RTIH interview: Cegid’s Alan Holcroft discusses how to solve three of the biggest challenges in retail

RTIH sits down with Cegid’s Alan Holcroft to discuss how retailers can elevate their confidence, profitability, and customer experience in the face of challenges.

RTIH: Can you tell us more about Cegid?

AH: Sure. Cegid is a European leader in cloud management solutions. In retail, we support over 1,000 brands across 75 countries including GANT, Benetton Group, Aesop, PVH Group and Barbour.

Our key solutions include a cloud native PoS and unified commerce platform that helps retailers maximise sales potential across all channels, gain a single, real-time view of inventory, as well as manage CRM and track KPIs.

We also have Cegid Retail Store Excellence which is a task management platform for retail operations that helps reduce comms, manage tasks, simplify compliance and support with sales training through technology enhanced onboarding tools.

RTIH: What challenges do retailers have that can be solved with technology?

AH: Right now, retail has the highest staff turnover (60%) compared to the average turnover of 15% seen in other sectors.

This means store associates have more jobs to do with fewer people and time has to be spent training new employees more often. The importance of technology in reducing burnout and improving staff retention should not be underestimated.  

As an example, PVH Group saved £300,000 in labour costs by implementing Cegid Retail Store Excellence. By consolidating 13 back office solutions into one app, PVH saved four hours per week, allowing their teams to focus on driving sales and providing exceptional customer service.

Retailers can also use mobile technology so more roles can be performed flexibly.

For example, rather than having store associates at fixed till points where they can only fulfil one role, a mobile PoS enables them to meet the customer where they are, answer questions about products, let them know other sizes in stock, get products shipped to store or home and complete transactions in the same spot.

Another big concern for retailers is cyber security. Retail has the highest attack rate of 69% and while Sophos’ 2023 State of Ransomware in Retail report notes that the attack rate in this sector has fallen from 77% to 69%, the rate is still above average compared with other sectors.

As payment methods continue to diversify, retailers need to reassure consumers that their personal data and transaction data are safe and secure and put in place tracking and tracing systems for all transactions.

Cyber security risks need to be assessed across the entire technology stack.

Retailers should conduct audits of the technology partners they work with to ensure they are ISO 27001 certified and that they employ both defence and risk anticipation techniques to cover the entire data chain from software publication to hosting.

In my experience, this kind of infrastructure can only be provided by software players of a certain scale.

The economic climate is also putting profitability to the test. That’s why retailers need to make the shopping experience as seamless as possible to avoid friction.

This can include brands fine-tuning the use of omnichannel to simplify item collection processes and implementing complementary distribution channels such as in-store ordering with home delivery or delivery to another store.

We’re also seeing the growth of digital wallets such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay but Alipay and others are stronger in other markets. It’s estimated that there are approximately 2.8 billion mobile wallets in use worldwide.

As more retailers go global and digital wallet use continues to grow, retailers need the right payment processing technology to support the payment method their customer prefers. But it should also consider tax, legal and compliance rules which will differ according to the country.

Cegid supports over 1,000 brands across 75 countries including Benetton Group.

RTIH: What are the opportunities for retailers?

AH: One of the biggest opportunities for retailers is undoubtedly AI.

A McKinsey & Company study suggested that retail could achieve a 1.2 to 2% marginal gain annually in productivity through using AI representing a total of $400 to 660 billion worldwide each year.

From my perspective, there are three major areas where AI will support retailers. This includes the management of customer relations and sales promotions, optimising the supply chain and stock based on a better assessment of activity and better anticipation.

And lastly, the optimisation of work within teams, again thanks to prediction. In our own platform, we’re making full use of AI to improve workflows and support retailers with some of their biggest challenges.

RTIH: How can retailers learn more?

AH: Cegid.com offers a wealth of information and resources to inspire retailers. We’ll also be exhibiting at this year’s Retail Technology Show which takes place 24-25th April at London Olympia.

Visit our booth 6D80 to have a chat with our team about your plans for 2024 and also join us and some of the biggest names in retail at our After-Hours Drinks event on 24th April, 18:00 – 20:00 at the Crown & Sceptre Pub, just a short walk from Olympia. RSVP here.