AWS and Infosys Empower Smart Stores Transformation

It’s not the end of the physical store

The retail industry worldwide has been in the throes of change for a decade as shoppers’ expectations and behaviors evolve dramatically. The pandemic upended previously cherished notions and accelerated the rise of online shopping. Many younger shoppers with high digital awareness now dot the landscape. Yet, paradoxically, this does not spell the end of the physical store—physical stores still account for almost 80% of retail sales.

Physical stores allow customers to see and touch products, enjoy personalized services, experience brands, and encourage social interactions. As such, some retailers have refactored physical stores in their business strategy to thrive in this newer, more uncertain environment. For example, IKEA is opening multiple new city center stores, and online players are expanding into brick-and-mortar stores to capitalize on this trend.

No wonder the retail landscape is undergoing a transformation to integrate physical and digital channels and boost customer experience to drive business growth. The siloed models of the past are no longer relevant. Omnichannel strategies are gradually sweeping through the retail world to provide a consistent and seamless experience that consumers expect. Forrester says that 70% of future retail sales will likely be “digitally influenced.” The results are there to show—omnichannel customers shop 1.7 times more than those who use only one channel. So, that’s why retailers in the US announced approximately twice as many store openings as store closings in 2021.

AWS and Infosys can help unlock Smart Stores

The emergence of Smart Store Solutions, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), presents a compelling solution for retailers looking to thrive in the future retail landscape. Smart Store Solutions serve as the next generation of physical retail innovations that leverage cloud-based technology to improve the in-store experience for both customers and retailers. In collaboration with AWS, Infosys, a global leader in next generation digital services, helps retailers to unlock the full potential of transforming their physical stores.

By embracing a Smart Store strategy, and with Infosys’s long-standing expertise in the industry, retailers can harness the power of cutting-edge technologies and data-driven insights to enhance operational performance and drive business growth. As one of our more tenured and experienced AWS Partners, Infosys plays a vital role in enabling retailers to leverage the capabilities of AWS to unlock the potential of Smart Stores, ultimately paving the way for sustained success in the retail industry.

As highlighted in our recent blog and ebook, Harness the Power of Smart Stores, AWS Smart Stores rest on three pillars:

Digital in the store
Empowering In-store operations
Frictionless checkout

AWS and Infosys can offer solutions to power these pillars. These solutions help retailers:

Align operations and customer initiatives
Create a differentiated, tech-enabled in-store strategy
Increase efficiencies
Improve financials
Gain a competitive advantage

Let’s look at how AWS and Retail Competency Partner Infosys can support retailers on their Smart Store journey through their various retail-focused offerings.

Digital in the Store

Infosys’s Equinox solution provides a human-centric digital commerce and marketing platform that supports rich, hyper-personalized experiences for B2B and B2C buyers across any channel and touchpoint. Future-ready and flexible, Infosys Equinox is a MACH-X solution (microservices, API-first, cloud-native, headless—extensible, built on open-source technologies)

Figure 1 – Infosys Equinox, a headless, human-centric, cloud-native digital commerce and marketing platform

Empowering in-store Operations

Infosys Intelligent Store Cockpit for Store Managers enables unified, insights-based decision-making across inventory, customer orders, labor and the back office. Predictive analytics prevent store disruptions, and smart back-office operations minimize data discrepancies.

Energy management and equipment monitoring are two more operational areas where Smart Stores lead the way. Infosys EcoWatch is an intuitive and easy to use cloud platform. It addresses functionality across sustainability planning, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting, performance management, analytics, and dashboards, reporting and disclosures, and stakeholder management. EcoWatch is a technology enabler which facilitates enterprises to measure, manage and report sustainability compliance towards future proof business outcomes.

Figure 2 – Infosys EcoWatch Platform

Frictionless Checkout

Infosys Extended Store provides an in-store, mobile customer checkout experience that runs on AWS. This cloud-based application blends the convenience and speed of online shopping with the in-store experience customers enjoy. Customers can visit a store and use their smartphone to scan items to view pricing and active promotions, receive recommendations on items based on browsing and shopping behavior. They can also pay from their phones, allowing customers to interact with store associates at their discretion. Extended Store is a frictionless shopping experience platform that can be used by any retailer, blending in-store with an online experience.

Figure 3 – Infosys Extended Store Enhances the customer experience by enabling self-service and contactless checkout

The Infosys XR Visualization Platform from Infosys Metaverse Foundry is a cloud-native omni-channel solution that allows 3D visualization of assets with a range of capabilities from designing showrooms to enabling virtual try-on technologies on ecommerce sites.

Infosys Autonomous System Platform STALLY (Store Ally) for store navigation: An autonomous, cost-effective, versatile, and scalable platform for optimized retail applications. STALLY provides multi-modal in-store assistance to help customers in finding product locations and with in-store navigation. It covers digitizing store maps and planograms, and a mobile app to search for placement of a product or list of products in a shopping list. It also has an autonomous cart capable of planning optimal routes covering all product locations with guiding and self-navigation capabilities.

Computer Vision Driven Tracking: Computer vision powered by store CCTV cameras enables the retail outlet to identify customers, track their movement and provide contextual assistance based on near real-time need assessment. It also includes capabilities like planogram compliance, traffic analysis and retail shrinkage. Infosys can support retailers in bringing these use cases to life in their physical stores.

Helping Retailers Bring Smart Stores to Life

AWS and Infosys provide game-changing guidance, services and experiences for retailers implementing Smart Stores strategies. Together, we offer a comprehensive portfolio of solutions that enhance customer experience, enable agile response to market changes, and increase operational efficiencies. By leveraging advanced technologies and domain knowledge, retailers can deliver personalized experiences, seamless omnichannel interactions, and tailored offers, driving customer loyalty.

Learn more at aws.amazon.com/retail/ or contact AWS and Infosys Retail today to get started.

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