Challenges for retail: ecommerce, personalization and digitized supply chain

The international consulting firm, Baufest, has reviewed the trends in mass consumption in its report “Baufest Consumer Products & Retail Trends 2022”. Specifically, in recent times these industries have shown a high level of resilience in terms of the operation and underwent profound changes linked to the combination of experiences between the physical and digital worlds.

In these sectors, the incorporation of new technologies -such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT) and the metaverse- is being key in the development of retail businesses, as well as to adapt to the new needs and demands, arising after the social and economic changes experienced in recent years.

key areas

As Baufest states, retailers and retailers, whose goal is to optimize the customer experience and achieve operational excellence, face three areas in which they will have to face great challenges:

1. Electronic commerce: they must have an enabled and state-of-the-art platform that allows them to boost their sales and their digital platform.
2. Customer experience: Companies will have to take advantage of new technologies to create new experiences in order to generate loyalty.
3. Supply chain: they will have to modernize from a technological point of view and try to include new relevant use cases.

Digitization of the entire chain, a key challenge

Recent years have brought about a change in the activity of many businesses in the retail sector, which have given way to new consumer preferences. In this sense, a fast service is now demanded, in which customization is the axis.

Specifically, the experiences around products and services have come to occupy a priority place, giving way to a greater incorporation of digital services, with the aim of satisfying these new demands and remaining competitive.

Thus, businesses in the retail sector are facing new challenges that go through a digitization of the entire chain of entities, so that personalized experiences are offered and a greater amount of data can be managed.