Canadian Retailer - The Technology & e-Commerce Issue - 27

Retail challenge: Have the right employees at the
right time for the right needs.
Solution: Create a more liquid workforce.
RETAILERS need a workforce that can scale up or down as needed, and innovate quickly. Meanwhile, more people want the flexibility to work when,
where and how they want. These realities are combining with technology to
support a more on-demand workforce.
To better understand their sales patterns and in-store traffic and, as a result, their labour requirements, retailers are adopting machine learning. By
pairing that knowledge with workforce martketplaces, retailers can acquire
the talent they need when they need it.
Consider a platform like AllWork, a B2B solution that enables beauty retailers to source, schedule, place and pay freelance talent. Businesses of all sorts
can take advantage of such portals. But for retail, there is a particular requirement to address challenges like seasonal peaks and valleys, and augment the
core of full-time staff.
The same concept can apply to other business needs. For example, efforts
to build a mobile app or website typically call on retailers to get the right
people in-house or use one vendor. That's the traditional approach. Now, talent marketplaces can access the precise mix of expertise you need. It's a matter of using technology to tap into a much broader talent pool. Beyond the HR
efficiencies, you increase the speed of innovation.

Online portals can help
maximize workforce.

Retail challenge: Understand not just what customers
buy, but why.
Solution: Develop truly personalized profiles.
IF you know that your customers have a preference for, say, a particular style, make
or colour of clothing, you can tailor offerings to them. That's effective, but it still
doesn't get at the reason they buy.
There's nothing new about psychographics, but Shyam Thyagaraj of Accenture
talks about the need to go well beyond with data mining and advanced analytics.
He points to technology like the Accenture Genome, which launched earlier this year.
The result is a "living profile", quite different from a traditional segment-centric approach.
With the abundance of information available today, the Accenture Genome starts
by deconstructing an individual's interactions with brands-their purchases, social
posts, e-mails opened, events attended, etc. All of that begins to reveal what drives
a customer. You end up with a unique set of attributes for each interaction, which are
mapped to a customer's profile.
"You can go deeper and understand exactly how the consumer is influenced throughout the shopping journey," says Thyagaraj.
This profile can evolve in real-time. Retailers can use it to achieve hyper-personalization in offering and designing products, services and experiences.
Perhaps the bigger challenge is applying such technology. An Accenture survey
found that while most consumers know that retailers are following their movements,
just about half express some discomfort with being tracked.
As Accenture reported, getting personalization wrong can make customers feel
"creeped out". Personalized shopping, in store or online, should be a cool experience,
"with customers receiving intuitive tailored suggestions without intrusion or pressure; those who manage to straddle this fine line will reap the rewards."

www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

THE TECHNOLOGY & E-COMMERCE ISSUE

Deep analysis of data
can help personalize
interactions between
brands and customers.

| CANADIAN RETAILER | 27

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