Accenture-A-New-Era-For-Retail

Three business imperativesfor retailers1 Lay the foundation:Build seamless platformsCreating a seamless customer experience requires seamless platforms built on thisequation: Data + Insights (analytics) + Ability to execute = Seamless retailingIn our view, there are six keycharacteristics of seamless retailing,each of which has a technologicalfoundation in cloud computing thatwould need to be put in place (seeTable 1). We believe that retailerscannot build this foundation alone —and homegrown solutions will likelybe unable to match cloud applicationson speed, cost or scalability.Therefore, cloud data, analyticsand process partners will becomeequally as important to retailers asmerchandise vendor partners. Oncethe data, analytics, and platformsare sorted out, retailers can progressto the people, process and propertyissues involved in delivering aseamless consumer experience.5