Reimagining retail: true digital transformation is more than changing old processes
January 31, 2020
Retail is an industry at the forefront of digital transformation. This is as changing consumer habits, rising costs, and growing competition put pressure on established brands. To stay competitive, these companies are innovating in an effort to deliver a digital experience, personalisation and convenience to customers.
Delivering this requires more than a flashy app. Retail companies must take a fresh look at the supply chain and back office. They need to understand the shortcomings that exist and work to provide the digital infrastructure needed to supply the experience customers demand.
Accounts payable is a crucial part of digital transformation. But is this something retail organizations recognize? Is there enough focus on accounts payable transformation? And what are the markers of success?
To answer these questions, we ran a study in partnership with IDG, here are some key takeaways:
- 35 percent of retailers claim they are undergoing digital transformation, 36 percent claim they have completed their transformation projects.
- By far the biggest issue is invoice approvals taking too long (71%)
- 71 percent of retailers claim they currently use electronic invoicing, while 53 and 51 percent respectively claim that emailed PDFs and paper-based invoicing are still very much in use.
- 42 percent of retailers chose ‘Automated Data Capture and Extraction (e.g OCR)’, as a transformational tool.
- All retailers undergoing transformation believe their digital transformation projects are already successful and achieving project goals.
Download the survey for more insights into the state of digital transformation in the retail sector.