Latin America. In the middle of 2018, physical stores are still key to have a good approach with customers and achieve a connection with them. In fact, in the coming years, personal interaction will be very important for young consumers, as they are projected to cause the retail economy in Mexico to increase to $804 billion by 2025, according to a study by Frost & Sullivan.
Knowing the importance of physical stores, retailers have chosen to implement technologies such as Big Data and Analytics, to help them make proactive decisions in real time, with the aim of improving the customer experience, recognizing their loyalty, understanding them better and quantifying these actions as a competitive advantage.
During 2017, the retail sector in Latin America generated revenues of $2,992.5 million dollars, while by 2023 it is expected to reach $8,593.5 million dollars. This will represent growth for the retail sector by 19.2%, according to data from Frost & Sullivan.
Mexico, along with Brazil, are the Latin American countries that are leading this digital transformation in the retail sector, through the increased use of mobile technology, taking the experience in physical stores for customers to another level and thus generating great opportunities for sustained growth in the retail sales sector.
For their part, Mexican brick-and-mortar retailers are gradually aiming their focus at significantly improving the customer experience. However, many are facing the challenges of effectively managing their front-end and back-end technology systems.
Data from the consultancy show that the main technological challenges in the retail sector in Latin America are:
Align information technology with corporate strategies
Automate and optimize corporate processes with multi-technology solutions
Use multi-vendor solutions in management system integration
To respond to these technological challenges, NEC is helping retailers implement smart solutions to transform the in-store experience, allowing them to better understand their customers through the use of advanced technologies such as:
Sales software that easily integrates with back-office systems to provide customer information directly to the point of sale and transforms it into a point of service.
Facial recognition technology that helps instantly recognize a customer entering the store, access information about previous transactions and preferences, improving the personalized customer experience.
Solutions to make automatic payments through facial recognition and video analysis, as facilitators of the shopping experience for the customer.
NEC offers a wide range of solutions for the sector backed by the know-how accumulated when working with retailers around the world. Thanks to this, the retail sector can enjoy comprehensive technologies to operate solutions that include IT consulting, as well as operations and maintenance of the store system.
Text written by Carlos de la Cruz, retail specialist at NEC
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