Retail Digital Transformation- the transformation the retail sector needs

Retail digital transformation is characterized by groundbreaking technology introducing an entirely new way of doing things or streamlining the existing methods to an extent that it is very cost effective and efficient.

Impact on Consumers

Digital Transformation in the retail sector has completely altered the experience of an average customer in ways that was beyond comprehensible even a few years back. Nobody imagined in 2000 that all the transactions 18 years down the line would be through digital mediums and everything would be on their fingertips, literally!

The ease, the plethora of choices available and the efficiency experienced by a consumer while buying something as simple as buying a book. The convenience and the competitive prices have kept consumers asking for more! Even those consumers who don't buy from online digital retailers are positively impacted as the prices have been brought down by huge margins due to the sheer scale of competition.

Companies are constantly thinking of new ways to make life easier for consumers by and large. They are placing the end-user at the highest of priority level which was absent in yesteryears due to lack of competition and incentive for companies to innovate and offer consumers good service. The reason was simple enough – Why bother when they are buying your stuff? But this retail industry digital transformation has ushered in an era of a golden age for consumers and a fight for survival among companies for the attention of consumers. Consumers too are raking in the moolah while it lasts.

Some major by-products of this new consumer-oriented economy are

·         Increased focus on the analysis of data generated by customers with the major goal of identifying market trends and ultimately using all that to offer focused service.

·         Consumers too spending a fair amount of time to assess and compare prices, services, quality, and whatnot.

·         The emergence of new technologies like AI, Machine Learning to harness the ever-increasing chance for innovation.

What customers should take note of?

Customers who are currently enjoying unparalleled services and prices should be wary of one thing – Not letting the retail giants becomes hegemon and monopolize the whole market. The lack of competition that characterized the pre-digitization could come back to haunt the consumers if they let the power to be concentrated in the hands of a few retail chain giants who can then use that position of power to exploit and impose predatory pricing on the end user.

Another concern is the lack of privacy. Even that is shrinking with each new retail digital transformation being introduced to the market. Every single online activity is being watched by the online retail giants to create targeted ads. In this whole process, the major threat is for the consumer whose private life is being kept on full display in the public glare.

What lies ahead?

The future of retail digital transformation is a tricky dominion that should be treaded on carefully by everyone involved. One thing is for sure the consumers are going to benefit, from this transformation.