While the report says that the development of physical facilities and the intellectual capital gained from event management will position the UK as a centre of sporting excellence, it also says that the most connected Games ever will provide a step change in digital consumption. It examines how the Games global reach represents opportunities for Brand Britain to engage with global consumers.

Retailers in particular are looking at the boost that events can provide and hoping that the Olympics in particular will have a positive impact on generally weak trading. While retailers already depend on anniversaries, name days and celebrations such as Christmas, they will be looking for new opportunities, such as the growing number of music festivals in the UK. Attaching a brand to an activity that is so close to consumers’ hearts, is a positive way to bond with them.

This bonding process will then be extended through digital and social media, now with emerging opportunities to transact. While retailers are taking a cautious approach to actually selling through the social channels, they all need to be present and try to understand at what point customers actually want to buy. This will change the traditional structure of sponsorship, where a retailer gets involved with a particular sport or sporting event, but generally only looks for branding. In the digital age, sport may be the glue between a brand and its consumers.

The customer journey was found to be important because retail is being accessed from a variety of channels. With the growing use of on line and mobiles/smart phones, retail is available to everyone anywhere, anytime.  It is therefore important to know your customers and who you are dealing with.

They now need a single view of their stock across all channels and require an infrastructure to support this, it was found.

The report focused on the delivery of products and how retailers are the new delivery depot, forcing stores to manage stocks better and enable customers to have better stock visibility. It also looks at the impact on personnel, identifying a need for more highly trained staff.

Another aspect that was reviewed was how to utilise stores more smartly in the multichannel shopping environment. The report said that retailers don’t yet fully understand the changes involved in meeting the customer’s need to buy any product, anytime, anywhere.

To see the full report, click HERE

The Drapers report, of 329 fashion retailers, gives figures which say that there won’t be such a big fall in bricks-and-mortar stores as generally thought. However, as the retail industry becomes increasingly online-focussed, it’s vital for retailers to ensure they have a strong multichannel offering. If the store is to thrive, it must operate as part of a multi-channel enterprise, not alone.

Fashion customers are always going to want the option of the in-store experience. This means that such retailers need to think strategically about store locations and integration of technology into those stores. Pricing and incentives need to remain high on the agenda because tech savvy consumers use their smartphones to compare prices and find the best deal. If that deal isn’t in-store, they will shop online.

The role of the store in retailing is therefore changing to reflect the needs of the multi–channel customer. Smart retailers have introduced click and collect, which often leads to additional store purchases, company-wide stock checking, option to order on line in the store, and unique, in-store events to attract visitors.

Online retailing will force a change in store locations, layouts and stock allocation, but in fashion, they are clearly here to stay.

Retailers using a cross-channel loyalty platform have seen a 20% rise in customer retention rates, so the investment clearly pays off. However, there remain huge untapped opportunities, adding alternative channels such as text messages for promotions, location-based messaging, smartphone apps, QR codes, social media etc.

However, this level of engagement throws up vast amounts of data from every customer interaction, so retailers needs to understand how to track interactions and sales from the beginning to the end. And, in order to justify investment in new opportunities, they need to understand the contribution of each initiative and how one initiative supports another.

As retailers seek to understand the contribution that social media makes to a sale and at the same time trying to find solutions to other challenges. It is imperative that companies start identifying and understanding the importance of becoming efficient at utilising industry tools and benchmarking as this will aid in the analytics of customer behaviours and will provide Retailers with vital information required to justify future investment.

For the full report click HERE

Simon Russell, director of retail operations development at John Lewis

1. What is the greatest opportunity for your business?

We have a great opportunity to further integrate a very successful department store business and a rapidly growing online business to produce a really compelling omni-channel business. Naturally our focus is on customers and a key driver to become a truly omni-channel business is to ensure we offer them a more convenient, really joined up and engaging shopping experience. It also allows us to showcase the John Lewis brand in parts of the UK where we currently have no physical presence.

2. What is the biggest challenge to your business?

Consumer confidence is key for non-food retailers and often a good indication of sales. And the economists are not predicting significant change over the next few years.

3. With the benefit of hindsight what would you have done differently so far?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing! Whilst very pleased with the investments we have made there are always one or two that we didn’t make that would have made future technology changes much quicker and cheaper.

4. What is the future of the physical store?

Shops will continue to play a critical role in a customer’s omni-channel shopping journey. Technology in shops will help make a customer’s experience more hassle free and inspirational whilst allowing us to extend the assortments and services we offer. Shops will have to continue to evolve too and ensure they can differentiate compared to other channels whether that be about the experience, visual inspiration or expert advice.

5. What will the high street look like in a decade?

I am sure that omni-channel retailers will become the norm and certainly dominate the high streets in primary and secondary locations. The mix of retailers may change with services playing a greater role alongside more online collection points.

6. Will mobile devices be the primary sales channel in the future?

Mobile will see rapid growth for sure and be a primary research tool generating sizeable sales, increasingly with a role as a payment device alongside personalisation. Tablets, which occasionally are classed as mobile, will also increasingly play a key role replacing laptops and desktops in the home. However, shops will remain the primary sales channel.

7. What other retail business do you admire?

I admire Wiggle as a relatively new pure play retailer that has a good specialist assortment backed by good service and value, which has gained respect quickly in a competitive market.

8. If you hadn't been a retailer/provider-to-retailers what would you have liked to do?

I always fancied being a trader in the city.

9. What marks out of 10 do you give yourself so far for achievement?

I hate marking myself as I am always challenging myself about how I can do things better. Let’s just say I am proud of what I have achieved so far but have lots more that I want to achieve.

Key to the success of bricks and mortar would be the right information at the right time for the consumer, who can engage with the retailer anytime, anywhere, any product. So, todays current store technologies need to significantly improve to cope with the consumers aspirations and that means the store must have views of stock in any location  and being able to engage with a consumer to see what she spent, and how she spent it and tools such as tablets will help with this engagement. Integration with real time is key to the success of bricks and mortar yet 55% of UK retailers still manage in channel silo’s which can disrupt the ‘channel hopping’ consumer who engages with the retailer in more than one channel.

One of the significant advantages of technology today is the up-skilling of the sales advisors in-store which means they all have the information at hand and gone are the days of the sales team disappearing to check for stock behind the scenes. The time spent on chasing stock and information is now significantly less therefore ultimately the retailer can have less people doing more informed roles and jobs. This benefits both the retailer and the customer. The over-riding importance of this is improving customer service with knowledgeable teams who are engaging with the customer and not just there for completing the transaction.

The store experience has to be equal to the online expectation; it will no longer be acceptable for the store to be a poor relation in the multichannel structure. Microsoft and partners are pushing boundaries to drive the store of the future concept into many bricks and mortar retailers. These technologies can be from simple hand held devices to more complex engagement software to add excitement and ease of conversation and communication with the consumer.

As the evening kicked off on the veranda of the penthouse suite at the top of the Royal Institute of British Architects building, quaffing delightful vintage champagne (it’s tough in the retail solutions world) we met up with some outstanding retail brands.

The main event started with two exceptional presentations from K3’s customers, ICON LIVE and EASON who have both selected the AX for Retail 2012 product in a bid to support their growth aspirations within their sectors. It really set the scene for Microsoft to talk about how AX 2012 for Retail equips the retailer to drive retail across channels, locally or globally, with technology and features that are powerful, agile, and simple: point-of-sale, multichannel management, store operations, merchandising, supply chain, and more, integrated into one solution.

And after all that excitement it was time for another wine taste and more canapés and some great networking.

So it’s a big thank you to EASON and ICON LIVE for their support and to Microsoft for organising the event.

Here are some of the questions we debated over…and yes, there was more wine…

Against the backdrop:

How consumers engage with their preferred Retail brand ‘Anytime, Anywhere, Any product’. We discussed:

• What are the main areas that retailers are focusing on in terms of their store systems?
• How do you expect store systems to evolve in the years to come?
• What does the future hold in terms of loyalty?
• How have the demands placed on retail supply chains changed in recent times? How do these changes affect retailers?
• What role does CRM play in today’s market?

It is now thought that m-commerce will be worth £19 billion to the UK economy by 2021. There are more mobile phones on the planet than there are people, the average person checks their phone 150 times a day and more than a  third of the adult population of the UK owns a smartphone.

• What is the future of m-commerce? What will it look like 3-5 years from now and how will it have evolved?
• How do you expect multi-channel retailing to further evolve in the years to come?

To hear more about how K3 and AX for Retail 2012 can help your business contact us directly.

Gideon Lask, founder and CEO of BuyaPowa.com

1. What is the greatest opportunity for your business?
Brands recognising the power of social commerce as an amazing marketing tool; and a great way to develop direct, transactional relationships with their end-customer.

2. What is the biggest challenge to your business?
Customers are ready; we are ready; and we all want brands to start embracing social commerce more aggressively. It will come, and it will be great, but we want it faster.

3. With the benefit of hindsight what would you have done differently so far?
We’d have started working with the magazine publishers earlier. They are using co-buying to make that tricky shift from content to commerce. Their view is that co-buying leverages the relationship they already have with their audience, which is based on recommendation and empowerment. It's proving to be far more powerful than bolting on a traditional e-commerce store. They also get to charge their existing advertisers for running a co-buy to complement an existing ad campaign - so it proves to be lucrative too.

4. What is the future of the physical store?
They’ll be far fewer; and we’ll hopefully move beyond the Apple store-clone phase we’re in.

5. What will the high street look like in a decade?
I want them all to look like Marylebone high street, but they won’t. I predict Coffee shops, pizza restaurants, and Amazon lockers.

6. Will mobile devices be the primary sales channel in the future?
No – don’t forget the TV, and the fact that huge amounts of online shopping happens from the office. The future is about shopping across all of these channels.

7. What other retail business do you admire?
As a customer I’m really enjoying Mr. Porter, by Net-a-Porter. It demonstrates how brilliantly a melting pot of editorial and commerce can work. I love Amazon, but the thought of an online future dominated by mega departments stores depresses me. And I’m excited by businesses like Shop Kick. Multi-channel means so much more than click-and-collect. The potential of mobile CRM to deliver entertaining and rewarding shopping experiences is huge.

8. If you hadn't been a retailer what would you have liked to do?
I’d have liked to be Jensen Button. That would have made my wife happy too.

9. What marks out of 10 do you give yourself so far for achievement?
I give the BuyaPowa team a solid 10. We’re all in this to help define the next chapter of e-commerce – and we’re doing it. As a retailer I’ve never seen the levels of sharing, lead generation, and brand advocacy that goes on around a co-buy. I’m very proud of what we’ve done in just 12 months and I’m excited to see what we do in the next 12.

10. Who would you place in the Top 30 Multi-channel/e-commerce Movers & Shakers?
Patrick Wall, founder of MetaPack. He is quietly and very successfully streamlining the home delivery experience for all of us online retailers. It’s a great solution and he is a great guy.

By investing time and resource into this new publication K3 has made certain that Retailers will be fully informed about K3’s end to end solution based on AX 2012 for Retail.   It's the ultimate multi-channel solution, flexible enough to evolve with your business: intuitive to use, simple to learn and powerful enough to enable you to make better decisions, faster.

As the UK’s No1 Microsoft Dynamics Partner, K3 has been working closely with Microsoft to understand AX 2012 for Retail and how it will help businesses handle just about anything the changing world of retail can throw at them. Whether you are omni channel, multi-channel, cross channel or a mixture of both, K3 continues to deliver innovative and profit-boosting solutions for Retailers.

Download the full document here

This type of software enables retailers to manage their business properly and it is vital to have planning technology in place in today’s multi-channel world. It lets retailers, big or small, have an overview of their entire retail network and make changes based on customer activity. The customer is key, and to ensure they remain loyal, understanding their activity and what will keep them coming back is crucial.

K3 retail has recently partnered with JustEnough Software to provide their customers with this service. JustEnough are a leading provider of demand management solutions to help retailers more effectively plan financials, assortments, markdowns, promotions and allocations with flexibility, accuracy and ease. Their partnership with K3 Retail, the UK’s largest provider of solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics, means that they can help users add important retail planning functionality to their ERP platform.

JustEnough can drive higher sales and improved profitability by assigning the right amount of space to each category and product and aims to reduce stock wastage by automatically determining a replenishment plan.

Investment in business management solutions can separate a booming retailer from a faltering one and will inevitably make the business process more fluid and give the best chance at success in engaging with customers.