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personalized marketing will be their biggest source of
increased revenue in the coming year. So as the in-store ex-
perience gets an upgrade, “mom and pop” specialty shops
must reconsider if specialized selection and knowledgeable
staff are enough to keep smartphone-totting customers
engaged. After all, consumers literally have the endless aisle
in their hands, and shoppers often walk into stores already
aware of the specs and best-recommend selections.
2015 Monthly Store Traffic Declines (YoY)
March
-8.2%
April
-14.6%
May
-9.8%
June
-9.1%
July
-11%
August
-9.9%
September
-8.1%
October
-10.7%
November
-7.6%
Thanksgiving Weekend
-5.1%
Source: RetailNext
But how can small retailers with small IT budgets and
even smaller IT staffs deliver anything even close to the
“digital experience” that larger retailers will bring to the
floor? The big picture answer is a migration to cloud comput-
ing, but the cloud can mean a lot of things to a lot of people,
and can be confusing and ambiguous to the rest of us. Small
and independent retailers, however, don’t necessarily need to
get bogged down in the wide-reaching massiveness of “cloud
computing.” There is a narrower trail to take that can provide
affordable access to the immediate IT capabilities needed
to compete today while creating a natural path to the more
advanced cloud resources likely needed in the future. The
concept is known as “virtualization,” and the specific service
specialty retailers can focus on is “hosted virtual servers.”
Quite simply, server virtualization along with the hosted or
managed model offer a level of IT flexibility, affordability and
on-demand scalability that previously was unavailable to
most small and independent businesses.
But first, in an attempt to simplify matters and keep
eyes from glossing over, we’ll start with a basic under-
standing of “the cloud” and cloud computing. For these
purposes, think of the cloud as simply a bunch of servers,
which are essentially large hard drives that house and run
the operating systems, applications and programs of the
digital realm – much like the hard drive in a PC runs the
programs, printers and Wi-Fi routers of a small business or
home network. These servers are located in server rooms
in data centers around the globe and are accessible to
anyone and anything authorized to access them through a
data network (Internet) connection. Nowadays, most peo-
ple use cloud-based software services, such as Webmail or
Dropbox, on a daily basis. The guts of those services are
located on servers scattered across the Internet, accessed
by users through an Internet connection.
Virtualized servers occur when one large server is
separated into several “virtual servers,” each one set up to
perform a specific purpose. Since one server – which pre-
viously handled only one job – can be broken into several
servers executing several jobs or applications, the cost,
power, footprint and maintenance required to operate and
upkeep the server room is greatly reduced.
Most mid-sized to large enterprises, including most
large retail operations, employ the resources to own, oper-
ate and maintain their own servers, either housed at large
data centers or at an actual office or store location, and
they are using those resources to bring some pretty heavy
technology to the in-store experience. Major chains such as
Macy’s (4,000 devices) and Target (50 stores), as examples,
announced sizeable beacon installation near the end of
last year for in-store customer communications. Game
Stop, for its part, is piloting geo-fencing and beacons in
36 stores, while JCPenney has unleashed an app through
which customers can take a snapshot of a garment worn
by a person passing by and quickly find out if the store has
something similar in stock. Macy’s also developed an app
that lets shoppers use their smartphones to guide them
through the store to products they’re seeking.
Within the outdoor market, The North Face has
brought virtual reality into its store experience, and at its
flagship store in New York, Polo Ralph Lauren unveiled
eight smart dressing rooms equipped with interactive
mirrors that allow consumers to adjust the lighting in their
individual room, view specific garments in different sizes
and colors and even browse through recommendations
based on what they are trying on. The fitting rooms also
allow users to contract store associates without actually
coming out of the fitting room.
Inside
Outdoor
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