The Future Store Manifesto – Where are we Now?

News provided by

Boston Retail Partners

Dec 05, 2016, 08:00 ET


Boston, MA (PRWEB) December 05, 2016 -- One year after The Future Store Manifesto was published, BRP issued a scorecard to evaluate how retailers are progressing along the road to the “future store.” The Future Store Manifesto - 2016 Scorecard, sponsored by Salesforce Commerce Cloud, highlights how retailers are changing their initiatives to align with the key future store imperatives: mobile, relevant, personal, ubiquitous and secure.

The digital world is infiltrating brick and mortar stores, where consumers are equipped with smartphones and a new set of expectations. Over the past twenty years, many in the retail industry have predicted the demise of the physical store. But the reality is, the store is still the foundation of retailing. It is where the tactile and sensory experience comes together for the consumer.

To succeed, retailers are infusing digital features into the store environment to personalize the shopping experience, compete more effectively with online pure-play retailers and exceed customer expectations. The store is not dead, it’s digitized.

“It is impressive to see how many retailers are making the five critical elements of the future store a top priority, however, many retailers have a long way to go,” said Ken Morris, principal at BRP. “The physical store will continue to be the heart and soul of retail operations for the foreseeable future, however, a transformation is in process. While the store isn’t going away, it’s already starting to get a whole lot more connected, mobile and smarter.”

“The unified consumer experience is table stakes today, and retailers know it. They don’t question  why they should do unified commerce. They question how - as in, how to break down the silos between digital and store systems to get to the omni-channel use cases. It all starts with a move to a single, real-time view of the consumer, prices and inventory availability across all channels," said Eric Olafson, SVP Stores, Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

Here are a few of the key findings in this special report:

  • Mobile – 78% of retailers plan to use mobile POS to enable associates to complete a customer’s purchase on the sales floor by the end of 2018
  • Relevant – 58% of retailers plan to utilize geolocation within two years
  • Personal – 51% of retailers plan to offer suggested selling based on what is in the customer’s closet by mid-2019
  • Ubiquitous – 50% of retailers will allow a customer transaction to start anywhere, finish anywhere within five years
  • Secure – 88% of retailers plan to have end-to-end encryption (E2EE) implemented to ensure data security by 2019

To download The Future Store Manifesto - 2016 Scorecard, visit: https://bostonretailpartners.com/future-store-manifesto-2016-scorecard/

About Salesforce Commerce Cloud
The Salesforce Commerce Cloud empowers retailers to unify customer experiences across all points of commerce, including web, social, mobile and store.  From shopping to fulfillment to customer service, the Commerce Cloud delivers 1-to-1 shopping experiences that consistently delight customers, driving increased engagement, loyalty and conversion.  With embedded predictive intelligence and a robust partner ecosystem, the Commerce Cloud delivers customer satisfaction and growth from planning to launch and beyond.

For more information, visit commercecloud.com, call +1-888-553-9216 or email commercecloud(at)salesforce(dot)com

About BRP

BRP is an innovative and independent retail management consulting firm dedicated to providing superior service and enduring value to our clients. BRP combines its consultants' deep retail business knowledge and cross-functional capabilities to deliver superior design and implementation of strategy, technology, and process solutions. The firm's unique combination of industry focus, knowledge-based approach, and rapid, end-to-end solution deployment helps clients to achieve their business potential. BRP’s consulting services include:

Strategy | Business Intelligence | Business Process Optimization | Point of Sale (POS)
Mobile POS | Payment Security | E-Commerce | Store Systems and Operations | CRM
Unified Commerce | Customer Experience | Order Management | Networks
Merchandise Management | Supply Chain | Networks | Private Equity

For more information on BRP, visit http://www.bostonretailpartners.com.

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David Naumann, Boston Retail Partners, http://www.bostonretailpartners.com, +1 (916) 673-7757, [email protected]