SuiteWorld 2015: Disrupt Or Be Disrupted
By Erin Harris, Editor-In-Chief, Cell & Gene
Follow Me On Twitter @ErinHarris_1
That was one of the main tenets of NetSuite’s SuiteWorld event held recently in San Jose. Fresh off its Bronto acquisition announcement, NetSuite released additional big news at the show, including its newest customers, American Express Global Travel and Qlik. In his opening keynote, CEO Zach Nelson explained that Qlik has deployed NetSuite OneWorld to gain insight into more than 25 subsidiaries across more than 100 countries. Executives from Fitbit, Billabong, Lovesac, and more explained the why behind their decision to partner with NetSuite as well as their resulting successes.
Customer announcements aside, the company announced SuiteCommerce InStore, NetSuite’s solution that integrates omni-channel capabilities with the POS. In my line of work, I see a lot of bells-and-whistles technologies that may or may not live up to their omni-channel retailing claims. Connecting the digital and physical worlds of retailing is extremely complex; among other related problems, retailers struggle to help their associates overcome lost sales opportunities because they lack insight into the customer’s shopping history.
Nelson stated that SuiteCommerce InStore fosters omni-channel retailing by transforming point of sale to point of commerce. The audience was given a live demo of the cloud-based system. CTO Evan Goldberg and his wife acted out a complicated path-to-purchase scenario much like that of your customers complete with research on a mobile device, an abandoned shopping cart, and a wish list — culminating in the transaction at the brick-and-mortar location. The Goldberg’s complex yet typical path to purchase proved relevant — a mobile shopping cart with unpurchased items followed by the in-store associate who, using SuiteCommerce InStore on his iPad, seamlessly viewed her existing shopping cart and history, helped her purchase “the dress,” accessories, and even two hoodies, one of which was out of stock but was inevitably shipped to their home. The technology made a multi-touch point scenario an omni-channel reality, and the savvy, mobile-enabled sales associate helped Mrs. Goldberg make decisions based on the data he was able to access in real time — and, he scored himself an upsell. With real-time inventory access across the supply chain, associates can ship an out-of-stock item, or similarly, return an item in-store all in the same transaction from the same device. In sum, the associate had access to complete inventory as well as customer information to effectively engage the Goldberg’s.
Disruptive retail technologies should help big retailers act small and help small retailers act big. Continue to do research and skeptically validate every technology provider claiming to offer the solution to omni-channel retailing, especially when the company is highly risk averse. But, trust me, this is big.