3 Key Retail Technology Trends From Paris Retail Week

Paris Retail Week is the premier event in Europe for e-commerce and retail specialists – uniting trade professionals to share their knowledge, experiences, and best practices. It has been supporting retail experts in understanding trends for over 15 years to prepare for the future and identify the best partners and suppliers.

Arnaud Gallet, Managing Director of Paris Retail Week, describes the event as “the largest platform dedicated to professionals encompassing all the latest thinking…to help build the future and discuss new challenges”. He explains that the ability to create, reinvent, and innovate to satisfy consumer demand is a constant challenge faced by retailers and that the event aims to supply solutions for the pain points experienced by brands of all sizes. During Paris Retail Week, eight business issues were brought to the forefront of the retail agenda and here we take a closer look at the main takeaways to come from the event.

Omnichannel Retail

With the ever-increasing demand of shopper expectations, a seamless omnichannel strategy can aid brands in achieving both financial and customer growth. To deliver an optimal omnichannel experience, retailers need to align all their operational processes, including POS, order management, inventory management, and customer relationship management.

Through Incorporating all customer touchpoints into strategies, retailers can enhance their offerings to consumers through several channels. In turn, this will help to drive sales to meet the rising demand of consumers who now expect to be able to purchase products from anywhere and anytime, having them delivered straight to their door.

Marketing

As retailers emerged from the pandemic, they began to embrace new digital transformation strategies. During this year, we still expect retailers to embrace virtual events and roundtables but to a lesser extent. Nevertheless, it’s predicted that marketers will invest more in virtual events as they continue to adapt to a new way of working.

While inbound marketing has been around for years, there’s been a drastic increase in the use of this type of marketing due to the rise of hybrid working. In this time of digital transformation, marketers who use outbound marketing as an effective tactic should instead look towards using inbound marketing to attract customers by creating content tailored to the individual.

Agile Customer Journeys

Providing a seamless customer journey has never been more important for retailers. Being able to offer a personalised and frictionless experience through both sales channels, enables retailers to maximise their profits through an enhanced shopping experience for the customer.

It’s essential to understand that the customer shopping experience isn’t linear as customers purchase products through both sales channels, and often take a back-and-forth approach when purchasing products. However, in order to make this experience seamless and frictionless, retailers can collect data in order to deliver personalised content, as well as engage with customers effectively in-store and online to drive sales.

Final Thoughts

Paris Retail Week is a one-of-a-kind event committed to bringing together professionals from the retail landscape in order to combat challenges the sector may face in the future. SML Group brought its expert opinion and key insights during Paris Retail Week and looks forward to attending and doing the same next year.