How Unified Commerce Saves the Retail Campaign (a CMO’s Tale)

When it comes to planning your retail campaign, a unified commerce platform takes the guesswork out of your sales forecasting and gives you control over your campaign results.

Meet Jane, CMO of UnSuited, a retail clothing operation for young executives

Jane and her team spend weeks preparing their special end-of-fiscal-year sales campaign. Jane and the department managers gather information from their databases and hammer out their campaign strategy. They analyze spreadsheets, collect data from the separate ERP and CRM systems, and track down information on employee hard drives.

Shortly after the campaign launches?

Jane receives a string of emails and texts: something has gone wrong with the online sales inventory. In other words, items are ?out of stock? ? customers are clicking away from the website.

In the fast world of retail, where sales happen at lightning speed across multiple channels (in store and online), a retail marketing team needs an efficient and accurate way to manage their campaign data.

That?s where the unified Microsoft Dynamics 365 system comes in…

More and more, retailers are benefiting from a cloud-based system. In fact, a recent retail survey by Boston Retail Partners (BRP) predicts that by 2020, 81% of retail businesses will operate on a unified commerce platform.

And for retail marketers, like Jane and her team, that means better campaign results and a bigger return on investment.

• Avoid “out-of-stock” issues: With a cloud-based unified system, department managers can see what’s going on at all times and at all levels of their business.For Jane, that means having the visibility she needs to see what?s selling fast and getting an inventory alert before stock runs out.
• Monitor your promotional inventory from anywhere: Whether pulling up a report in a meeting or signing off on a delivery, with the Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution, retail teams ? from CEO to warehouse picker ? can manage promotional stock from a tablet or mobile device.In Jane?s situation, the cloud-based system gives her team the ability to take swift action, correct the depleted inventory, and save the campaign. ?
• Eliminate heart-stopping surprises: It takes a lot of work and a hefty marketing investment to put a sales campaign together. But variables such as inaccurate forecasting and information “blind spots” ? of seeing your operation in parts (versus as a whole) ? can lead to not-so-nice surprises. ?With a unified commerce solution, Jane?s warehouse staff monitors and adjusts inventory levels in real time ? minus the unknowns ? while Jane watches online sales of their non-traditional business attire stream in.
• Make your dashboard work for you: The Dynamics platform allows staff to customize their dashboard with apps specific to their needs.Once set up with Dynamics 365 for Retail, Jane customizes her tablet, phone and laptop with the apps she needs to monitor her campaign’s inventory and results. She navigates the dashboard quickly (tapping apps like she does on her phone) and accesses the information she?s after.
• Get the alert, fix the problem (exhale): Every minute matters when retail issues come up. If customers are on your e-commerce site, they want a fast, smooth shopping experience. ?Jane?s campaign stalls, preventing shoppers from buying the exclusive business wardrobe they want. With cloud access to live data across essential levels of the operation, though, warehouse teams quickly identify the problem and balance the inventory for a super successful sales campaign.

Keep your customers close

Ultimately, your ?connected? customers want to make instant purchases from your sales campaign with minimal clicks. ?Out of stock? or inaccurate search results send them clicking to the competition.

When you switch your operation to a unified commerce solution, you have access to your operation?s information ? anytime on any device ? allowing you to create, manage and nail all your high-stakes campaigns.

When you choose the AlfaPeople team to implement your Microsoft Dynamics 365 unified system, we work with you and your retail team to guide you through the transition process. We have a wealth of experience with retail operators and understand the ?language? and challenges of modern commerce.

Ready to test Microsoft Dynamics 365 for yourself?

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