How Microsoft and Kroger plan to use the cloud to revolutionize the modern shopping experience

Online shopping is killing traditional shopping venues like Toys R Us, Sears, Kmart, JCPenny and others. That'southward what we're told anyway. And information technology seems that the proof is in the pudding as online vacation shopping sales for 2022 increased effectually 16-percent year-over-year and Black Fri Cyber Monday year-over-yr revenue increased by more than than 22-percent. More people are shopping online, and more than money is being made by businesses that take a strong online presence.

Still, despite this growth according to the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Forrester's State of Retailing Online study consumers are withal visiting retail outlets in meaning numbers. In other words, digital shopping lone is non killing physical retail. Though making online purchases is convenient, the study revealed consumers expect digital and traditional retailing to be intertwined.

Furthermore, though grocery stores like Kroger are less impacted by online shopping than department stores, the grocery industry is still affected. About big grocery stores offer an online feel where shoppers can place orders digitally, and as with other retailers, are either delivered to the consumer or picked upward by them at the store. Microsoft and Kroger have partnered to accept advantage of what the data shows is a consumer'due south desire for the benefits of both a digital and physical shopping experience. Companies that strategically combine both notice success in the modern market where others fail.

A better stagecoach won't stop the motorcar

The appearance of the machine presented a claiming to the stagecoach (and its makers), which at the time was the established mode of transportation. Creating a better, prettier and faster stagecoach was not the answer to this challenge. The introduction of a new mode of transportation and new engineering presented a need and opportunity for companies to think about how they would accept advantage of this shift.

The appearance and increment in online shopping crave companies to call up about how they can have advantage of the web, mobile devices, PCs, apps and the traditional shopping experience to meet consumer needs. And because consumers are still visiting concrete stores, an omnichannel approach is necessary if businesses are to succeed in the modern marketplace. "Omnichannel" is when a company provides customers with multiple admission points to its business.

This includes shopping online via a PC at domicile, via a mobile app on the go or in a physical store. Information technology can even include a combination of the digital and physical where a consumer in a physical store uses applied science to order a product for delivery.

Pros and cons of digital and physical shopping

There are pros and cons to physical and digital shopping experiences. Some advantages of visiting a brick and mortar store include the ability to physically come across and impact a product, the immediacy of having a production at the time of purchase, straight customer service and the ability to return a product in person.

Some advantages of shopping online are the convenience of non leaving dwelling house, the potential for improve prices and deals, able to compare and review up to date product data, a personalized shopping experience where ads, suggestions, and deals that are cogitating of past activeness.

Microsoft's and Kroger's pilot program that provides RaaS (Retail as a Service) is geared toward harmonizing a customers' digital and concrete shopping experiences. To that end, the Microsoft and Kroger partnership leverages Microsoft'southward Azure cloud platform and artificial intelligence in combination with Kroger's expertise as the world's largest grocery chain. The goal is to apply technology and data-driven insights to provide shoppers with a smooth and personalized experience that reflects the advantages of both traditional and digital shopping experiences.

Combining digital and physical

To bring the advantages of the digital shopping experience to the physical Kroger and Microsoft are using the cloud, a smartphone app, Edge Shelf (Enhanced Display for Grocery Surroundings) technology, and a Scan, Bag, Become device.

The digital experience begins with a smartphone where a shopper creates their shopping listing – not dissimilar how they would if committing to a digital-merely experience. The digital and concrete cantankerous-over, notwithstanding, when the shopper arrives at the store and picks up a Scan, Bag and Become device that aligns with the shopping list in the app and provides a guided and expedited shopping experience. The shopper is also assigned a digital avatar that digitally enhances their concrete shopping experience by flashing on the digital EDGE brandish when the shopper arrives near the product on their list.

Like a digital-only experience, the EDGE display will also serve up personalized ads and offers and display up to date content nearly a product. The EDGE displays also provide data that aid employees keep inventory stocked and a option-to-lite characteristic helps associates rapidly find items for curbside commitment.

Into the future

Kroger and Microsoft are embarking on a journey that creates a symbiosis between the inescapable digital shopping reality which nosotros are delving deeper into and the traditional shopping experience that we are rooted in. Traditionally, businesses that overcommit to a single experience, creating an imbalance, have found information technology hard or even impossible to reap long-term success in the modern marketplace. Every bit technology evolves, businesses have to evolve their modalities to friction match.

Even online powerhouse Amazon has acknowledged the need for a physical presence. Physical stores that provide traditional shopping experiences such as Amazon's Whole Foods, where customers tin pick up items, or chop-chop receive fresh produce locally via delivery.

Currently, but two Kroger locations are piloting this Retail as a Service model simply Microsoft'due south CEO, Satya Nadella, sees this every bit the seed to a much broader goal:

Together, we will redefine the shopping experience for millions of customers at both Kroger and other retailers effectually the earth, setting a new standard for innovation in the industry."

As we move into this hereafter, I tin can't help just visualize how augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) with devices like futurity iterations of HoloLens might make virtual and augmented visits to a store possible. Where customers volition walk through a virtual shop, select digital representations of bodily products that are paid for by a cloud-linked account and delivered to one's home. Or where an AR experience guides a shopper through the physical shop and displays an overlay of personalized product information, offers, and ads over products. Wherever nosotros're headed, Kroger and Microsoft are creating a foundation where our digital and physical shopping experiences are intricately intertwined.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-microsoft-and-kroger-plan-use-cloud-revolutionize-modern-shopping-experience

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