Building The "Store Of The Future" When You're Not A Retail Giant

By Sadhana Joliet, EarthLink Business

In a recent presentation at the Goldman Sachs Global Retail Conference in New York, Walmart CEO Bill Simon talked about the massive investment the company is making in Omni-Channel retailing, or what he called “the convergence of the digital and physical worlds.” He talked about an array of technology initiatives including ship from store, ship to store, mobile payments with self-checkout, and mobile applications. Retailers like Amazon, Saks, and Walgreens are also making headlines with their investments in Omni-Channel and store transformation.

Now, contrast this with what we heard from one of our customers, a midsized mall retailer of apparel and footwear:

“EarthLink I think you fit in a unique position because there aren’t a lot of people out there who are focusing on small box retailers.  As an example we were meeting with an industry analyst and he asked me what my issues were. I said I’m trying to navigate through the architecture shift to Omni-Channel and yet preserve the value of my systems. His advice was to look to Walmart, saying ‘They’re building their own applications and they’re going to compete with Silicon Valley and that’s what you need to do.’ ” 

This was followed by laughter from everyone in the room.

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