support working directly with Microsoft cloud architects and specialized migration partners. The program offers access to a no-charge migration assessment, pricing offers, tools, and migration support for qualified customers. Get expert help through the Dynamics 365 Migration Program to move from Dynamics AX or Dynamics CRM to the cloud. Before you “break ground” on your cloud migration, however, there are three core aspects to consider—budget, requirements, and location. 1. Budget: When building a dream home, ensuring you have a good understanding of your true budget is usually a good place to start. A reasonable place to begin is to compare your housing costs today with your future costs. Maybe you are renting or making mortgage payments on an existing house and you want to compare your current payments to your dream home mortgage. Chances are this new mortgage cost along with the one-time down payment may look overwhelming compared to your current rent or mortgage, but this is an incomplete view. It is incredibly important to factor in all of the service costs involved in maintenance, upgrades, and repairs of your current residence. This applies to on-premises costs as well—it is crucial to calculate the total cost of ownership, including IT costs, upgrade costs, and server costs to avoid any surprises. See the Forrester TEI study for Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM to learn what other customers have found when making the cost comparison. 2. Requirements: Once you have a clear line of sight to the budget requirements, next comes the fun part—the design and specifications of your new house. When you are thinking about your future needs, why limit yourself to old ways of doing things? What about your partner’s, kids’, and pets’ changing needs? Your toddler will grow up to be a teenager in no time and will need a study room, or maybe your partner wants to start working from home and needs a quiet office space. Is all of your old stuff going to your new house, or might it make sense to get rid of the old boxes that you haven’t opened in the last 10 years? Likewise, when migrating to the cloud, it is an opportunity to refresh, evolve, or completely get rid of your old business practices that don’t make sense anymore. Do you still want that big file cabinet when you can store things securely online? To fully understand what it will take for you to migrate your existing on-premises data, customizations, integrations, and functionality to the cloud, you should sign-up for a no-charge, no-obligation Microsoft migration assessment. The assessment will give you deep insights into what it will take in terms of time and effort to migrate to the cloud. Apply today for the Microsoft migration assessment to get started. 3. Location: Your ideal dream house should be in a spot where you feel safe and have the option to expand your living space when needed. Some neighborhoods, for example, are simply preferred because of the safety they offer in addition to the flexible zoning laws that allow future expansion. Maybe you want to build that second floor or mother-in-law suite in the future when your family grows or add those privacy hedges you have always wanted. Isn’t it great to always have that option and only invest when you are ready? With Dynamics 365 you can access cutting-edge technology, control costs, and improve IT productivity by migrating to the cloud. Dynamics 365 offers physical, infrastructure, and operational security with Microsoft Azure. It also offers scaling to the desired capacity to accommodate a variable number of users. Learn more about all the benefits of migrating from Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM to Dynamics 365 in the cloud. Finally, when considering building that future dream house, it can be exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. Migrating your on-premises enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer relationship management (CRM) to the cloud is no different with the same or more anxiety associated. It is very important to fully consider all the costs, design aspects, and platform features before you can determine the best migration path for your company. With Dynamics 365 Migration Program hundreds of customers like you have already benefitted from our no-charge, no-obligation Microsoft Standard Migration Assessment. “I was impressed about the information I got out of this migration assessment. It will give us confidence for the next steps” – Senior Business Analyst The Microsoft Standard Migration Assessment is the first step to help you understand the value of cloud migration and how to get there. This Microsoft-managed assessment is delivered virtually, typically requiring four to eight hours of a customer’s time. The Microsoft Standard Migration Assessment is available worldwide for users of Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM. Consult with our Dynamics 365 Expert here. Blog Reference : Microsoft Official

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Why your restaurant needs intelligent analytics according to a CIO

Restaurant Management ERP, Retail ERP Software, Uncategorized /

What opportunities is your restaurant missing out on just because you are afraid of change? The past few months have shown us that businesses cannot continue operating with their old models. During times of disruption and uncertainty, speed and agility become necessary for survival. Restaurants have discovered that they need to be able to adopt new models of food delivery, quickly. They must be able to make staffing changes at the last minute. To substitute ingredients and dishes depending on what’s available. To calculate costs and optimize purchasing, factoring in limited seating, reduced opening hours, and shifting consumer habits. Traditional technology can’t support these levels of agility. Restaurants need to start their digital transformation, quickly, and they need to focus on building intelligence into the business. According to a study by IDC, companies that center their digital transformation on intelligent technology improve their productivity, drive cost efficiencies, and have 8 times the revenue and twice the profitability as non-digitally transformed enterprises. 6 practical benefits of analytics in your restaurant business With the new generation of intelligent analytics, businesses don’t need a team of data scientists to gain insights and wade through data. Cloud-based intelligence-powered analytics is accessible to most restaurant businesses, and can provide tangible benefits. An Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered analytics and reporting software can enable businesses to: – Find meaningful patterns across vast amounts of data. Perhaps you’ll see that your mall location gets more customers when it rains, or that your downtown location sells more wine glasses, but fewer beers, when the main of the day is steak. – Optimize ingredient ordering. Historical consumption patterns can help you predict how much you’ll sell next week. The system can also help you calculate what you need to order. – Decrease waste. Once you figure out that your portions of sauce are too big and mostly end up in the can, or that selling wines by the glass on weeknights ends up in a lot of waste, you can take steps to cut your losses. – Optimize stock usage and distribution. At some point, it might make business sense to move the content of your freezers from a location in a mall that is seeing low foot traffic to one that is still doing good business. – Engineer the right menu. Are there any unpopular dishes on your menu that are costly, or complex to produce? Are your most popular dishes providing you with healthy margins? Could you do more to sell your highest-revenue dishes? An analytics software can help you make design a menu that is better aligned to your guests’ tastes while also giving you more in return. – Simplify staffing. An analytics software can help you see whether you have too many or too few staff members working in a location at a specific time, making better use of their time and of your resources. “There’s a value in being prepared for the future. Even if a technology may not drive clear returns today, if it puts you in a position to be able to respond to changes, then it’s worth it.” Leon DeWet Former restaurant CIO 4 tips from a restaurant CIO Leon DeWet is a former restaurant CIO, and a strong believer in the power of analytics. DeWet was a CIO in restaurant chains the likes of Cracker Barrel and O’Charley’s for 28 years. During his time in the industry, he saw technology transform both the restaurant business and consumer behavior. He saw trends, short-lived fads, and at times, truly revolutionary technology. Analytics, in his opinion, belongs to the last category. DeWet shared with us four tips for restaurant executives who want to make the most out of intelligent analytics and reporting. 1. Find the small drivers of benefits “Analytics can be a powerful tool to find the small changes in behavior, or in processes, that can drive huge benefits. While you still need to keep your eye on traditional big drivers, like the number of labor hours you’re spending or the number of guests, if you can, dig deeper to find out what is driving those numbers. Why those small changes can you see taking place? How do you influence them? How do you shift them? Looking at these details can have a big impact on the bottom line.” 2. Adjust your metrics to a changed reality “Don’t be blinded by what have historically been deemed ‘key metrics’ within the organization. Take, for ex, table turns. How fast you can turn a table only matters if you have guests to fill that table. Perhaps, if there are few customers you should rather focus on selling more to who’s already at the table. Look at what’s happening in your business before you decide which metrics to focus on, keeping in mind some metrics might make sense in some parts of the day, but not at other times.” 3. Use analytics to predict, not just describe “Too many restaurants are still too focused on using analytics in a reactive way. They look at the historical data to try and understand what has happened. Instead, I think that the true value of analytics lies in their ability to help prepare for the future. Where is the business going to go? How do I intersect it ahead of time? It’s important to also include external data, to intercept external behaviors that may have an impact on your business down the line. For example, if you see that the average miles driven by guests is going down, you need to stop, and understand what that is going to do to your customer base, what may have caused it, and how you can mitigate against it. Or if you are heading into hot and muggy weather, you should look how your sales and presences were affected in the past, and prepare. The AI can help you notice these kinds of trends and link them to other factors, so you can plan ahead.” 4. Think of technology as an investment in core infrastructure “I think we need to change our mindsets. An investment in technology is no different than investing in the latest

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How Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection helps Worldline combat fraud

Microsoft Dynamics 365 /

Online fraud increased significantly during the recent pandemic and economic downturn, with losses of an estimated $12 billion worldwide.1 To ensure continuous protection, organizations need modern solutions to protect from a range of fraud—from payment fraud, bots, account takeover, and returns and discounts fraud. We are partnering with Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, to help protect thousands of global organizations and their customers from a wide scope of fraud. Worldline will integrate our award-winning Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection services into their leading digital payments suite to provide their users additional security and trust by future-proofing their businesses. Helping to protect world-class digital payments for a trusted world With its global reach and its commitment to innovation, Worldline is the technology partner of choice for merchants, banks, and third-party acquirers as well as public transport operators, government agencies, and industrial companies in all sectors. Powered by over 20,000 employees in more than 50 countries, Worldline provides its clients with sustainable, trusted, and secure solutions across the payment value chain, fostering their business growth wherever they are. Now, Worldline’s customers will benefit from Microsoft’s award-winning fraud prevention technology. Purchase protection can help protect revenue by improving the transaction acceptance rate reduce checkout friction. Account protection can help protect a business’s reputation and safeguard user accounts from abuse and fraud by combating fake account creation, account takeover, and fraudulent account access. Finally, loss prevention helps protect revenue by identifying anomalies and potential fraud on returns and discounts and provides the tools to quickly take action to mitigate losses. How it works: scalable fraud protection across millions of transactions Screening every transaction for traceable ‘fingerprints’ on fraudulent transactions would be impossible without technology such as the award-winning adaptive AI that powers Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection. Worldline customers can start with a mixture of pre-set fraud controls and adaptive AI that can learn to better identify fraud both on a client’s own site and as part of a globe-spanning fraud protection network. Customers will be able to see Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection working right away thanks to an intuitive user interface and real-time analytics. Users can also customize their rules and controls to find the perfect balance of preventing fraud and reducing customer friction. Users will be able to curate their fraud prevention to meet their unique business needs with the help of a comprehensive dashboard that analyses false positives, optimizes rules to increase acceptance, and a virtual fraud analyst interface. By leveraging the world-class digital payment and transactional services of Worldline and leading AI-powered fraud protection capabilities from Dynamics 365, customers can protect against the impact of fraud, which can range from severe disruptions to society to minor inconveniences; from widespread cyber-attacks across payment systems to day-to-day false-positive transaction alerts that can both be annoying to customers and harmful to businesses. Our mission at Microsoft is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We are honored to be a part of Worldline’s leading payment solutions and to empower them to achieve their vision to “design and operate leading digital payment and transactional solutions that enable sustainable economic growth and reinforce trust and security in our societies. Learn more To learn more about Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection and our capabilities including how purchase protection helps protect your revenue by improving the acceptance rate of e-commerce transactions, how account protection helps protect your reputation by defending against bot attacks, fake account creation, account takeover, and fraudulent account access, and how loss prevention helps protect revenue by identifying anomalies on returns and discounts.

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Take off in the cloud with Microsoft 365

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Our world has changed, and you need simple, secure solutions that help you transform your business and get things done from almost anywhere. Whether you’re adapting to remote work, serving your customers in new ways, or exploring different business models, Microsoft 365 for business can help you reach your goals. 80% of full-time workers expect to work from home at least 3x per week after Covid-19 restrictions lift. Surveyed companies gained up to 163% ROI over three years by improving employee productivity and reducing IT costs with Microsoft 365 for business. Top challenges for today’s businesses Enable remote work. The world can change rapidly and unexpectedly, and businesses of all sizes need easier, secure ways to work and serve customers from almost anywhere. Strengthen security. Small businesses are attractive targets for cybercriminals, and protecting sensitive information becomes even more challenging when people work remotely. Reduce costs & complexity. As you adjust to an uncertain economy and marketplace in a post-Covid-19 world, you need ways to work more efficiently without adding expensive, complicated technology. Support growth. You need solutions that can extend easily and affordably as your business changes and grows, without requiring significant up-front investment. Benefits of Microsoft 365 for business Be more productive almost anywhere with real-time collaboration. Work with people almost anywhere using cloud-based Office apps. Stay in touch with videoconferencing, chat, and calling as well as email. Help protect your business information with technology you can trust. Help protect data against malware, unauthorized access, and accidental deletion using built-in safeguards. Safeguard user identities by enabling multi-factor authentication. Optimize costs & management with a single, secure solution for teamwork. Replace standalone software with a single, fully-managed platform that includes Office apps and real-time collaboration including videoconferencing. Start with a plan that’s right for your business and add more capabilities simply and affordably as needed.

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Why physical stores are still vital for retail

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During the Covid-19 pandemic, online became a fundamental channel for retailers. Even as overall retail spend decreased, eCommerce sales grew over the previous year. The impressive results may overshadow that eCommerce still represents just a small percentage of total retail sales: in the U.S., the number is as low as 14.5%, according to eMarketer data. This means that over 85% of retail still happens in physical stores, which makes a synergy between online and offline key to retail success in the near future. Here are eight reasons why you should still invest in your brick-and-mortar store locations. 1. People are more likely to buy a product when they’ve seen it in person. According to KPMG research, the top reason why consumers prefer to shop in physical stores is to see, experience and test products in person before buying them. Having a physical location where people can go and make sure that, yes, this paint is exactly the color I want, can dispel consumer doubts and help close a sale. Seeing things in person can, also, reduce the risk that a product will be returned because it’s not the right size/color/material. 2. Customers who pick up items in store buy extra stuff. Click and collect (also known as BOPIS, buying online and picking up in store) and curbside pickup are extremely popular both with customers and retailers. Compared to home delivery, pickup can be more convenient for customers, as it enables them to get their purchases when they want, without having to wait for a courier at home. For retailers, in-store pickup offers plenty of benefits: it’s cheaper than delivery, it brings shoppers through the doors, and it can lead to bigger baskets. According to Forrester research, 30% to 40% of consumers using click and collect buy additional items when they get into the store. 3. Physical stores can reduce the cost of returns. Items bought in physical stores are less likely to be returned than products bought online. According to David Sobie, co-founder and CEO of Happy Returns, “shoppers return 5-10% of what they purchase in store but 15-40% of what they buy online.” Letting shoppers exchange or return in-store the items the bought online can also help reduce the cost of returns by removing shipping and transportation fees for the retailers. Consumers like it, too: according to NRF data, 80% of shoppers say they prefer to return products to a store than send it back. 4. High-quality, one-on-one customer service increases sales. Despite the popularity of online shopping, the human touch is still an important part of the retail experience. According to research for RetailEXPO, almost two out of three (64%) of shoppers say that knowledgeable sales associates make them more likely to visit a physical store, and three out of four (75%) of shoppers are likely to spend more after receiving high quality service from staff in-store.  5. The brand experience is still inherently physical. Retail is a highly competitive industry. While it can be hard to stand out online, a physical store gives you the chance to create an engaging brand experience. Showrooms and concept stores, for example, can enable retailers to immerse customers in their brand culture, creating lasting impressions. Designing an experience that has the right balance of safety, excitement and convenience is key – and can help differentiate your brand from the competition. 6. You can use stores as part of your supply chain. In omni-channel retail, logistic costs can spiral out of control, and erode margins significantly. Some retailers are realizing savings by using some or all of their physical stores as warehouses and fulfillment centers, to support and strengthen their supply chain. Transforming a store location in a so-called “dark store” can help reduce costs of inventory management and expand the reach across larger geographies by enabling faster, more effective distribution. 7. You get free market research on your customers’ preferences and habits. Fashion retailer ModCloth opened its first brick-and-mortar store after 13 years of selling online only. “We discovered small things, the details our customers love,” Matt Kaness, president and CEO at ModCloth, told USA Today. “They loved linings in dresses and skirts, and they loved pockets.” Although data collected from the online store can helps see trends, retailers can learn much about their customers just by watching them shop, interacting with the space and products. “From a market research standpoint, [a store] pays for itself. The amount of market research you gain just by observing people, it’s the equivalent of 100 focus groups,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, senior analyst with Forrester Research. 8. Physical stores bring greater traffic to your online store. Research from the International Council of Shopping Centers shows that when a retailer opens a new physical store location, traffic to their website increases by 37% the following quarter. According to L2’s report “Death of Pureplay Retail,” when retailers open new brick-and-mortar locations, the number of online mentions of the brand and online searches increase dramatically. This online buzz is accompanied by increased financial returns, L2 adds, making physical stores a good investment both in terms of popularity and profitability.   According to a survey from Harvard Business Review, shoppers who buy both online and in physical stores tend to spend more on average compared to those who interact with a business on only one channel. For retailers, this means that physical retail still has a central role to play in their business strategy. If you need help figuring out what tools you need to deliver fantastic omni-channel customer experiences, contact us. Our unified commerce solutions are world-renowned for connecting online with offline, and retailers with consumers. Note:  Blog reference : LS Retail Official Website

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