
Technology-enabled Personalisation in APAC's Retail Stores
CIO Review APAC | Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Asia Pacific has one of the most vibrant retail scenes in the world. In addition, the importance of the consumer experience has not changed, and this is where traditional competitors are harnessing technology to their advantage.
FREMONT, CA: The pandemic's effects and the macroeconomy's dynamic shifts have accelerated the great retail reset by driving more purchases online. High consumer expectations and the expected 35 per cent increase in e-commerce penetration in Asia-Pacific by 2026 put tremendous pressure on merchants to constantly reinvent themselves in order to stay ahead of the game.
Delivery options will become more Disparate and Diversified
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On-demand, time-shifted, and location-flexible — the more alternatives a shopper has, the more satisfied they are that their unique demands are being addressed. Freedom of choice is essential in the age of laser-focused customisation.
Consequently, when it comes to order fulfilment, retailers will react with a growing number of hybrid strategies. Along with convenient delivery options, more use is anticipated for mobile stores, dark stores for online order fulfilment, micro-fulfilment facilities, grab-and-go "pop-ups" for in-store pick-up, on-demand couriers, and better geolocation services. Retailers using a hybrid fulfilment strategy must make sure all the systems and nodes involved in the process are connected and secure enough to provide customers with a seamless experience.
Retailers will bring Immersive Digital Experiences to In-store Shoppers
This year will witness a rise in smart technologies that will enable brands to expose new aspects of their consumer offerings, with customer agility serving as one of the main drivers of APAC's investment in AR/VR technology. For instance, VR might be used to demonstrate the sustainable building of a product in a shop or to house an extended display of products that the actual area cannot contain. Most networks are put under tremendous strain by immersive technology, and slow applications run the risk of alienating users rather than retaining them. However, since this load may fluctuate, a scalable, intelligent network is required to quickly and smoothly deploy the appropriate computer resources.
Intelligent Inventory Insights will help Clinch Customer Loyalty
Retailers will place a high priority on predictive technologies as they seek to better understand the inventory requirements necessary to meet customer demand in real-time. As a result, made-to-order retailing will become more common, resulting in less waste and surplus inventory. However, these technologies must have dependable connectivity and real-time data insights to give timely data and trend predictions. Inventory insights will be less precise without a more sophisticated networking framework, and customer requests can be unanswered.
In conclusion, if today’s technology is supported by the right infrastructure, it can deliver on its promised benefits. To outsource several networking needs, retailers can prefer consumption-based, cloud-like subscription models such as network as a service. As a result, they free up budgets for digital innovation, which promotes client engagement and loyalty. By doing this, the IT team's workload is reduced and software upgrades, monitoring, and troubleshooting are handled by outside professionals. With this strategy, merchants can concentrate on attracting new clients and strengthening relationships with current ones.
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