Cisco's Global Retail team announced a new paper at the Cisco Live show in Las Vegas from Cisco and our retail research partner PSFK, Inc. "The Future of Retail" report supplement defines ten pillars of customer experience, showing how brands, retailers, and solution providers are finding new ways to engage, connect, and create a vibrant store destination. Click here to download a copy of the paper and see how it can help define your retail strategy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1MPiFEJ0S8&list=PLE122E9E4108CAEBE&index=5

PSFK's CEO Piers Fawkes joined me recently to share his reflections upon which the paper is based.

Overall, we agree that digital transformation is requiring companies to take a different approach to retail, regardless of channel or platform. Mobile, collaboration, and automation technologies are allowing retailers and brands to scale new services such as always-on assistance, intelligent transactions, and on-demand delivery to make the purchase path as seamless as possible. And, with each interaction, advanced analytics solutions gather data that provides a more nuanced understanding of the shopper -in real time, at the moment of decision.

"Over the last five years we have witnessed a radical shift in shopper behavior fueled by the seismic impacts of mobile and social," Piers says. "Over that time, our team at PSFK Labs have documented ideas and identified trends that reflect how retailers and brands are using new technologies to engage the always-on, hyper-connected, and all-powerful consumer."

The question remains: Which technologies should retailers invest in?

PSFK worked with Cisco to identify the trends and technologies that help build the best experiences possible. The paper describes how leading retailers are using today's exciting capabilities to respond to customer demands and differentiate themselves from the competition.

While the findings challenge companies to look beyond traditional systems and focus on the design of an intuitive and customized shopper experience, Cisco provides solutions that can help brands and retailers accomplish this task. I'd like to call out Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (Cisco CMX), which let you create apps that build shopper relationships with real-time information, advice, and promotions.

And there's Cisco analytics, which helps you achieve new levels of insight to understand and act immediately on customer behavior. Associate Productivity tools make personnel more productive, improve customer service, and achieve significant operational savings. All of this is built upon the digital-ready Cisco Unified Retail Platform, a secure, single, integrated IT platform for the store.

Download a copy of the PSFK report, "The Future of Retail," to learn about other trends and technologies! And the video introducing this research is here.

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