Elevate engagement, experience and profitability to unlock retail growth

In an exclusive interview with IMAGES RetailME, Driss Iziki, MEA Operations Director for Cegid, a global provider of POS, unified commerce and task management solutions, shared three golden rules to clock consistent growth in the GCC’s competitive retail landscape.

Starting with some numbers. Alpen Capital estimates GCC retail sales to grow from $309.6 billion in 2023 to $386.9 billion by 2028, driven primarily by the UAE and Saudi Arabia at a CAGR of 5.4% and 5.1%, respectively. Factors fuelling this growth include economic diversification efforts, “nominal” population growth and “cautious yet confident” consumers, the consulting and research firm shared at the recently concluded Middle East Retail Forum (MRF) 2024.

Over to the obvious questions. What can retailers do to harness this growth potential? Importantly, how is Cegid enabling retailers to enhance their performance and scalability?

To begin with, in a landscape where the brick-and-mortar environment is being reinvented, unified commerce is non-negotiable, which Cegid has been powering for several retailers of all sizes and categories. “After all, the brick-and-mortar store can’t be a transactional black box anymore,” Driss emphasised.

Having the right product in the right place at the right time is crucial, which hinges on a brand’s ability to manage inventory accurately through data-driven insights. Having a strong KPI dashboard is also essential to have every piece of business-related information at your fingertips, which are some key areas that Cegid’s solutions are enabling.

Empowering store associates

Over the past decade, Cegid has seen its customers innovate technologically through investments into unified commerce, inventory management and more. However, some of them “forgot” the crucial component of enabling their people, Driss pointed out. And in the current retail landscape, a key differentiating factor for any retailer is its ability to engage with a highly evolved, knowledgeable, demanding and often volatile consumer. In this context, Driss shared a relatable real-life example.

“I’ve two teenage daughters, who always walk into retail stores equipped with all possible information about the product they are looking for. They are digital natives with a short attention span and extremely comfortable in using AI to access product information at the granular level. They are also aware of price variations, if any, across the brand’s online and offline channels as well as other stores of the same brand across different countries. To engage with such deeply aware and savvy consumers, the retail store associates must be well equipped to not lose the consumer to another channel or competitor.” On the other hand, if the store associates are aware and well-informed they can significantly improve the customer experience and the brand’s turnover and profitability. “That’s why enabling store associates with in-store mobile solutions is not a choice anymore; it’s a necessity,” Driss stated.

Implementing in-store mobile solutions is no longer optional; it has become essential,” Driss stated. This is one of the reasons why Cegid has developed Cegid Retail Store Excellence, to simplify task management, communications, and retail operations. Some of Cegid’s customers, including Lulu Hypermarket and Alghanim Industries, among others, have hundreds of people on their shop floors who have greatly benefited from this solution.

Here’s how – Cegid Retail Store Excellence provides head office teams with insights and control over daily store activities, allowing senior management to remain actively involved in in-store operations, while freeing-up store associates to spend more time with customers, at the same time ensuring compliance. Cegid Retail Store Excellence strengthens communication, ensures brand consistency and enables stores to adapt swiftly to market changes while maintaining a strong connection with franchisees, especially crucial in a market like the GCC where the franchise model is predominant.

Strengthen processes

At a time when 91% of retail IT leaders are prioritising AI as the top technology to implement by 2026, Driss stressed on the importance of having the basics in order.

“We work with retailers including L’azurde, Abu Issa, Al Malki, Ali Bin Ali, Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons and many more who prioritise having the prerequisites in order. These include creating a unified commerce experience; having a robust KPI dashboard for real-time visibility into inventory, understand when to replenish; and implementing solutions to enable in-store mobility of personnel before moving further into tech-based transformations,” he shared.

For instance, by leveraging Cegid Retail retailers like GANT have ensured unified engagement across all channels, improved inventory through real-time visibility into stock, while enabling faster, data-driven decisions around expansion by analysing return on investment.

To improve performance and further enable its GCC retail customers to optimise operations, streamline processes and scale up, Cegid opened a new data centre or ‘point of delivery’ in Dubai. “This will also help us to abide by the new government regulations emerging out of Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” Driss added.

What’s next?

Since the past 18-24 months, every retail leader is talking about AI. They are keen to invest in AI. Taking the cue, Cegid unveiled its AI-powered ‘Cegid Pulse’. Cegid Pulse is embedded in three of Cegid Retail’s flagship solutions including Cegid Retail Live Store, Cegid Retail Store Excellence and Cegid Retail Intelligence. This set of intelligent agents enables retailers to make real-time recommendations to their in-store customers, improve communication and store team engagement with automated translation and post generation and gain a better understanding of their business by analysing data more simply and intelligently.

“To develop Cegid Pulse, we surveyed a majority of our clients over 18 months, thereafter finetuning those discussions into 50 use cases, finally narrowing them down to 5 to begin with. It took us six months to develop Cegid Pulse, which has made every existing Cegid solution more sophisticated and result oriented. Importantly, Cegid Pulse helps us to deliver on our promise of elevating engagement, profitability and finally the entire retail experience which are key to unlock consistent growth,” Driss concluded.

To learn more about Cegid, visit https://www.cegid.com/global/solutions/retail-and-distribution/