EY announces launch of retail solution that builds on the Microsoft Cloud to help achieve seamless consumer shopping experiences

• Solution provides personalized, omni-channel shopping experience
• Helps implement innovative retail solutions to achieve step change improvements in decision-making support and efficiency
• Enhances customer visibility of product sustainability information

The EY organization has launched a new EY Retail Intelligence solution, that builds on the Microsoft Cloud and Cloud for Retail, to provide consumers with a seamless and straightforward shopping experience, showcased today at the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show” event.  

Modern retail’s challenges

With the increasing shift to digital shopping, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers are exposed to new vulnerabilities that threaten to impact their overall success moving forward. Consumers can now seek the lowest price for desired products across myriad channels, impacting traditional retailers’ ability to make a profit. The EY Retail Intelligence solution helps retailers overcome these challenges and seize opportunities in the modern retail environment.

A multi-channel, customer-oriented sales and service solution

EY Retail Intelligence facilitates the complete customer journey, from initial contact and shopping experience to personalized targeting and evaluation through one solution and one data bank. The solution integrates all customer touchpoints to help buyers resume all activities at any time from an online store, mobile app, physical store or call center. The solution uses Microsoft Cloud and Cloud for Retail with its leading-edge technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), image recognition and analytics to collect data across all channels and turn it into valuable insights.

EY Retail Intelligence enables all channels to access the same data about customers, suppliers, products, finances, and logistics in real time, guaranteeing retailers a complete, 360 degree view. The solution can be easily extended with additional Microsoft Dynamics 365 tools such as Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Service or Dynamics 365 Field Service to integrate social media campaigns or other services.

The solution is built using Microsoft Dataverse and using standard tables from Dataverse enables customers to add other Dynamics 365 solutions to the EY Retail Intelligence solution without migrating data. In addition, the solution can replace parts of an existing system landscape or be set up as an additional layer.

Customer benefits

Other benefits include intelligent customer recommendations – on all platforms – through which the customer is shown the right product recommendations at the right time based on their history and preference. Customers will also be able to facilitate self-checkout; after collecting their items in the store, they can simply pay via the app with no need to queue at the checkout. The solution also provides consumers with details about the sustainability of the products they are buying, catering for a rising demand to access this information. By simply scanning the products with a mobile phone camera, the customer can directly view the sustainability credentials of the product.

Thomas Harms, EY Global Retail Leader, says:

“Businesses are up against increasing challenges. Convenience, speed, and efficiency have become table stakes. Providing seamless shopper experiences along the customer journey at scale is the new differentiator. We are excited to put the EY Retail Intelligence solution to work for retailers to help them close the gaps and provide their customers with personalized experiences.”

Ricardo Enrico Jahn, Head of Microsoft Consulting, EY Germany, says:

“More and more companies are using technologies with no customer-centric touchpoints to push their offerings. As a result, attention is often diverted from the more important issue: the customer’s end-to-end journey. I am thrilled see the EY Retail Intelligence solution being brought to market. Leveraging Microsoft’s leading technologies and combined with EY teams’ services for implementation support, retailers will be able to better understand their customers, provide an exceptional experience and drive sustainable value.”

For further information visit: Retail Intelligence Solution

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