Fujitsu Pan-European Retail Survey 2013: European Retailers at the Crossroads between Driving Operational Efficiency and Improving Customer Experience

Fujitsu today reveals that retailers across Europe are at a crossroads, facing the dilemma of increasing operational efficiency while also improving customer experience, and aware that achieving both is not possible. An exclusive survey of European retail management commissioned by Fujitsu1, a top-three retail solutions and services provider working with over 500 retailers and 82,000 stores around the world, found that almost 60 per cent of respondents placed the same value on both efficiency and customer experience in an increasingly multi-channel environment, underlining the fundamental challenge facing retailers with a store presence.

Findings from the Fujitsu Pan-European Retail Survey 2013 confirm the future of the store in a changing environment. Managers face challenges such as driving sales and managing people. Simultaneously they must maintain a unified view of customers across all channels, and so must understand how to leverage technology innovation to deliver multi-channel solutions that deliver improved customer experiences at a competitive cost.

Retailers are often under economic pressure due to the cost of space, inventory and people. A key finding of Fujitsu’s research is the high priority retailers place on driving sales, while managing and developing the skills of their people. Managers today use multiple indicators to evaluate store efficiency, with those relating to sales margin used most widely by 60 per cent of respondents. The survey confirms that retailers recognize their biggest challenge is to sell more, and to do so more efficiently, with 63 per cent of respondents identifying sales as their principle concern.

Almost three in every five retailers expect to benefit most from technology solutions supporting online-based services – most notably for the international companies and larger food retailers. Mobile phone sales capabilities are considered equally important by international retailers.

The biggest ‘efficiency versus customer experience’ gap is emerging among larger food retailers, which consider all self-service and hybrid technologies as contributing greatly to store efficiency (over 60 per cent), while simultaneously adding value to the business (around 65 per cent). In comparison, other retail categories consider these technologies as contributing more to the customer experience (50-60 per cent), and as such say these technologies generate less value to the business (around 30 per cent), possibly as it is more difficult to trace ‘cause and affect’ in such projects.

Store technology projects are delivering multi-channel retail solutions – the store is no longer the only place customers are buying. That said, technologies will become decisive in revolutionizing in-store purchasing (according to 71 per cent of respondents), where stores will remain the hub for customer engagement. Although retailers realize that a first-class customer experience is the best way to build a brand with loyal customers, financial concerns hold back many companies from reaching for this goal.

To support retailers facing this dilemma, Fujitsu is developing a new generation of flexible and adjustable retail systems designed to meet changing market conditions and customer demands. Fujitsu’s end-to-end approach meets the unique challenges of the full variety of retail sectors and differing market-maturity stages, Retail solutions include initial consulting through to the commissioning and delivery of complete systems down to the cash registers, backed by managed services to keep retailers open for business.

Richard Clarke, Vice President, Global Retail at Fujitsu
“Being a retailer – buying and merchandising, supply chain, retail operations, transaction management – is no longer defined by having a store, merchandise to sell and a cash register. It has become defined by managing customers through their shopping ‘journeys’ on their terms, and often via their own personal assets, such as a smart phone, and their own capabilities – based on their product knowledge or social networking connectedness. Fujitsu Retail Solutions help retailers to begin recasting their business models to fit their customers, not just their stores.”

Executive Vice President, Belgium
“Our biggest challenge is improving sales while reducing costs.”

Manager System & Organization, France
“The real priority is to optimize staffing, while keeping a significant level of proximity to the customer.”

CIO, Germany
“You need more information and that’s where the digital battle is being fought: information and comparing information.”

Retail IT Director, United Kingdom
“We need to figure out more effective ways to manage the dizzying complexity of customer relationships, including the increasing contact points via social networks.”

CTO, Italy
“Greater and more accessible integration between our physical networks and internet-based networks is increasingly important.”

¹ Fujitsu Pan-European Retail Survey 2013
Future of the store in a multi-channel environment: How to turn today’s challenges into tomorrow’s successes through improvement of store efficiency and customer experience?
Novametrie, the specialist provider of opinion leader research, was commissioned by Fujitsu to undertake independent research with senior managers in retail businesses in France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, and other countries (including multiple countries covered by HQ representatives). During September/November 2012, Novametrie undertook 20 qualitative interviews (face-to-face and telephone), followed by 161 quantitative interviews (online) during January/February 2013.

The retail industry is changing at an unprecedented pace. Cross-border expansion, multi-channel shopping, the mobile device and smarter back office technologies are transforming shopper expectations and experience, store operating models and business performance. Retail executives are looking to stay ahead of the curve and drive profit by offering a differentiated customer experience and increased business efficiency.

Fujitsu works with retailers to help them master these challenges, using IT to take the customer experience and business efficiency to the next level. Building on a deep understanding of retailing that we have gained over the past 30 years with more than 500 customers and 82,000 stores, Fujitsu’s mission is to deliver a differentiated customer experience which will increase sales, operational effectiveness and customer satisfaction for our retail clients.