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To celebrate Groundhog Day, get out of your enterprise tech rut

Groundhog (Photo: Photofex_AUT)
For Groundhog Day, retailers should change their results with new solutions (Photo: Photofex_AUT).

If it feels like every day in your retail enterprise is a repeat of your last, it may be time to upgrade some systems.

In the classic 1993 comedy film "Groundhog Day," Bill Murray plays a sarcastic weatherman (would he play any other kind?) who while reporting from the annual Groundhog Day celebration in Gobblers Knob, Pa. finds himself stuck in a time loop where he repeats the same day, over and over.

Murray’s character slowly learns to be a better person through countless repetitions of Feb. 2 until finally the calendar changes for him. Of course, this could never happen in real life, but a lot of retailers are stuck in their own "Groundhog Day"-type rut where their technology keeps delivering the same tired results.

In honor of this year’s arrival of Groundhog Day, I’m going to take a look at three technologies retailers can implement to change their fate and achieve fresh results.

Cloud

Solutions supported by on-premise servers come with inherent limitations. Upgrades and customizations need to be performed manually, and possibly quite frequently depending on factors such as systems age and programming.

Performance is also static, with hard limitations that cannot easily be scaled to meet changes in demand. This can all lead to monotonous results and regular modifications that make the days blur together for staff that use and maintain on-premise solutions.

Cloud computing can be an effective antidote to this type of technology rut. Cloud systems can be implemented with minimal effort, disruption or customization and instantly updated without any active measures by the retailer.

In addition, cloud solutions are inherently flexible and scalable. This means retailers can increase or decrease data storage, processing capabilities, and other performance aspects as needed – so one day to the next can be very different depending on what situations arise.

[READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: The top reason retailers need the cloud is…]

Mobile

A lot of typically dull and repetitive aspects of day-to-day retailing can be streamlined using mobile technology. In the store, associates can break up what can seem like endless checkout lines using mobile POS devices, or customers can even check themselves out with mobile devices and apps.

Mobile devices and apps can also provide associates and customers with immediate access to information like inventory, product specs, and where items are located in the store. This eliminates the drudgery of asking an associate to manually retrieve information by asking a manager or checking a backroom computer.

Mobile apps can also let consumers shop anywhere they are, eliminating not only the need to perform the routine task of visiting a store but freeing them to shop beyond the confines of a home or office laptop or PC. 

In addition, mobile-equipped field associates can greatly reduce the time and effort required to perform tasks such as tracking and tracing inventory and monitoring corporate assets.

Localization

Retailers need to remain vigilant against running into “Groundhog Day”-style monotony in their merchandising and assortment strategies. Especially for retailers that operate across a wide geographic range, not customizing the products they stock and promote can create a bland, generic experience shoppers will not want to repeat.

A recent study from Jumpmind and RSR Research reveals that 46% of surveyed consumers said it's very important that their favorite retailer makes offers based on what they actually want to buy, not what the retailer wants them to buy.

Utilizing technologies like machine learning algorithms and AI-based data mining solutions that can collect and analyze data specific to local markets, retailers can determine the specific products that meet the needs of local customers.

Assortments and promotions can then be based on criteria such as demographic factors, climate conditions, and regional holidays such as the Midwestern October lovefest Sweetest Day. 

A retailer could even shift inventory of snow removal gear from one part of the country to another depending on variances in the jet stream – and if you live in a region like New England the weather is rarely in a rut!

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