Wincor delivers omni-channel & productivity wins to retailers

Raymond Hom, Wincor Nixdorf’s regional software sales director, APAC, shares with Vanessa Ching on omni-channel trends and the ‘store of the future’.

The future is omni-channel retailing. Retailers are at the beginning of this journey, and the speed of change is happening, faster and drastically.

“A CEO remarked that in his past 25 years in the industry, he has never seen so much change as what we now see in the last five years, when e-commerce came into the scene,” says Raymond Hom, Wincor Nixdorf’s regional software sales director, APAC.
“And if you dissect this further, in the past two years alone, you would see how much more change is happening.”

According to Hom, that is why Wincor’s responsibility is to always stay ahead of these trends so it can predict what is going to happen in the industry. “We have to be ahead of the game. Help the retailers to have the tools for when the trend is hitting already. Because when you wait for after, you are too late in the game.”

Wincor, in its quest to help its retail customers to increase productivity and efficiency in this omni-channel retailing age, embodies its tagline — ‘Experience meets vision’. ‘Experience’, in bringing its knowledge as a ‘one-stop-shop’ omni-channel solutions provider, educating the customer on the future of retail, and helping the retailer to set its ‘vision’.

Besides e-commerce, the other catalyst has been the Internet of Things. “Especially with the Internet of Things, many retailers looking to upgrade are interested to get into, or upgrade, its omni-channel capabilities. We help them to walk before running and gain the needed productivity in inventory and store management,” says Hom.

Mobility a game changer
Mobility and the ability to transact on the shop floor is a game changer. Hom cites the innovative payment system at Apple stores in the US where payments are transacted on the floor, and there are no counters or long queues.

“Associates can be equipped with a tablet or a smartphone. They can use their device for multiple purposes, whether for a POS transaction, or inventory or product information. Where mobility is taking retailers is a big game changer.

“I’m actually surprised as to how few retailers are yet to do what Apple is doing. We find ourselves educating the retailers about such possibilities. Every customer is looking at us to help them upgrade their point of sale. They are always looking at mobility and customer relationship management (CRM). They would like this all to come in one package and all at once. Ultimately, for retailers, in planning, when you talk about productivity, when you get into e-commerce and the CRM aspect of it, you have to think in your organisation, can you withstand that change and are you prepared for that change? To this, Wincor Nixdorf supports mobile solutions for retailers, from the conceptual design phase to realisation, integration and, if required, operation.”

“We have to be ahead of the game. Help the retailers to have the tools for when the trend is hitting already. Because when you wait for after, you are too late in the game.” — Raymond Hom, Regional Software Sales Director, APAC, Wincor Nixdorf

Building the ultimate omni-channel store
The big challenge for retailers today is how to get into seamless retail, says Hom. “There’s a lot out there that we can do for retailers. Like I said, mobility is a game changer. A lot of things can be done that tie in with social media; tie in what you can do with omni-channel with regards to buying online, or returns online or offline and vice versa, in any combination. Retailers should be able to offer that convenience.

“It does not apply to all verticals but just in general, that’s the big challenge — how do I change the game in my store? How do I create this fascinating environment for a great customer journey of the future?

“Whatever your e-commerce store cannot provide, you provide at the store, and then some,” says Hom.

Hom cites Nespresso as an example. “Nespresso has a great CRM system because they don’t ask me to join their loyalty programme and then give me another membership card. That’s the last thing I want in my wallet. Nespresso asks for my phone number. It’s easy. And just from my past history, they see my purchasing pattern.

“For Nespresso, what’s great is their customer journey is that they don’t care if you buy anything or not. They want you to experience the brand, want you to try their coffee. Eventually, they are going to turn you on.”

On personalisation and enticing the customer
Hom continues: “70% of shoppers don’t mind promotions personalised for them. I probably fall in that camp. I would love for my favourite retailers to be able to reach me anytime. I don’t want the junk ones, just the ones I care about. Doesn’t anyone want to get a great deal?

“If you are walking by a store and this store detects you and knows you are a customer, why not give me something and entice me? I’ll come in. It’s a great concept and technology allows for that. New technologies and customer relationships are opening up new ways of creating value in-store.”

According to Hom, what retailers are toying with now is whether to implement this via Wi-Fi or via Bluetooth/iBeacon. With Wi-Fi installed throughout the store, retailers can understand foot traffic patterns in the store, the customer journey, and even drill it down to conversion rate by rack.

“Looking at the whole ecosystem, the point-of-sale and customer loyalty solution all need to talk seamlessly, plus with the webstore and e-commerce in the picture. So, how do you tie this all up, making sure it’s all tight so you don’t get a disappointed customer that has a stock ordered online but is not available when he goes to pick it up at the store. You also want to make sure the customer’s loyalty point balance is accurate.

“That said, retailers have to think about, what does this mean to my organisation? There’s more to it than points for redemption. You can now be as creative as you can be to entice your customer, from mobile vouchers and coupons, to restrictions as to how you want to set your promotions — for example, min/max values, cross merchandise activities, upselling and so on. It’s very exciting,” says Hom.

E-commerce and fulfilment
While Asia-Pacific’s e-commerce landscape has rapidly expanded over the past few years, fulfilment issues are where retailers are struggling with as well. As you get into e-commerce, how do retailers set up your whole distribution channel?

“With Wincor, we help retailers with their fulfilment — that means, helping them to tie in their inventory. They’ll have one consolidated view of their inventory, one version of the truth,” adds Hom.

This would certainly help with the retailer’s productivity gains, and putting all the pieces in the ecosystem together — with retailers thinking big, it only brings better efficiency and higher growth.

True omni-channel platform
Seamlessly integrating the various channels in the retail industry is and remains one of the biggest challenges facing retailers today and will also determine their long-term market success. All retailers — regardless of whether they run a network of brick-and-mortar stores, online or mobile shopping environments — need to position themselves in this increasingly integrated, dynamic marketplace to remain competitive, says Hom.

“Omni-channel software is essential for integrated control of the various processes that are running in ‘silos’ today. Our TP Application Suite sees to this — a cross-channel, merchandise-management functionality that ensures a consistent link between sales, merchandise and customer data flows and allows cross-channel order processing, item availability checks and mobile functionalities,” he elaborates.

“Not forgetting, reward programmes and CRM enables the ability to handle large amounts of customer behaviour data and provide real-time interaction with the customer on all channels, including social media and touchpoints.

“Clearly, Wincor Nixdorf’s ambition is to transform the way consumers shop through leading technologies. We enable retailers to deliver to them a seamless retailing experience by interconnecting various channels and supporting any checkout method. We view ourselves as an ideal store-transformation partner for retailers around the world — a supplier of end-to-end solutions that comprise hardware, software and professional services,” Hom.