In our last blog post, we discussed the difficulty of driving change within established systems. Millions have been invested in legacy systems, making it hard to justify a major shift to new technologies.
In this post, we’ll dive into the remaining two challenges: resistance to change and the integration dilemma.
Resistance to Change
Resistance to change is a significant barrier in any organization, driven by concerns about job security, cost implications, and potential operational disruptions. No one wants to own a change process that could disrupt sales for an entire day.
Here are some inputs on how to address resistance and drive a smooth transition:
Concern: Job Security
Solution: Upskill and Reassign
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Upskill Training: Invest in training programs to upskill your employees, making them proficient with the new systems.
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New Roles: Reassign roles to align with new technologies, offering career growth opportunities within the organization.
Example: A sales associate could be trained to become a clienteling specialist, using data to enhance customer interactions.
Concern: Operational Disruption
Solution: Phased Rollout and Pilot Programs
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Pilot Programs: Start with a pilot program in select locations to identify potential issues and refine processes before a full-scale rollout.
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Phased Rollout: Gradually implement the new system across the organization to minimize disruptions.
Example: Begin with a few flagship stores and use feedback to optimize the system before expanding.
Best Way to Overcome Resistance: What Does Our Customer Want?
All functions of business exist for one reason, to drive customer value. If we can articulate how this change drives customer value, change resistance due to business disruption will greatly reduce. Here are ways to align everyone in the organization with a customer-centric approach:
Customer Journey Mapping:
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Visualize Experiences: Map out the entire customer journey, from online browsing to in-store purchases, to identify pain points and opportunities for enhancement.
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Cross-Department Collaboration: Involve various departments (marketing, sales, IT) in the mapping process to ensure a holistic view.
Feedback Loops:
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Customer Feedback: Regularly collect and analyze customer feedback to understand their expectations and how new systems can meet them.
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Employee Feedback: Engage employees who interact with customers daily to gather insights on customer pain points and suggestions for improvement.
Once everyone focuses on one metric, what the customer wants, alignment becomes super easy. All business functions exist to add value to customers, and it becomes an irrefutable point for eliminating resistance.
The Integration Dilemma
Migrating systems doesn’t mean discarding the old ones. Legacy systems hold value with their existing integrations. A phased approach works best, separating the front office and back office with a mid-office layer. This mid-office connects with ERP solutions, price lists, regional inventory, etc., enabling a gradual transition to the new platform.
How It Works
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Data from various systems is collected into a unified data lake called Spaces.
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This data is regularly synchronized with ERP systems, ensuring real-time updates.
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For sensitive details like pricing, brands export their data to a private S3 bucket and use XY APIs for updates.
Benefits of This Approach
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Reduced Risk: Gradual integration minimizes disruption risks.
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Efficiency: Centralized data streamlines operations and improves accuracy.
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Scalability: A unified platform is easier to scale and adapt to future needs.
Why XY Retail?
If you’re exploring new unified commerce platforms, consider XY Retail. We envision the store of the future and build backward from there. Imagine a customer seeing a product on Instagram and ordering it for pickup within two hours. Our platform aims to streamline these scenarios.
Our Platform Approach:
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Mobile First: Sell from anywhere in the store without leaving the customer’s side.
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Business in a Box: Essential store functionalities are available right out of the box.
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Clienteling: Run loyalty programs and personalize upselling directly from the app.
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Mobile Reporting: Monitor sales performance across regions from mobile devices.
We also come in as true tech partners, helping you transition quickly to an omnichannel setup. Working with individual vendors, you’ll quickly realize each vendor loves adding complexity, as it means more stickiness to their services and more billable hours for maintenance.
As a true tech partner with your brand, we have shared incentives of enabling seamless integration and minimizing integration complexities.
Conclusion
Amazon’s success stems from a platform approach, not 30+ software integrations. Similarly, XY Retail offers a single solution to orchestrate the best customer sales experiences. If you’re tired of connecting multiple applications to make a single sale happen, book a demo with us. Our platform approach to retail tech might be what you need.