Retail

White Paper: Lightspeed

Two years of upheaval have shown us how important it is to respond swiftly to evolving customer demands. Unfortunately, many businesses are still unprepared for these changes, due in large part to legacy tools that restrict adaptability. And as the retail giants of the world race ahead, small- and medium-sized retailers are being left behind. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Thanks to continued development in retail technology, independent businesses can revolutionize their customer experience without breaking the bank. Retailers need to look to the future by adopting the digital strategies that have kept industry leaders selling through two years of challenges. This playbook walks through how to hedge a retail business against challenges with new technology, enabling retailers to expand their reach into customers’ homes and creating stronger relationships in the process.

White Paper: Webgains

Executive Summary The events of the past two-and-a-half years have reformed the vision for the future of retail and how businesses need to maintain a close relationship with their customer, in order to survive and come out on top. Never has the gap between retailers and consumers been so slight. The feeling across the board is one of hope and resilience, with a shared understanding of the importance of innovation. The Future of Retail white paper provides fascinating insights into how the world of retail is coping and will adjust in a post-pandemic future. Within this report, gain insight into how global behemoths like Alibaba are adjusting to the ‘new normal’ through leveraging omnichannel strategy with their Mom and Pop stores. Discover how Gen-Z are voting with their wallet and challenging retailers that are lacking in their approach to ethics and sustainability. Read how the high street of the future will serve many needs, not least as hubs for various communities but where people will still gather and meet for that all important real life human connection. This report also covers the advancements in seamless transaction and the rapid rise of the digital wallet, thus shifting attitudes towards models such as Buy Now, Pay Later, and the effort to deliver to the last mile. From covering these vast topics, one thing remained clear; the brutal nature of various lockdowns, restrictions and economic uncertainty has separated the DNVBs and retailers who were quick to adapt from those who lacked vision and an urgency to change tack. It is evident that relevancy is one of the key indicators to success within a post-pandemic world. Mumtaz Khamker, Global Head of Strategic Growth at Webgains Ltd. The Age of OmniChannel Introduction As the world regroups post-2020, we are seeing a shift in the way retail operates with an accelerated integration of digital. Here at Webgains, we have supported many small businesses to pivot and compete against much larger brands. These scaleups thrive by focusing simply on service, delivery and content. By integrating affiliate marketing into their strategy, our brands discovered that they were able to adapt and remain active during a time of intense doubt and uncertainty. By embracing and utilising the vast revenue streams digital commerce has to offer, our clients were able to build upon their brand presence and generate revenue without the need for a physical presence on the high street. This is demonstrated by DNVBs such as Boohoo and ASOS, acquiring the rights to long-standing high street giants. A scenario many wouldn’t have seen coming, certainly not in this decade. It is a prime example of how a willingness to bake omnichannels into your strategy will ensure relevance and longevity. Within our first topic of the Future of Retail report, we explore the key drivers which will aid in the survival of commerce and pave the way for a new type of retail.  

White Paper: OHZONE

So many businesses are missing out on the incredible power and versatility of 3D tech. Why? Myths are prevalent in the fashion industry– and 3D is no exception. The truth is the right tech can help you transform your e-commerce presence while increasing sales, reducing returns and entertaining. It can also help you deliver immersive and unforgettable fashion shows in your virtual showrooms and, most significantly, help you reduce your environmental impact while optimizing operations and reducing costs. In fact, the best 3D tech could have helped countless retailers and brands continue with business as usual in those critical early days of the pandemic. The truth awaits. Don’t let these common myths stop you from harnessing the power of 3D tech... E-Commerce Myth: All 3D is the same. Fact: When you explore the world of 3D tech, you’ll realize there’s a lot of variation on offer. 3DReal™  by The OHZONE is very different from 3D CAD, 360 photography and spin photography. There are very important differences among all four in terms of quality, capabilities, use cases, pricing, onboarding requirements and more. Myth: 3D is nice to have if you can afford the extra bells and whistles, but it’s just another trend. Fact: Your brand, marketing and digital presence (including social media), can bring customers to your website. However, 3D product imagery can encourage purchases, increase average order value (AOV) and reduce returns thanks to their high quality, detailed, accurate representations of your products in the digital realm. Myth: You need extra hardware to get interactive. Fact: You don’t need VR headsets or other fancy hardware and gadgets for an interactive e-commerce experience. All you need is the right partner– The OHZONE can provide you with draping so realistic you can almost “feel” the fabric’s texture and movement in motion. Virtual Showrooms: Fashion Shows Myth: Your fashion show won’t be effective or regarded as credible if it isn’t expensive or doesn’t take place offline. Fact: Virtual fashion shows are just as effective and credible – and they don’t need to cost a fortune. Save money and go easier on the environment with exciting 3D fashion presentations for consumers, wholesale buyers and the press. Myth: Virtual fashion shows must be pre-rendered or pre-recorded video. Fact: You can host an extra fabulous fashion show in real-time virtually, just as you would offline! The difference is you’ll have a lot more opportunities to immerse every single viewer into a fully-encompassing, branded experience with extras that wouldn’t translate well offline. With virtual fashion shows, every viewer enjoys the front row experience. Sustainability Myth: It takes a lot of work and massive investment to become a sustainable brand. Fact: With 3D tech, you can be more sustainable as soon as today– whether through sharing virtual samples or walking buyers through your new collection online. Interested in joining the circular economy? 3DReal™ by The OHZONE can get you there. You can leverage high quality, immersive and interactive 3D graphics to sell luxury resale fashion, upcycled clothing or luxury fashion rental subscriptions. You’ll be able to better engage shoppers with better visuals, more detailed views, and soon– virtual try-on too. The future of circular is noteworthy! According to the Circular Fashion Report, the circular fashion economy may be worth up to $5 trillion. Myth: 3D tech can only be applied to planning, designing and product development. Fact: You can reduce the environmental impact of your samples with high-resolution 3D tech. For instance, 3DReal™ allows brands to automatically produce virtual samples in as many colors and patterns they may need. These brands produce far fewer physical samples, drastically reducing their carbon footprints by producing less excess material waste and reducing shipments, energy use and more. Are you ready to bring your designs to life as captivating 3DREAL™ garments? Request a demo with The OHZONE, Inc. today.  

White Paper: SOASTA

Retailers today face enormous challenges in delivering the fast, reliable, 24x7 omni-channel experience across multiple devices that users demand — and they won’t wait around for you to get it right. Preparing your site for the holidays requires a balance between making it reliable and making it fast. Continually improve your site, monitoring throughout the year and tweaking it to keep it in top shape. Because yes, the holidays are going to test you to your limit! Create an environment of continuous testing and continual improvement in your organization. The objective of this whitepaper is to see what differences, if any, there are in user behavior and conversion outcomes, and to make predictions for 2016. The findings are outlined below: The performance sweet spot could be 2 seconds or less Overall load times improved between 2014 and 2015 In 2015, fewer shoppers experienced optimal load times Slower pages experienced up to a 58% increase in bounce rate

White Paper: DigitalML

Helping retailers provide a seamless digital experience Continuing innovations in store technology that transform the retail experience, powered by mobile apps, API design management, interactive displays, and other elements are designed to fit together with digital services and big data insights into a cohesive whole. This whitepaper provides insights on how leaders can be successful by creating a business-led portfolio of API services that consistently deliver comprehensive services at any touch-point. It discusses: Digital experiences are critical for retailers IT faces many obstacles to delivering a cohesive API services portfolio Accelerate digital retail with the API service design platform Without the API design management, your firm is destined to struggle to deliver the omni-channel experiences your customers are demanding.

White Paper: Apptus

Personalization in online retail – Let’s cut through the noise and improve the customer experience. There’s no doubt that personalization is an important element to any online retail store, but personalization is not an end in itself. It exists to help retailers meet their aims. This whitepaper discusses about the types of personalization software, and offers some insight into how best evaluate their varying approaches. Key takeaways from this whitepaper: Types of personalization Distinction between personalization and segmentation Benefits promised by personalization solutions Evaluating performance and solution design in retail Personalization - A coherent approach

White Paper: Apptus

Personalisation is one of the hottest ‘buzzwords’ in the eCommerce and multichannel dictionary, argues that online retailers need to broaden their focus. Rather than solely providing a ‘personalised’ journey on an eCommerce site, the entire customer experience should track the shopper wisely and identify exactly what is of optimum relevance at each and every separate interaction from the second they land. This whitepaper helps the eCommerce sites to fully reach the potential of their online capabilities by harnessing the power of the intelligent technology. It talks about: Designing an interaction, Not a website- eCommerce sites need to acknowledge this Online vs in-store- Making eCommerce more specialized Merchandising predictions of the future- To drive the future of online retail

White Paper: Kurt Salmon

Securities reference data management is evolving from a necessary and often ignored cost to support operations to a central and vital role within the organization. Reference data management (RDM) is an increasingly important process in financial institutions. Securities reference data management is considered to be highly critical for the business of custodians. Read this whitepaper to know the best practices for achieving your securities reference data management project is not to go for a revolution, but to evolve to the final model in a step by step approach. Key takeaways from this whitepaper on “Securities Reference Data Management: A Trend towards Outsourcing?” are: Challenges faced by financial institutions in terms of Reference Data Management The alternative approaches for securities reference data management Can securities reference data management be outsourced? Positioning of reference data management services regarding outsourcing

White Paper: Stixis

The Structured Threat Information eXpression (STIX) in cyber security is an effort to define and develop a language to represent structured threat information.  The STIX language is meant to convey the full range of cyber threat information and strives to be fully expressive, flexible, extensible, automatable, and as human-readable as possible. This white paper outlines a community-driven solution to the problem known as the Structured Threat Information eXpression, or STIX. It addresses: What are the core set of guiding principles that community consensus has deemed necessary for STIX to implement? Which organizations have already chosen to begin leveraging STIX (or its constituent components) to convey cyber threat information? How does STIX resolve the requirement for maturing effective cyber threat intelligence and cyber threat information sharing?