The Executive Guide to Retail Software

"But that's the way we've always done it…"

As you struggle with disjointed point solutions that weren't intended to work in harmony, this is the mindset your competitors want you to have. Meanwhile, unified commerce drives heightened cost effectiveness, streamlines employee workflows, and delivers more personalized customer experiences.

At the same time, there are circumstances when retailers may prefer to continue with the point solution approach as opposed to unifying. Below, we have considered both avenues.

Defining the Traditional Approach

Before weighing the pros and cons, let's define what the traditional approach actually means. In these situations, retailers bring a myriad of point solutions together over time, each of which was designed primarily for a single purpose, such as:

The list goes on and on. Some retailers with extensive IT departments opt to develop in-house solutions to address specific challenges. Others adopt multiple point solutions, sometimes provided by legacy retail ERP software vendors, hoping that the integrated systems will interface seamlessly. Unfortunately, these retailers are often left with siloed systems that work well alone but create a mosaic of technical and operational hurdles when combined.

For decades, the traditional approach described above has been "the way we've always done it." Now, it is at odds with evolving consumer expectations and the competitive retail landscape.

The Advantages of the Traditional Approach

Despite modern advancements, the traditional approach has the potential to benefit certain types of retailers. For example, point solutions may offer a deeper selection of features and functionalities within any given operational silo than unified solutions. Although regional and mid-market retailers generally do not have the resources to fully leverage these features while investing in ongoing integrations and maintenance, mega-retailers with huge IT budgets may choose to do so.

Given that the time spent learning, updating, and maintaining these integrated tech stacks can surmount to thousands of personnel hours — hours that could be invested in value-adding projects — a thorough risk-benefit and trade-off analyses should be conducted beforehand.

Likewise, retailers seeking to diversify their revenue streams beyond merchandise sales alone may consider the viability of developing an in-house platform, then licensing the technology to other retailers. Between the significant up-front investment and ongoing upkeep costs, in-house platforms are generally more feasible for retailers with substantial technical support personnel and robust IT budgets.

However, even with a traditional approach, retailers still strive toward unifying their technology solutions. Most are finding that it's virtually impossible to integrate their way toward a unified commerce platform.

Where the Traditional Approach Falls Short

Retailers have fallen into the traditional approach over time, honing in on a specific functional area without fully considering how the point solution will integrate with their overarching workflow. For example, a retailer with frequent product shortages may begin researching inventory replenishment software as the solution. After narrowing their search down to a shortlist of options, reading reviews, seeing a product demo, and working with the vendor, they enlist the help of a systems integrator and begin the implementation process.

All the while, they underestimate the long-term impact on their other systems and overlook the importance of having data flow seamlessly throughout their various systems.

Over time, the costs associated with these ongoing integrations and upkeep can greatly outweigh any benefits, all while underdelivering the desired capabilities. Although the domain expertise offered through these disparate systems may work well for parts of their operation, the complexity and lack of harmonious systems limit the full breadth of capabilities available to the retailer.

With the traditional approach, central functions like catalog management are incredibly time-consuming for retailers. This is the source of significant frustration. Managing new products and keeping pricing up to date is a never-ending battle. Meanwhile, your chain's unique product catalog holds the key to substantial value for both you and your customers.

The world of unified commerce is different. You can offer products through a manufacturer or distributor even if they aren’t typically carried in your store, thereby enabling your customers to access those products. Conversely, the complexity of manual catalog data entry in traditional retail systems oftentimes prevents retailers from offering truly endless aisle solutions.

With multiple locations to manage, customers to support, and products to ship, retailers simply don't have time to access individual systems or conduct manual data entry. All the while, siloed e-commerce sites no longer live up to the increasing demands of modern retail. The only alternative is a costly and lengthy integration process riddled with unexpected bottlenecks and underperformance.

The Implications of Ongoing Point Solution Investments

The negative results of single point solutions are well understood. According to the PwC Digital Trends in Supply Chain Survey 2022, "80% of respondents say technology investments haven't fully delivered expected results." The answer isn't another vendor's software or a new systems integrator. These only lead to lengthy implementations, more complexity, and reduced agility. Unfortunately, that's precisely what many retailers resort to time and time again.

For forward-thinking retailers, technology is not synonymous with frustration. Instead, they are discovering newfound efficiency, growth, and profitability by replacing cobbled tech stacks with unified retail software platforms. In turn, they are delivering capabilities once exclusive to global retailers with seemingly unlimited resources. Although this shift requires visionary leadership and high-level buy-in, the immediate and ongoing impact is worth the pivot.

FieldStack is a large part of our growth story. Any retailer looking to get the most out of their technology investment should absolutely look at FieldStack.
Shawn McGhee, CEO - Hollywood Feed

Take, for example, Hollywood Feed, a pet specialty retail chain with nearly 200 stores and counting. Here's what Hollywood Feed's CEO, Shawn McGhee, had to say after implementing FieldStack. "FieldStack is a large part of our growth story. Any retailer looking to get the most out of their technology investment should absolutely look at FieldStack." As a unified platform, FieldStack supports accelerated growth without the typical headaches and limitations associated with cross-platform integrations.

Taking a Customer-Centric Approach

In his bestselling book Remarkable Retail, the 30-year retail veteran Steve Dennis states that "the customer is the channel." Dennis pinpoints one of the most critical concepts for modern retailers to understand with just five words. Today's customers expect every aspect of the retail experience to flow seamlessly, from browsing to purchasing to delivery to returns. Not to mention, they expect the products they need with instantaneous, adaptive interactions and personalized support.

With heightened demands, your team needs the right tools to keep up. Time-latent human interactions, inaccurate data, and clunky integrations can quickly dissuade repeat business, positive reviews, and referrals to friends and family. Although it's the people that will drive progress in the retail space, automation and data-driven technologies are vital in freeing up people to focus on what matters most: their customers.

How FieldStack Outperforms the Traditional Approach

By embracing a unified commerce platform like FieldStack, savvy retailers gain a major advantage over their legacy competitors. Here's how. At every touchpoint, customer, inventory, and operational data is collected in real-time. The data is then accessible instantly throughout your entire system, an automated process that requires zero integrations, zero data mapping, and minimal human oversight. From there, customers and employees alike can seamlessly access the information they need, when they need it. This enables more informed decisions to keep up with customer demands while avoiding unnecessary workarounds.

FieldStack's unified retail software platform features the end-to-end capabilities that retailers need in a single, unified platform that elevates customer satisfaction while driving ROI.

Throughout the pandemic, e-commerce shopping surged by over 30%, according to McKinsey. In turn, leaders reassessed their existing omnichannel solutions. Now, they are realizing that retail software is too important to be this complicated.

Meanwhile, POS software solutions have evolved. Per Gartner, "POS solutions now have become the anchor in the unified commerce platforms in which they are included. These solutions are now centralized to facilitate key unified commerce activities. These activities include endless aisle, click and collect, store fulfillment of online orders, clienteling, and loyalty, as well as other functions that allow customers to search, transact, acquire and consume products across a retailer's ecosystem."

With constant integrations and extensive research required for new software adoptions, retailers are now accepting the simple fact that they are not technologists. Innovation and simplification can co-exist. Unfortunately, retailers anticipate facing the challenges of retiring legacy systems, integrating applications, unifying commerce, and consolidating channeled silos for the next three years, according to the 32nd RIS Technology Study.

Within retail, there are no one-size-fits-all strategies. The right retail software approach is the one that aligns with your goals, enriches the customer experience, and drives your ROI. While a lean retail approach may be advantageous for mid-market retailers, a traditional approach may be feasible for mega-retailers with extensive financial and personnel resources. With substantial ongoing investment, retailers can integrate their way toward the capabilities that a unified platform provides, but they simply can’t integrate their way to unified.