2. Digital Transformation in the Retail Industry
Starting with the arrival of eCommerce in the late 1990’s, few industries have had as much experience with
digital disruption as retailers. Still, after a decade of managing digital competitors and changing customer
expectations, the retail industry faces fresh challenges. mCommerce (mobile) and sCommerce (social) are the
latest incarnations of digital disruption in the industry, and some players have already begun leveraging these
technologies.
Figure 1: firms’ positioning in the Digital Maturity Matrix
Interpreting the
Digital Maturity Matrix
• The vertical axis measures “Digital
Intensity,” i.e. firms’ digital
practices
• The horizontal axis measures
“Transformation Management
Intensity,” i.e. the management
practices implemented by the firms
around digital transformation
For more information, read the MIT Center for
Digital Business and Capgemini Consulting
Research Report “Digital Transformation: a
Roadmap for Billion-Dollar Organizations” (2011)
Asia & Oceania North America Northern Europe
Southern Europe Average
Learning 1: The focus for retailers personalize marketing
is on the customer experience, communications (54%).
less on operations or
collaboration Overall, retailers have done less in
operational applications of digital.
Companies that responded to our Relative to other industries, they
survey highlighted customer reported lower scores for digital
relationships and revenue growth employee collaboration, remote
as two areas where they perceive working and executive
Digital Transformation most communications. Similarly, many
impacting their performance. retailers are not using
Accordingly, retail firms are using technologies like instant
digital technologies to personalize messaging or video conferencing
the sales experience and enable to improve operational processes.
customer self-service. A majority This may reflect the current
of companies also highlighted priority of the “store floor” and
using analytics to target marketing autonomous local staff (see Figure
more effectively (65%) and to 2). However, it may also present
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5. Our survey data shows that some companies in the retail industry are currently
transforming the customer experience and enhancing their core business
models through Digital Transformation. Our analysis reveals some additional
areas for retail firms to consider in developing their digital maturity:
- Reassess vision – Many retailers that responded to our survey did not
recognize a “vision that involves radical changes” within their firms.
They also did not show strong responses for that vision being shared
among executives or integrated across the business. Moving forward,
retail firms may want to review their vision for Digital Transformation,
either to validate that they are on the right path or to develop greater
consensus around a leading-edge vision of the future.
- Leverage social media and mobile with customers – The retail
industry’s Digirati leverage social media and mobile technologies with
companies more so than other firms in the industry. This may be
evidence of opportunities for other retailers to begin using these
technologies to enhance the customer experience.
- Develop consistency across channels – According to Capgemini’s 2012
Digital Shopper Relevancy Report, customers expect an integrated
channel experience that includes traditional physical channels. Building
on established work in cross-channel consistency could prove an
important factor for success.
- Enable internal collaboration – Retail firms today show below-average
usage of digital collaboration, knowledge sharing, or tools like instant
messaging to enhance operations. This may reflect a store-centric
model of internal operations. However, given the geographic spread of
many retail firms, there may be potential to leverage these practices
and tools to enhance operations and worker productivity.
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6. Acknowledgments
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the executives who took the time to respond to our survey.
Contacts
For more information, please contact:
Global
Emmanuel
RILHAC
emmanuel.rilhac@capgemini.com
Belgium China Finland France India
Robert Nongfei Sami Laurence Romain
VAN DER EIJK ZHU FINNE JUMEAUX DELAVENNE
robert.van.der.eijk@capgemini.com nongfei.zhu@capgemini.com sami.finne@capgemini.com laurence.jumeaux@capgemini.com romain.delavenne@capgemini.com
Netherlands Norway Spain Sweden USA
Armijn Steinar Fernando Anneli Ken
BEEK SIMONSEN RODRIGUEZ SAMUELSSON TOOMBS
armijn.beek@capgemini.com steinar.simonsen@capgemini.com fernando.rodriguez@capgemini.com anneli.samuelsson@capgemini.com ken.toombs@capgemini.com
United Kingdom Germany, Switzerland, Austria MENA
Michael Ralph Jawad
PETEVINOS BECKER SHAIKH
michael.petevinos@capgemini.com ralph.becker@capgemini.com jawad.shaikh@capgemini.com
About the Research on Digital Transformation
This analysis is based on data collected during the second year of our joint research program with the MIT
Center for Digital Business.
For more information about the research, please contact:
• Didier BONNET
Managing Director and Global Head of Practices at Capgemini Consulting
didier.bonnet@capgemini.com
• Patrick FERRARIS
Global Leader of the Technology Transformation Practice within Capgemini Consulting
patrick.ferraris@capgemini.com