When furniture retailers and technology suppliers were asked which technology has brought the greatest change in recent years, and what is the biggest obstacle faced by retailers in the implementation of technology, their ideas coincided - consumers' digital experience and social media interaction have brought the greatest change. This is also the biggest obstacle to technology implementation, but they are willing to accept change.

Whether it is mobile terminal sales or website platform innovation, or interactive communication with individual consumers through social media and different technical means; Or choose to combine with store operation and adjust technology with the change of consumers; The "main gate" has been put on the Internet more and more. Most women don't put green plants in the living room, Modern luxury Decoration green plants with white background It is both a vase and a decoration. It is placed in the living room, bedroom, study, etc. to show the modern and simple household style and add artistic flavor 。

Successful retailers have realized that consumers and the shopping environment are undergoing tremendous changes. For enterprises, technology investment is crucial to achieve development.

Technology suppliers see that retailers encounter multiple obstacles when implementing new technologies. They find solutions through a positive attitude, full planning and selection of the most suitable store system technology service platform.

Steve Rotman of Rotmans Furniture Co., Ltd. in Worcester, Massachusetts, summarized the technical prospects of the retail industry as follows:

Technology is evolving and changing for retailers. I think as long as we see technology as part of the macro picture, the future will be an exciting world.

Retailer: The biggest change to our business in 2018 is technology

Keith Koenig, Chairman of City Furniture:

The mobile sales platform jointly developed by Apple and IBM is closely related to the further development of the new website platform completed by our digital team. These advanced technologies were introduced in 2018 and are still under continuous improvement.

The further development of our company's mobile sales platform "Improving Sales Performance" (ASAP) has enabled more than 500 of our sales staff to use iPads in stores.

ASAP allows sales staff to easily complete all work with customers and consumers in the store - answer all their questions about product inventory, obtain loan approval, handle business and quickly deliver the furniture ordered.

What's important is that our team has further strengthened this platform through the "My Day" tool, which can prompt calls, follow up the work of sales personnel on that day, and record their work performance on that day. It enables our platform to provide more valuable services to sales partners.

Because of the development of mobile phone sales platform, our partners become more efficient and save time. We have taken away many tables in the exhibition hall that were originally used for negotiation.

In 2018, our digital team also reconstructed the website platform, including the application interface developed for ASAP. With the comprehensive restructuring of our website platform and digital platform, online sales are growing rapidly, which is by far the fastest growth of all our businesses.

Our website and digital platform have become the front-end display platform of City Furniture.

Our team has greatly improved our customers' digital experience and guided them to visit our showroom. The optimization of website and digital experience will lead more customers to the exhibition hall, which will further promote our business growth.

Stefanie Lucas, CEO of Boston Interiors:

For Boston Interior, social media has a great impact on the sales and business of our website. Whether paid or unpaid, the use of social media can help us deliver content to customers, so that we can no longer just talk about our brand through stiff advertising, but have meaningful conversations and share product information.

Because so many customers already use social media, this kind of connection is crucial for us. We have an internal team dedicated to creating content on social media other than paid advertising.

Consumer oriented marketing is fundamentally changing. Now we can refine consumer needs from the product level through online efforts.

Through search and social media, we can respond to customers' needs more quickly than ever before and pass on relevant information to them.

For example, if a customer is searching for a table on the Internet, we can provide information about the table specifically to make it easier for customers to find what they want.

I think the media is the main reason for the change of people's shopping style, so the way we "talk" and contact with people must also be changed accordingly.

President and CEO of Rotmans Furniture:

In terms of operating Rotmans, we decided to use NetSuite, a cloud ERP management platform. When using NetSuite, our company's transportation system, website system, telephone system, sales system and network security system are all associated with this platform.

The idea that stores use independent technology will make it difficult to integrate various systems. Choosing the right technology is critical to ensure that operators using this technology can handle all areas and categories in the store.

For our company, NetSuite can centralize all systems. Because it is stored in the cloud, staff can also access it at home. Finally, many of our ongoing projects can be completed outside the physical store.

Without integration, technology will become a burden. The CEO must regard these independent technologies as part of the overall puzzle of the store, but not as the final result.

Therefore, before starting the technical investigation of sales, marketing, credit, front-end and customer service projects, we must first consider the technology of warehousing and logistics. We must regard it as a part of the whole, so that we will not focus too much on single technology and ignore the overall situation.

In addition, retailers need to choose technology companies that can make corresponding adjustments to obtain more functions as consumers use and demand technology.

For example, all technologies may be integrated into the vehicle the consumer is driving. When the consumer asks "Which stores are there within two kilometers?", the intelligent navigation will list a list of stores.

As a retailer, if you want your store to appear on this list, you must ensure that the technology you choose can cope with it.

When the right system is selected and integrated into all operations in the store, the value of technology will be multiplied. The real value of technology does not lie in the price, but in the degree of integration with the store system.

Brian Woods, CEO of Jerome's Furniture:

In 2018, the capital and resources invested in the website had a great impact on our business.

Most consumers conduct pre purchase surveys online. In the past, consumers would visit four or five stores to check products and compare prices. But now, consumer surveys are mainly conducted online, which leads to fewer and fewer store visitors.

The upgrading of technology mainly focuses on online experience: creative elements, web functions, product descriptions and attributes, and our brand value proposition.

Technology supplier: the biggest obstacle for retailers to implement new technologies

Donnie Surdoval, Product Manager of Storis:

In the past few years, retailers have realized that they need technology to sustain business success. This is to manage operations and improve the consumer experience. Even if we accept this fact, the biggest obstacle is to manage and accept change.

In the case of Storis, we know that our technology has been verified in this industry. From the perspective of retailers, we know that they understand how to sell furniture efficiently. What we want to achieve is how to successfully integrate these two worlds.

Technology transformation is not just about buying new systems. Retailers need to embrace change with an attitude of embracing change, involve the executive team, and motivate the team to become a whole.

Team members should be energetic in their work, so as to better serve consumers.

Storis specializes in helping retailers develop project plans, understand industry best practices, and conduct systematic training. We are also adapting to the unique competitive advantages of different retailers.

Retailers who understand their competitive advantages are willing to adjust their processes to achieve better results and achieve the best return on technology investment.

Laura Khoury, CEO of Shoptelligence style discovery platform:

The biggest obstacle faced by retailers is the risk of adopting new solutions, which requires training employees, investing important resources, and taking time to achieve, but the results may not be successful.

It is very challenging to integrate with the original system, which often involves expanding the investment of limited resources. Therefore, the new technology is simple and easy to use, and moderate price is the most important. Secondly, new technologies should be able to help, achieve long-term success and increase sales.

Retailers can overcome these obstacles by using API services, so that they can integrate their favorite services into their unique user experience, shorten the time to go online, and reduce the resources required for implementation.

For example, as the integrated multi-channel strategy becomes more and more important to retailers, they must invest in technologies that can increase online and offline synergy to promote the improvement of multi-channel traffic and increase sales.

In addition, in the era of personalization, understanding consumers' buying motives is the first step. With the progress of machine learning, companies can finally predict consumers' intentions, rather than just chasing them.

Through machine learning solutions, retailers can constantly gain insight into what is effective and what is ineffective, and make timely adjustments. This is no longer a process of trial and error correction, but a process of learning and practice.

Scott Hill, co-founder of online shopping guide software Perq:

When retailers implement new technologies, the biggest challenge is to maximize the value within the existing system. I often see retailers trying to integrate new solutions into existing systems, and see that they spend a lot of time and money on system maintenance, but cannot successfully implement it.

The technique is no longer a simple equation 1+1=2. On the contrary, when new technologies are added, the final result should be to add value and achieve 1+1=3. The obstacles usually come from traditional technology companies, which operate closed systems that do not allow third-party integration.

The best way to avoid this pain is to choose platform providers that support open systems. Unfortunately, many retailers are still using traditional technologies, which limits their ability to integrate new solutions. However, new solutions are indispensable to their competition in today's market.

For those retailers, the best solution is to replace the old system with an open platform. Although there will be some short-term pain, it can enable them to build a technology ecosystem that can not only work together, but also deliver good results.

Beck Besecker, CEO of Marxent, 3D visualization platform:

Most companies do not have a dedicated team to deal with the new user experience, so they need to find partners that can cooperate. To help them make meaningful investments and improve the return on investment.

Richard Sexton, Product Director of MicroD Network Technology Suppliers:

The biggest difficulty faced by retailers is to manage expectations. It usually takes longer than expected to cooperate with new technology suppliers or achieve goals, because unexpected problems will be encountered during the startup process.

New technologies usually face a lot of challenges, such as ERP, CRM or POS system integration, data management and control, multivariate statistics, user education, dashboard creation and analysis (just to mention a few). This is a daunting process, and challenges still exist after the launch.

Of course, some technologies are easy to implement and face few challenges, such as web oriented applications (such as chat robots) serving the third aspect of a specific purpose.

All these factors must be taken into account when creating a timetable that involves realistic expectations of all relevant stakeholders.