Azure for the future of the retail industry
There isn’t an industry that was not transformed in 2020. Unprecedented global circumstances accelerated the digital transformation throughout all industries, and retail was no exception.
Physical retail locations were the most affected by the acceleration of the digital transformation driven by the pandemic. In that same sense the organizations that had already started their cloud migration were the ones able to navigate these changes more fluidly.
Data management is important for retailers, to enable them to understand and personalize shopping experiences, as well as keeping their supply chain agile. At the same time, technology is required to continuously improve in store experiences, aligned with customers’ increasing expectations to accelerate growth.
The outdoor clothing brand, Columbia has seen how “the company’s cloud investment is making a positive impact on business performance through greater staffing efficiency, faster and more flexible customer service, and increased inventory awareness”.
Some of the other retail companies that have embraced Azure are: Arca Continental, ASOS, Deschutes Brewery, Dixon Carphone, Kroger, Marks & Spencer, and Walmart.
In a recent article published in Microsoft Azure’s blog, Ravi Krishnaswam, Corporate Vice President of Azure Global Industry, stated that: the industry’s incredible and ongoing adaptation to pandemic-driven trends, will impact in 2021 and beyond.
He further explains that Microsoft Azure “allows our customers to intelligently manage secure workloads across multiple sites and domains, scale those workloads to process millions of requests per second, and improve the logistics to manage each order.”
Some of the most evident benefits of Azure for Retail companies is the scalability of commerce platforms, as well as “the ability to analyze data from across an organization, so they can discover key insights and apply them to unique solutions that match their priorities and meet their shoppers’ needs” in Krishnaswam words.
Furthermore, in the case of the retail industry, companies can see Microsoft as a partner that does not represent a competitor.
The main reason why a company would choose to migrate with a partner rather than taking the DIY route is that a strong Azure partner will help you reduce cloud consumption, guide you in automation and provide a smoother transition to the cloud.
To read more about how Azure has helped Retail companies, check out Microsoft Azure retail success stories.
If you’re unsure how your company will benefit from Azure migration, don’t hesitate to contact us.
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