Bill Deakin , Oracle Vice President and Consumer Goods Customer Experience Evangelist , and Xavier Chabanne , Customer Experience Sales Director EMEA Region , discuss the emergence of Perfect Store for consumer goods and the need for consumer-centric business transformation .

Bill Deakin Vice President , Consumer Goods Customer Experience Evangelist

Xavier Chabanne Customer Experience Sales Director , EMEA Region

We are living in a fast-changing World , What are the most disruptive global forces ? how , when and why consumers shop and buy is dramatically changing across the globe . as a result , both consumer goods companies and retailers are rapidly evolving their business models to meet the modern consumer where he or she is and deliver a personalized , seamless consumer journey across all of the brand ’ s owned and influenced touchpoints .

What does that mean When you go to market through retailers ? at oracle , we believe that the point of sale is now at the moment of inspiration , well beyond the physical locations of traditional retail . this means brands and retailers have a bigger customer experience ( cX ) challenge than ever before , but it also provides unique opportunity for brands to be more involved in their consumer ’ s journey by being more aware and more prepared to engage and serve the consumer as they move through their day at home , online , and in-store .

the challenge goes beyond engaging directly with the consumer , though . true and impactful consumer reach occurs at the intersection of digital and physical ; which means that we need a simultaneous transformation in traditionally business-to-business oriented processes . We ’ re seeing leaders in this space orient these changes around the concept of “ perfect store ”: planning consumer-centrically to drive the right assortment and programs for the shoppers of the given stores , bringing forward the right insights to help drive the business at a store-level , and targeting sales resources wisely to deliver and respond to those insights .

hoW do you maXimize retailer engagement in regulated markets ? We see increasing your value as a partner – providing better insights , more accurate planning , more effective execution – as the key to maximizing retailer engagement in all cases . this is most especially true in regulated markets , where your customer is the primary face to your consumers and your own consumer interactions are by necessity limited .

Oracle ’ s Perfect Store model focuses on flexibility to meet the driving needs of different channels , product categories , and markets . crafting these goals collaboratively with the retailer enhances commitment on both sides to achieve them .

self-service is another key tool to increasing value , especially with smaller retailers . they ’ re often working round-the-clock , and need place orders , grab digital content , and approve promotions when they have the time – not when your sales representative is in front of them . We can help consumer goods companies provide these core services , as well as key insights and even customer loyalty awards and incentives to improve their standing as a valuable ( and valued ) business partner .

What innovations Will create the most value going forWard ? We ’ re delighted to have worked with the industry ’ s leading companies for decades , across a wide variety of critical industry issues , and we expect that continued partnership in innovation will be the fuel for sustainable success .

it is no surprise that improved data and insights innovations are driving significant change in the industry . More interesting is that we see it driving not just unctional change but true business process change and significant business value : the evolution of consumercentric planning , the drive to connect digital and physical , the introduction of rich collaborative platforms , and the everincreasing targeting and intelligence of in-store execution actions .

ultimately , this new age of consumer-centricity is only possible due to a vital pair of innovations : 1 ) the maturation of data aggregation and mining to harness the wealth of 1st , 2nd , and 3rd party data available to consumer goods companies plus 2 ) the new capabilities of machine learning to render meaning from massive data crunching . together these two innovations power oracle ’ s adaptive intelligence solutions , applying our massive computing power and rich intellectual capital to simply bring back to each user the right insights to drive optimal decision making .

What is oracle ’ s “ secret sauce ” in all this ? enabling a “ perfect store ” standard in every store is a key innovation we are driving for consumer goods . driving real-time and adaptive insights in the hands of those that are in the best position to use them to their best advantage is a singular innovation that unlocks value for brands and their retailers .

oracle cX for consumer goods transforms the end to end journeys for both customer and consumer . the breadth and depth of our cX offering is unmatched , and we ’ ve combined that portfolio with our deep industry expertise to deliver optimized process solutions specific to Consumer Goods .

the future is still unfolding , and both technological and human innovations will continue to change its shape in ways we can ’ t even imagine today . building our industry solutions on our rich oracle cX cloud platform reduces it complexity while providing our customers with full flexibility to accelerate their own innovation into tomorrow . We continue to heavily invest in and create thought leading technologies to aid in their evolutions as well as our own - innovations like iot , big data , virtual assistance , and ai . and of course , we are looking at all of this through the lens of industry - industry needs , industry process , industry solutions .

ultimately , there are many pieces and parts to each consumer goods company ’ s journey . the magic is in not just understanding the elements , but bringing them together to support that ultimate goal of perfect store at scale – perfect store , every store .

100 of the Top 100 Consumer Goods Companies Run Oracle for further information please visit oracle . com / cx