RL - Retail

axway.com 7 Sally is helping herself by informing her retailer. As part of a CX network, she contributes to her own enhanced customer experience journey. Let's say she talked to a real estate agency about purchasing a home located in a specific city or neighborhood. This signals her DIY retailer to make her aware of upcoming price discounts on wall paint, wood flooring and a lawn mower. Sally's retailer has discovered that the buying experience is only optimized through an ecosystem-driven proposition that places the ultimate satisfaction of each customer at the heart of all network interactions. Just before Sally moved to her new house, she was pleasantly surprised that her retailer offered advice and value promotions on what she'll need to make the house her unique home. They were with her all the way — from first contact to purchase and beyond — sealing the deal, and ensuring her loyalty as a customer. Sally's new CX network shopping experience Before, Sally interacted with her retailer within a traditional omnichannel approach. Although she benefitted from a coherent, seamless interaction across devices and storefronts, from the retailer's perspective, her buying experience was enterprise- centric, not customer-centric. With a shopping experience created by a CX network, however, Sally no longer sees herself as a privileged customer of a store. Instead, she's at the center of a myriad of services converging from everywhere to help her decide, buy, pick up and use the product that best responds to her needs in a specific situation. Sally's experience with her retailer now sets into motion a chain of connections, from gardening, DIY, and health websites that offer advice on products, consumer ratings, product catalogs and comparative information. Because Sally is environmentally conscious, she might receive data pointing to products that are more earth-friendly than others. And it's a two-way street. Sally not only receives data, she provides it actively through product or service review sharing, social network affiliations, or customer interactions. She may also pass along critical data passively based on which connected device she possesses or prefers to use. What Sally's journey teaches the retailer Sally's DIY outlet successfully implemented a CX network using a platform that unifies the company's digital ecosystem — suppliers, customers and potential customers, logistics providers, weather forecasting data, government statistics, dealerships, distributors, real-estate agencies, local farmers and so on — around fulfilling Sally's needs. As a result, each player benefits. They'll have access to an up-to-date directory of everyone involved, complete with business locations as well as technical addresses for B2B connectivity. All ecosystem inhabitants gain end-to-end visibility into all supply chain events to anticipate problems upstream and proactively assign resources and avoid any negative effect on the consumer. They also have access to historical data on returns and usage, which, when combined with government data on average wealth per region, might be a good indication of future purchasing behaviors. The retailer may also invite members to collaborate on the capabilities of the new products that customers like Sally want to see. By sharing and connecting through social media, they can be seen as inclusive by audiences. And by leveraging mobile technology, they can provide customers with a seamless experience across all touch points, both online and offline.

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