Retail margins are under pressure from all directions – labour costs, supply chain challenges, inflation, and digital budgets that need to meet customer expectations – yet retailers are missing opportunities to automate store management.  

Every retail CIO faces the same challenge: how to maintain profitability in the face of perpetual disruption. The possible impact of persistent inflation is just the most recent addition to the profitability challenges faced by the retail industry since the start of the pandemic in 2020. 

Picture this: Your smart refrigerator would soon be able to sense your groceries and milk supplies that need replenishment. This list will be automatically sent to your Smart Digital Assistant (Alexa, Google Home, etc.), which in turn will send it to an automated chatbot within the premise of your local departmental store.  

Result: Fresh supplies delivered, as required, without your intervention.  

With the cloud transformation wave taking businesses by storm, it is essential to have special infrastructure tools and architecture to leverage automation and built-in security for superior migration and economics. However, for many businesses, the foundations of their on-premises IT systems were built years ago, and people who set up these systems might have already left the organization.

The company that brought us the Kindle, Amazon Prime, and a world of hilarious reviews, will now also sell us products in brick and mortar department stores too.

They say that no one likes being sold to, but everyone likes buying.