From Digital retail to real-time retail

Abstract

The chapter is about how customer behavior in the digital world challenges retailers to reinvent its current enterprise setup and IT approach and shift to a Digital Division Enterprise. While in the past, retailers tried to create customer categories out of statistical, historical data, today we have to satisfy the customer's here-and-now mentality with dynamic information related exactly on the customer's here-and-now perception. That is why we have to connect the customer over different technologies, over different touch points with digital data and digital knowledge. Touch points to reach the customer are currently digital signage environments, ibeacons and the customer's smartphone. The key point is a digital platform, acting as interface between the customer touch points and the multiple frontend and backend systems, which are the owners of all data and information. In fact, we need to know the customer needs and desires just in the moment he is touching the touch point.