Fujitsu Supports Online-to-Offline Services for Retailers and Distributors

Fujitsu today announced the launch of FUJITSU Cloud Smart Biz Connect, a new application platform service for retail and distribution businesses interested in e-commerce and online-to-offline (O2O) services, which connect with customers to provide services both in physical stores and online. As part of Fujitsu's ongoing initiatives in digital marketing retail solutions, which are a suite of products and services that deliver value targeted to the specific needs of individual customers, Fujitsu Cloud Smart Biz Connect makes it possible to quickly build mobile apps for consumers. The new service will only be available in Japan.

This cloud-based service provides a platform with the foundation and functions needed to develop apps for O2O services. Not only can businesses quickly build their systems, but development and operating costs are slashed by more than 70% compared to conventional methods.

Background

With the spread of smartphones and other smart devices, more and more consumers are using them to collect product information from multiple sources prior to making purchases, and they are also using coupons that have been distributed online. For brick-and-mortar retailers, therefore, the behavior of customers online is extremely important.

One marketing technique attracting attention in recent years is online-to-offline (O2O) services, where information is made available online as a way to attract customers to the physical store. With an O2O service, a store can, for example, distribute demographically targeted updates to store-club members using their club-registration information, varying the content of the messages based on the customer's age or gender. Likewise, for customers who have made online reservations for the first available seats at a busy restaurant, the restaurant could notify them online of the time they should arrive, thus avoiding having to make them wait.

In these ways, O2O services can help to increase the flow of customers or increase their level of satisfaction. Most existing O2O services are comprised of a variety of functions, such as membership registration and authentication functions, coupon functions, and news-distribution functions, and a system that manages all of that information, requiring a system integrator to build each function. It is anticipated that there will be an increasing need for systems for which environments can be built more quickly and that can be initiated at a low cost.

Smart Biz Connect Features

1. Quick, inexpensive development of O2O services

Fujitsu is offering the functions needed to develop these applications and the platform as a set, via the cloud. An extensive range of functions is provided, including membership registration and authentication functions, as well as coupon distribution and management functions, so customers can focus just on developing their main mobile application, enabling them to quickly and inexpensively develop a full suite of functions. Moreover, because Fujitsu handles operations and maintenance, customers can use the service with peace of mind.

2. Flexible customization options

Customers can develop their own additions to the standard functions in Smart Biz Connect. For example, they can add game functions, or they can build customized links to their own mission-critical systems or transaction processing systems for marketing purposes.

3. Centralized management portal to manage the back end

The management portal enables centralized management of back-end functions, such as maintaining product information and distributing information on special deals to club members, resulting in more efficient operations.

Pricing and Availability

Sales Target

100 enterprise deployments by end of fiscal 2016 (Fujitsu's fiscal year ends the last day of March)