Tony has a passion for the fast moving retail industry and has detailed knowledge of the key functions - Plan, Buy, Make, Move and Sell,  and he understands the interdependencies of information, products and services. Since joining K3 he has taken a pro-active role in helping the company deliver its multi channel vision to the retail sector. Tony’s deep understanding of the commercial issues facing retailers and developing IT solutions and business processes to improve product availability, drive profitable sales and reduce costs has been invaluable in establishing K3 as a leading provider of multi channel solutions.

Outside work Tony plays drums in a local band and tries hard to maintain a very old Caterham 7 (car). He has four daughters who also require a lot of maintenance and a permanent taxi service.

We asked Tony to put his future goggles on and give us his latest insights into the world of retail and multichannel.

What issues do you think retailers should be looking at now?

At the moment retailers should be trying to understand the retail opportunities surrounding the 2012 games. ‘2012, Opportunities for Retailers’, run by Retail Knowledge, will be good for those who make it. It’s a chance to look at the ‘Games Roadmap’ and come to grips with all the issues surrounding the games. The event will be covering a lot of areas, such as smoothing the supply chain, exploiting new technologies, queue management and promotional activity as well as looking at what technology you will need and how to take full advantage of that technology. I’m looking forward to presenting there as well, asking ‘Will 2012 Be the First Multichannel Games?”

The opportunities London 2012 present to UK Retail are huge. It’s important to realise that it’s not just at the games, it’s before during and after that need to be considered as well, and it is not all about London either, it will benefit retailers all over the UK.

Aside from London 2012, what else should retailers have on the horizon?

Well, the last four years have really been about transactional retail, so retailers need to capitalise on the investments they’ve made and build from there. I see two key areas that they’ll need to look at:  the technology side and the customer side.

In terms of technology I see things growing in areas such as RFID, mobile…and multichannel, including the technology that supports that. A lot of retailers may consider their operations as multichannel but in reality it is multiple channel. They offer products across a range of channels but there is not the real unity a truly joined-up operation offers. You really have to ask ‘How good are we at accessing data across all our channels?’ The strength of a joined-up multichannel operation cannot be understated. It gives you speed, cohesion, transparency and control – from web to store to mobile.

Mobile, as I mentioned, is an area retailers need to keep an eye on. What is the mobile going to do? We’re going from customers using the phone to browse and research, to carrying out transactions. So be aware of what is happening with mobile. There are a lot of mobile platforms, so if you are looking at applications, you need to think about which platforms (iPhone, Blacberry, Nexus) your clients use and how they use them.

The other key area that demands a lot of attention is the need to understand the customers’ eCommerce journey. To really use the technology that is out there, whether you already have it or are looking to invest, you need to take a close look at your customers shopping behaviours. The channels they use, where they browse, where they spend. Capturing the data so you can turn it around to give your customers the best experience is important.

There is this symbiosis between technology and customer – both leading each other at various stages, but overall developing together. For each retailer the technology used will be dictated by the different customers they have, or want to have. If you do not understand how your customers shop, how will you know which technology you need to invest in and how you should use it?

Does the growing strength of multichannel and the technology surrounding it mean there is nothing for the Bricks & Mortar retailer?

No, not at all. There will always be a need for customers to go into the store - that face-to-face contact is important. What we should see is in-store operations reflecting, supporting and capitalising on other channels. This goes back to understanding and catering to customer shopping behaviours. For example, online customers can get reviews of products from a range of impartial sites. In-store customers can ask their friends or the sales staff. What about if customers could also get reviews using kiosks or in-store displays? They’d need to be genuine reviews; the good and the bad - the integrity of the information is important.

In-store kiosks have been incredibly successful. They’re a fantastic way of upselling and a valuable tool for sales teams. If customers can check the availability of an item and locate that item, then that frees up staff to focus on other aspects of customer service. The days of ‘I’ll just check out the back” should go. If an item is not in-store then a customer can see other stores, perhaps nearby, that do stock the item, or they can order online from in-store. It’s an incredibly versatile tool.

I mentioned in-store displays. There are so many ways for retailers to use these. For a start there is in-store advertising and promotions. Imagine if this was all controlled centrally - Head Office determining a promotion and it being implemented in real time across all stores, along other channels and promoted to customers there and then. Customer love ‘surprise’ bargains, but don’t like hearing they could get the same item cheaper from the online store – that goes back to the importance of a fully joined-up operation.

Other ways this can be used…fashion retailers can show their clothes on the runway, so customers can see how the clothing looks on, how it moves etc. Home retailers could display price and feature comparisons between products… …again, the technology is there, business just need to be creative in how they use it.

Final words?

Dig down and really understand customer shopping behaviours, and then use technology to support that.

Here’s an example I like to refer to. There’s a train station in Germany, in which a lingerie retailer has put in a kiosk rather than open a store in the station. A customer can shop via the kiosk; is able to search and pay quickly. As part of the checkout they can enter their train ticket details, which acts as proof of ID and also gives the lingerie retailer the time by which they need to deliver. Nearby, at a store, the order is received and a courier delivers the ordered and paid for items over to the station. The customer takes delivery at the designated customer waiting point.

I like this example for two reasons. Firstly it demonstrates how technology supports the customer. You can shop conveniently and quickly, and it fits in with your travel plans; they don’t need to worry about missing their train. For the retailer the technology allows them to be located elsewhere, so the stock they carry is not restricted by space and they avoid high store lease costs.

The technology is getting better and better, and people are adopting it. For retailers there is this ever increasing need to get behind that and get the most out of the technology. Give people what they want, or be innovators, show customers a better way of shopping.

Q. What do you think has been the secret of American Golf’s continued success?
A. The key to our success is based upon excellent customer service and great value. The success has also been underpinned by the business keeping a close control of its costs and working capital.

Q. What is the secret to good customer service?
A. At American Golf we make sure we offer the best range of products at the best value. Our ethos is very much focussed on ensuring our staff always look to sell the right product to a customer in order to improve their game.

Q. What is the company’s attitude to investing in technology?
A.As a business any investment in IT has to deliver on one of two counts – either improve business efficiency or improve the customer experience.

Q. How do you convince the board to invest in IT?
A. Any investment we make always has to have a strong and clear payback in terms of financial return.

Q. How do you get the best out of your suppliers?
A. Golf is dominated by around 6 major suppliers, to grow our business it’s vital that we work in close partnership with our key suppliers.

Q. What are American Golf’s plans for 2010?
A. To continue our store rollout programme and to continue to increase our market share.

• Simon Taylor from Action Audio
• Martyn de Young, Project Manager at Age UK, the new charity formed from the merger of Age Concern England and Help the Aged
• Jo Lee  from Bravissimo Ltd
• Ashish Kapoor from Dreams plc
• Kim F McCulley  from Hotel Chocolat
• Paul Forester Monsoon Accessorize
• Lindsay Page  from Ted Baker
• Steve Dudley from Aurum Holdings
• Michael Jones from Bennetts Retail Limited

Thanks to everyone who took part in the survey. Not only did you help support the Retail Trust, but all your responses have given valuable insight into customer interaction within multi-channel operations.

The event featured a great line-up of speakers, including a keynote from Asda's  Excutive Development Director. Doug Gurr, Joe Tarragano from eBay and Roz Hunt,  Head of Online for Lloyds Pharmacy. K3's own Tony Bryant delivered a great presentation on "What Does Multi-channel Strategy Mean to a Bricks and Mortar Retailer".

" This years  multi-channel summit was a very successful event, with more than 80 retailers joining us for a busy day packed with presentations and thought provoking comment around one of the most talked about topics in retailing today", Tony writes in the introduction to the post-event report written by retail journalist Gynn Davis. (Check out Glyn's blog Retail Insider.)

With our extensive background in multi-channel we are proud to have taken a lead part in the Multi-channel Retail Summit 2010, as it brought together some of the latest ideas and freshest perspectives from throughout this fast-paced industry.

• Doug Gurr, Executive Development Director, Asda Wal-Mart
• Aamir Ahmad, Managing Director, Dwell
• Tony Stockil, CEO, Javelin Group
• Richard Burrell, Director of Media Operations, QVC
• Darren Gardner, Head of New Business, Multichannel and Future Strategy, The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC
• Tamer Ozmen, Vice President, Online, Orange
• Nigel Randall, E-Commerce Systems Manager, Waitrose
• Joe Tarragano, Enterprise Services, eBay
• David Oliver, Director, CRM (EMEA), Hertz Europe Limited
• Tony Bryant, Business Sector Manager, K3 Retail Business Solutions
• Ros Hunt, Head of Online, Lloydspharmacy
• Duncan Grant, Director of Multichannel, The Entertainer

See you there!

Q. Where do you see the greatest potential for growth in your business?
A. By continuing to develop our Multichannel Retailing strategies and expanding further into Europe.

Q. What’s the secret to doing business successfully on line?
A. Simple...always deliver on your promises, give the customer a perfect buying experience, get the items
delivered as soon as humanly possible and pull out all the stops to resolve any situation which may have gone wrong - even if it is not your fault!

Q. What is your biggest seller online?
A.  At this time, Personal Handheld Digital Recorders are proving to be very popular.

Q. What’s the first thing you say to any potential IT suppliers?
A. How will your product or service help us to give our customers a better buying experience?

The awards were introduced by technology editor for Retail Week, Joanna Perry who noted in her opening speech: “while it is a challenging time, I hope that you will agree with me that there is also a great opportunity for all of you to help your businesses to improve and innovate, to drive out cost, to improve productivity; and to use technology to help you make decisions and deliver service that delights your customers.”

The Retail People are delighted that Kiddicare won two awards during the evening - the 'EPoS Initiative'  award,(Kiddicare, Protouch, K3), and the 'BT Multichannel Integration' award.

You can download and view an earlier article on Kiddicare, featured in Retail Week, from The Retail People site.

Check out the complete list of winners at last night's awards.

Add the RSS feed too, and keep an eye on who is faring best in the world of eTail.

The astute amongst you will have noticed that we can now be found on LinkedIn. Like most social networking sites, LinkedIn has it’s own distinct personality, its press blurb reading: “LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return. Our mission is to connect the world’s professionals to accelerate their success. We believe that in a global connected economy, your success as a professional and your competitiveness as a company depends upon faster access to insight and resources you can trust.”

Phew! But don’t let this marketing speak put you off. In essence it’s saying that LinkedIn is a networking site for business professionals. It’s clean, simple, puts you in touch with the people you want to talk to, it’s not overloaded with applications and is low maintenance: all good reasons for us to like it.

We’re also enjoying microblogging site Twitter. Twitter is not only a great method of updating followers on our own latest news, but it offers a wealth of information in the form of other ‘twitterers’ posting links and idea sharing. It gives an immediacy of information that allows us to build a real time picture of what is happening in any given area. While some log in to share what they had for lunch, (we don’t, it’s not that interesting), Twitter can also be an important information gathering tool and a friendly way to connect with others working in your field. According to co-founder, Jack Dorsey, Twitter is what you make it.

And then there is Facebook. While many of the movers and shakers of the retail industry may not be clicking merrily through Facebook with Retail Business Solutions on their minds, by putting ourselves on Facebook we're trying to make K3 both accessible and searchable. Facebook is the most favoured networking site and the second most visited website in the UK, so, perhaps, in terms of the ‘warm waters of social networking’, Facebook is the beach where the beautiful people hang out; it is where you go to see and be seen.

Where do you like to work the net?

ENGAGE will be held on the 19th of March at the Four Pillars Hotel, South Cerney, Gloucestershire. Speakers include K3 customers Digital Village, iForce  and The White Company. We're also very excited to have as partners for this event Agiles, Cenium, Equisys, Handpoint, Lanham Associates, LS Retail, Microsoft, Miracle , Protouch, Servebase, SmartFundIT, SQL Perform, TargIT and Toshiba.

Being the kind hearted souls they are, the K3 Marketing Team has worked hard to make sure the cost is lower this year, and they've also come up with a 2For1 deal.  All the information can be found on the event microsite. Feel free to get in touch with them about coming along.