In the 60 years since its foundation as a single gas station in Virginia, Pilot Flying J has grown to be the largest operator of travel centers in North America. With over 750 locations serving more than 1.6 million professional drivers and traveling motorists daily, Pilot Flying J provides its guests with overnight parking, showers, warm meals, Wi-Fi, and a vast array of merchandise.
C&A doubled its eCommerce reach by 122% and expanded from nine to 20 countries with MuleSoft. Here’s how.
These days, the entire shopper journey — from awareness and acquisition to transaction and service — has been completely disrupted.
It is a common misconception that omnichannel is a matter of connecting system A to system B to create a new mobile app or bring the latest channel online. Today, omnichannel is about becoming channel-agnostic. And if there is one thing the last decade has taught us, it is that new channels and new ways of interacting with consumers emerge rapidly.
Digital technology has transformed the retail industry over the past decade. The rise of eCommerce is at the centre of these changes, presenting both a major opportunity and a threat for retailers. Retailers of all shapes and sizes now require an online presence to be successful, whether the retailer is a major high-street chain running a flagship eCommerce site or a small boutique hosting its store on an Amazon micro-site. With the internet effectively flattening the retail marketplace,
In retail, you often hear the word “channel” when describing how products are delivered to the customer. But actually, a channel is a bit more involved. A retail channel is the end-to-end set of locations, processes, and technologies products pass through from the point of manufacture to the end-customer.
I recall a conversation with a Forrester analyst in 2004 on the topic of “retail channel integration.” Essentially, the gist of the discussion was centered on the integration of the online (eCommerce) channel with the store channel.
We’re excited to announce the release of our new Catalyst Accelerator for Retail, which illustrates API development best practices for retail-specific use cases. It provides developers with access to source code, API portals, and web experiences that are designed to showcase an application network for the following use-cases:
The importance of eCommerce is expanding rapidly, especially with Amazon continuing to build its robust platform. Online sales will reach $414 billion by 2018 and mobile commerce now accounts for 21% of total digital sales. Given the growing importance of eCommerce as a channel, it is imperative that eCommerce works seamlessly with a retailer’s traditional channels.
Typical eCommerce Platforms today tightly couple their technology layers, inhibiting any flexibility to drive omnichannel experiences.
Larry Ellison once said that a “CRM provides a 360-degree view of your customer, provided you don’t care about getting paid.” This quip was intended to ward off new threats to the dominance of ERP. Many organizations, having implemented GL and ERP, were dipping their toes in the CRM waters––particularly service heavy industries, such as utilities and manufacturing. These industries built their services, sales, and marketing functions into this CRM domain.
If there is one takeaway from our Connected Consumer Report, it’s this: customers demand and expect a tailored omnichannel experience across every touchpoint with a company.
