[NRF 2020] "The store is back in force in the consumer purchasing journey", Nathalie Echinard (Cegid)

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 L'Usine Digitale: What do you think will be the main trends of the trade to come?

 Nathalie Echinard: The subject, which is not new by the way, is really omnichannel, unified commerce and improving the customer journey towards more fluidity. We live in an era where the store is back in force in unified commerce. The question retailers have to ask themselves is this: how can they bring something different compared to pure-players?

 The store is back in force, but there are many store closings… How do you analyze this phenomenon?

We observe several phenomena indeed, with signs which capitalize more and more on the available data to decide on closings but also on reopenings to maximize the sales potential of each location … But some signs nevertheless have not taken the turn of omnichannel or not having the right price / range positioning on their market are in difficulty. And there are also newcomers with innovative store concepts.

But ultimately, it is above all the role of the store which has found its place in the purchasing process of consumers, and which is no longer seen as being in opposition to online commerce but rather in complementarity to meet customer demands.

 In this sense, businesses are focusing their offer on more and more services…

One of the other key trends is clienteling, that is to say the way for the merchant to weave and maintain a personalized and privileged relationship with his customers. This involves creating new in-store services and going as far as the increased salesperson, with whom a customer will, for example, be able to make an appointment. Sellers equipped with tablets, as in the Eram bouriques or at the Galeries Lafayette on the Champs-Elysées, allow real interactions with customers to be generated. It’s not to wow the gallery, these are services that really generate turnover.

Finally, everything comes into play in the management of orders and their orchestration in the background. The key for a retailer is to have the logistical and IT capacities to fulfill the promise of both the availability of stocks, but also the delivery time … while being vigilant about the carbon impact.

 Trade is conceived more and more responsibly, with buyers concerned about their mode of consumption. Is this awareness palpable among retailers?

Yes, they are increasingly driven by environmental considerations in their choices. In textiles for example, the choice of fabrics, the origins of sourcing, the conditions of production are increasingly criteria of choice for consumers. In cosmetics, the origin of products or organic are always criteria taken into account.

But for a large number of retailers, this is also taken into account in new logistics schemes which aim to lower delivery costs and improve delivery times for parcels. For example, they add value to store stocks to send e-commerce orders and thus reduce delivery distances. Without forgetting the impetus given by the legislator, such as the various regulations allowing no longer to issue a ticket or invoice to be given to the consumer. There is also the phenomenon around second-hand products, but also the development of subscriptions, and the whole anti-waste movement.

 Another big topic this year is payment …

Yes, and in particular omnichannel payment. On the occasion of the NRF, we will for example demonstrate the management of returns and how it should be simplified. There are a lot of new players in payment, this is for me the real revolution in the sector. For our part, we will offer several sales / returns / reservations / orders scenarios… in an omni environment with integrated end-to-end payment.

 Everyone is also talking about data, including in retail…

Data is the big trend to follow in 2020. We are directly involved in the subject at Cegid, as we announced at our Cegid Connection conference last May. Data has become the currency of retailers. The question is no longer to do data, but when and how? To develop and define this new offer, we proceed by isolating use cases. This allowed us to identify very concrete complementary services that we can offer to our customers. This can range from benchmarking brands located in the same shopping center or the same catchment area.

The data also makes it possible to predict with the decision tools that result from it … and even to feed our own modules. I am also thinking about the recommendation of products. Some are already excellent, but the good news is that now everyone can do it! The data is also widely used for the identification of suspicious information and fraudulent behavior. In all, we have identified around thirty use cases, and we first analyzed their relevance before proposing them to our customers.

 The Retail’s Big Show is an opportunity for many exhibitors to show off their new products, notably technological. What about innovations linked to robotics, for example, announced every year as inseparable from the future of retail?

It's true, there are a lot of demonstrations every year, and a certain number of professionals, including us, also go to the event to keep abreast of technological advances and identify breakthrough solutions that 'It is necessary to know. But you have to keep in mind that between these demos and their potential implementation in store, it takes time! On robotics and more generally automation, many things are being implemented. Chatbots are more and more widespread and democratizing. We ourselves have introduced artificial intelligence into our modules, like the hotline. For the robots themselves, if their interest is no longer to be demonstrated in warehouses, it remains very different in stores, where it is still very gimmicky!

 What innovation will you present on your side?

We are going for this 2020 edition, and for the first time, to present our DOM (Distributed Order Management, Editor's note), announced in Madrid last spring. It is an algorithmic and collaborative platform that allows you to define the best path for an order. The retailer uses its network of stores as relay points for its warehouse, with the possibility for eligible stores, that is the most relevant in terms of location and stocks, to respond to an order. It is not used yet, but it is a tool designed with our customers. This unique repository lists all the stocks available from the various sales channels and therefore provides a real-time view of the management of stocks in warehouse and in store. It is also the first product resulting from the acquisition by Cegid of Cylande, a French player in the publishing of software solutions dedicated to retail, in 2018.

Aude Chardenon

 @ChardenonA 

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