With digital retail growing faster than ever, what can retailers do to stay ahead of the massive online shopping curve while building customer loyalty and maintaining company integrity? By creatively reallocating budget and working with new and existing technology, companies can rise above the competition to meet evolving demands.

At Actionable Steps for Retail Transformation on September 21st, our panel of experts came together to collaborate on new ways to transform retail as we’ve always known it, offering tips and experience from across the retail spectrum in order to take one of the oldest trades into the digital landscape.

Here are a few things we learned from our panel:

1. Acting fast with the help of new technology

Ron Blahnik's team at Hibbett Sports had to move fast when COVID hit and took out in-store shopping. With an old system and no website before 2017, their hard work and turnaround with new technology helped them get up and running with curbside pickup in just six hours.

“Being able to be agile in that environment certainly plays a big role. Analytics—definitely from the idea of measuring everything,” he said. “Supply chain is one of the ones we focused on, and the pandemic certainly played a role in that.”

2. Providing services to the community brings back customer loyalty

Now more than ever, customers and investors are looking at the mission of the company, and how it might align with their own values. Bill Serva of Goodwill talked about providing service to the community as a way of retaining loyalty.

“I've been amazed at the talent that we've been able to attract to the organization because they're drawn to our mission,” he said. Goodwill has started to offer their employees access to earning their high school diplomas—as well as other perks—which brings in more motivated talent throughout the Great Resignation.

3. Changing consumer experience can be a win financially and for the individual

“The pandemic really accelerated the aspect of allowing more digital channels for consumers to let us know what's wrong,” said Raman Kaur of Express Scripts.

Digitization means seamlessly connecting consumers with the product, whether that be an online product, services, or physical retail. By shifting funds, the team at Express Script was able to digitize a previously in-person service, making a problem into a majorly convenient solution.

4. Automating as a first step to improving customer experience

With endless options for technical advancement, what are the first steps? Ray Wang at Constellation Research believes it has to do with innovation, as well as finding the dollars for that innovation.

“A lot of folks are trying to reduce the technical debt trying to change the landscape, so they can iterate a lot more quickly, especially those that are building their own tech or assembling technologies from other areas,” he says. With improvements to AI and automation, companies can save money and remap by making the customer experience as automated as possible.

5. Combatting the skills shortage by getting ahead technologically

“If you can get your folks excited about modern innovations—the digital innovations—you'll make a pretty big splash,” Ron Blahnik said when talking about the skills shortage and how to retain talent. “Folks want to be a part of the winning team.”

By retraining staff and hiring key players to add to a growing team, Blahnik was able to modernize the supply chain, making it a more competitive option for new employees. With investment in staff and also in new technology, a workplace is more desirable as well as more profitable, allowing for growth on all sides.

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