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Valtech.Com PG THE ERA OF TECH: THE RIGHT HAND DISRUPTION OF RETAIL PG. PG. 06 Innovation, a Life or 20 Industry Leaders are Using Death Choice for Retailers Technology to Boost Business PG. 12 THE REVOLUTION OF TOUCHPOINTS WHY EXPERIMENTATION IS NEEDED PG. 24 THE BIG IMPACT OF MICRO-MOMENT MARKETING WINNING CUSTOMER LOYALTY PG. 38 INSIGHTFUL ANSWERS TO YOUR RETAIL QUESTIONS AN INTERVIEW WITH COMMERCETOOLS FOUNDER, DIRK HÖRIG valtech.com VALTECH.COM For the past 20 years, the ability to buy It’s time to imagine, develop, goods online has fundamentally changed build and change based on what consumers enjoy. how we shop and interact with brands. However, don’t get too accustomed to today’s methods; innovations are on the horizon. As you’ll see in this edition of Valtech Mag, the industry is on the brink of a transformation. Together, Valtech and commercetools explore the brands, top innovators in retail now have to focus future of innovation with concepts that are nearing on unprecedented ways to disrupt the industry. existence. Valtech, through its remarkable design Commerce that makes purchases seamless at every and content, is utilizing new technologies like the interaction is no longer important, it is vital. commercetools platform to advance global brands into the new “post-web” era. This will be an era Gone are days when the top e-commerce where shopping is not relegated to a traditional professionals focused on building a better shopping website - beautiful content, experiences and cart. Forward-thinking brands have an incredible storytelling will be everywhere. To differentiate their opportunity to engage consumers in new ways. They can build bridges to traditional consumers and digital savvy buyers alike, being the first to offer new channels and unique experiences. It’s time to imagine, develop, build and change based on what Commerce that consumers enjoy. The amount of creativity and innovation surrounding retail is making for an exciting time in the industry. makes purchases The connection between the offline and online seamless at every worlds is like nothing we’ve ever seen. interaction is no longer important, it is vital. Pascal Lagarde Digital Director of Commerce Valtech Netherlands COMMERCETOOLS 3 01 ARTICLES PG. 06–11 The Era of Disruption Innovation, a Life or Death Choice for Retailers PG. 12–15 The Revolution of Touchpoints Why Experimentation is Needed PG. 16–19 Cars Aren’t What They PG. 20–23 Used to Be Tech, the Right Hand of Retail Automotive Trends Disrupting the Industry Industry Leaders are Using Technology to Boost Business By Chetan Bangalore Vijayakumar Associate Vice President — Retail Valtech India PG. 24–29 The Big Impact of Micro-Moment Marketing Winning Customer Loyalty By Tobias Mauel / Digital Consultant Valtech Netherlands PG. 30–33 How Crucial is Augmented Reality in Retail? 02 INTERVIEWS The Answers are in the Who, Why & How of AR PG. 38–39 PG. 34–37 Insightful Answers to Your Retail Questions: Sitting Down with Dirk Hörig APIs Disrupting Commerce The commercetools Founder on New Customer Approaches Using Socical Media, Apps, PG. 40–41 Chatbots & Their Peers Commerce: From Basic to Bold Revolutionizing the Traditional Website 4 VALTECH MAG COMMERCETOOLS 5 In the next decade, retailer success will be dependent on the effectiveness of Chief Digital Officers (CDO) adopting new business models and channels to consumers. Our digital world is evolving. New technologies are disrupting traditional consumer relationships and provide new entry points for competitors. Thriving in this era requires intentional, high cadence experimentation and a set of technical tools that can keep up. Valtech perceives commercetools, as such a platform, architected to support rapid and real-world testing of innovative ideas. 6 VALTECH MAG COMMERCETOOLS 7 to experiment with new business models quickly and obstacle for customers. Upgrades demand an The Innovation Imperative • Rapid scaling out of successful experiments inexpensively and be fully prepared to “fail forward.” extensive rework and testing effort across each to capture market share. facet. It’s a costly undertaking for retailers. The world is changing at an accelerating rate. Retailers need to anticipate how technology will • The anticipation of or preparation for an The Value of Micro-service All-in-one modern enterprise commerce platforms impact their relationship with their customers unexpected rise of new consumer channels. Architectures are expensive, even if deployed and purchased by judiciously experimenting with new models. based on a revenue-share (pay-as-you-grow) model. Otherwise, they risk being left behind. Anticipating and Reacting: Monolithic commerce systems can make new Decoupling just a few critical functions and features channel experimentation expensive and high risk. from the rest of such a platform’s components is The Retailer Lifeline This would not be in the best interest of the retailer. VOICE is everywhere, changing consumer nearly impossible when the full suite is not utilized When experiments are costly in time or money, behaviors and threatening retailers’ traditional Retailers today recognize the importance of changing to its potential. innovation is stifled. go-to-market strategies. how they interact with their consumers. What is less DIGITAL ASSISTANTS are in various devices, from mobile phones to refrigerators, digital assistants are increasingly becoming intermediaries between retailers and consumers. CONSUMERS are buying within video games. This is expanding beyond digital goods to include the purchase of real-world products for delivery. VIRTUAL REALITY and augmented reality technologies have not reached mass adoption as quickly as the most ardent advocates had predicted, but there is little doubt they will be a significant part of the consumer landscape. And they hold the potential to change everything about the consumer buying experience. CARMAKERS are actively rolling out the ability to shop through infotainment systems while on the road. This trend can only accelerate as autonomous cars reach the market. AUTO-REPLENISHMENT SYSTEMS are just now reaching consumers—but have the potential to clear is how to adjust to these changes. Reminiscing Most of modern end-to-end commerce platforms Hence, why more retailers are embracing the change the meaning of consumer loyalty radically. on the .com bust and boom even with innovative evolved primarily through acquisitions of software so-called headless or micro-services based approach technologies, committing too early or overinvesting products and smaller platforms in areas where to commerce technology. A headless commerce Baseline Needs for Innovation can be risky. Dwelling on this unknown past requires a monolith buyer was at a disadvantage or where platform is essentially a robust, scalable, modern experimentation. Prudent retailers understand the it was missing respective functionalities. Time- set of commerce modules and services that deploy Innovation entails risk. Most experiments will fail. unpredictable nature of this industry. No one can to-market is essential. Over the past 10 years, we in the cloud. They can be called upon through a Retailers need an infrastructure that allows for: meaningfully predict how the intersection of AI home observed major platform consolidations in the custom-built user interface for a website, a mobile assistance, the sharing economy and the potential e-commerce technology space. An acquisition of app, a voice-controlled device or a home appliance. • Quick, low-cost deployment of new capabilities. of blockchain will change the retail landscape. In this this caliber typically results in a monolith platform In short, regardless of a user touchpoint or interface • Simple and reliable reuse of existing investments context, retailers have an absolute need to be able being marketed as an end-to-end, single vendor, type, a very standard set of back-end platform micro- in the exploration of new opportunities. functional solution. However, integrating such services is utilized through a comprehensive API layer features can take years. This could be a potential of the platform. 8 VALTECH MAG COMMERCETOOLS 9 Some perks of using a micro-services based • They connect to the “old” world of offline stores to innovate towards the future and adjust to • Development teams can operate platform such as commercetools, include: and customer touchpoints like kiosks, POS unexpected developments. autonomously. The business overhead terminals, store displays, etc. and friction of coordinating distributed • Individually consumable and priced on-demand Valtech is enthusiastic about the headless teams disappear. type services (such as product price calls, • There are hundreds of releases per year to grow approach to e-commerce and, after reviewing promotion calls, order tax calculation calls, and improve such platforms, while the underlying available technologies, we feel very comfortable FAST AND SIMPLE PARTNERSHIPS and other). APIs are kept stable and backward-compatibility recommending commercetools to those is assured. pursuing a more agile approach to the market. 03 By design, commercetools is API-first. It is built • Such platforms are typically cloud-native, commercetools provides an innovative platform with the ease of integration as a core design designed from the ground-up utilizing best-of- Technical evangelists will praise the robustness that allows fast, lower-risk experimentation with principle. For a CDO, this means that lengthy breed, modern software architecture.
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