LeverX stands out as the strategic partner, providing innovative solutions powered by SAP to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and elevate the overall retail experience in the dynamic market. We describe eight challenges that LeverX’s SAP solutions can help you master.
8 Challenges You Still Need To Overcome in Retail
In the ever-evolving landscape of the retail industry, new challenges continuously emerge, demanding strategic solutions. While external factors like fierce competition, customer loyalty, and product returns persist in shaping the retail landscape, it's crucial to recognize and address internal challenges within the intricate workings of a business. LeverX stands out as the strategic partner, providing innovative solutions powered by SAP to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and elevate the overall retail experience in the dynamic market. Here, we describe eight challenges that LeverX’s SAP solutions can help you master:
- Order processing acceleration and client service improvement
- Monitoring level improvement
- Support of various sales scenarios
- IFRS and local tax and managerial accounting in a single system
- Consumers choosing multichannel buying experiences
- Expectation of a seamless experience
- Need for an outstanding customer experience to attract loyalty
- Challenges with siloed marketing infrastructure
1. Order Processing Acceleration and Client Service Improvement
The efficiency of order processing and the timely delivery of goods directly correlate with the level of client service in retail. Despite the abundance of innovative technologies, challenges persist within these business lines, including manual work, outdated stock data, and human errors.
How SAP can help
LeverX introduces a transformative solution with SAP S/4HANA Retail for merchandise management. This system with real-time balance calculation offers compelling benefits:
- 5-10% fewer markdowns: The solution enables efficient season management and optimized ordering, particularly beneficial for retailers specializing in seasonal goods.
- 3-5% fewer stockouts: By reducing financial losses related to delayed delivery of seasonal goods, the solution minimizes stockouts. Additionally, it cuts total supply chain planning costs by 10-20%.
- 10-15% lower inventory costs: LeverX addresses the prevalent issue of disparate inventory data by consolidating it into one place. This approach provides greater inventory accuracy by 30-40%.
2. Monitoring Level Improvement
The retail industry is fast-changing, and delayed responses to emerging market situations can result in severe losses. Challenges such as low control over sales order execution, complex stock balancing, and suboptimal goods stocking throughout the supply chain hinder prompt and informed decision-making.
How SAP can help
In collaboration with SAP S/4HANA Retail for merchandise management, LeverX provides comprehensive supply chain transparency from the first mile to the last. The solution includes:
- Comprehensive supply chain planning: Covering planning to execution, ensuring prompt responses to emerging market situations.
- Inventory management: Efficient management of inventory levels to prevent stockouts and ensure a steady supply of goods.
- Warehouse and transportation management: Streamlining processes in warehouse and transportation management for overall operational efficiency.
- Retail logistics and track and trace capabilities: Enhancing visibility across the entire supply chain through comprehensive logistics and tracking capabilities.
3. Support of Various Sales Scenarios
The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the retail landscape, introducing new sales scenarios. Retailers must ensure their systems are adaptable to simultaneous sales under various scenarios. SAP S/4HANA Retail for merchandise management addresses this challenge by meeting rising customer expectations, regardless of the interaction scenario.
How SAP can help
This solution provides:
- Frictionless and consistent experience: Ensuring a seamless experience across all channels.
- Real-time customer and inventory data: Equipping retailers with the required data for informed decisions.
- Implementation of mobile POS and self-checkouts: Staying ahead with cutting-edge technologies.
- Support for innovative store technologies and digital storefronts: Enabling the implementation of innovative technologies and digital storefronts.
- New E-commerce opportunities: Opening avenues for retailers to explore new E-commerce opportunities.
4. IFRS and Local Tax and Managerial Accounting in a Single System
Aligning business processes, including accounting and finance, becomes increasingly challenging for competitive businesses. Implementing additional rules, group operations, and reconciliation in a single system is a complex task.
How SAP can help
LeverX, with SAP S/4HANA Cloud for finance, offers a solution that combines various aspects within a single system:
- Real-time financial transactions: Recording financial transactions in real-time for up-to-date insights.
- Automated accounting process: Streamlining the accounting process, including revenue and expense recognition.
- Coordination of closing processes: Facilitating seamless coordination of closing processes across multiple branches.
- Improved compliance and transparency: Enhancing compliance with legal requirements and promoting transparency by consolidating actuals, plans, and predictive data into a unified general ledger.
5. Consumers Choosing Multichannel Buying Experiences
In the ever-evolving retail scene, consumers seamlessly navigate between virtual and physical shopping realms. This dilemma confronts retailers, compelling them to establish a unified customer experience across a spectrum of channels.
How SAP can help
LeverX, through the SAP Customer Experience suite, addresses this challenge, specifically with SAP Commerce Cloud. This enables retailers to:
- Unify the shopping experience across channels: Providing a seamless transition between online and offline interactions.
- Gain insights into customer preferences: Empowering retailers with real-time data and analytics to understand customer preferences.
- Optimize inventory management: Ensuring a unified and cohesive experience for customers, fostering loyalty.
6. Expectation of a Seamless Experience
Presently, customers demand a flawless transition when moving between online transactions and in-person buys. The complexity emerges in upholding a uniform and adaptable customer journey across a myriad of interaction points.
How SAP can help
SAP S/4HANA Retail for merchandise management addresses this challenge by centralizing customer data. This solution ensures that customer profiles are easily accessible across channels, allowing retailers to treat each customer consistently, whether they shop online or in-store. Additionally, SAP's Loyalty Management solution enhances the customer experience by implementing loyalty programs that collect relevant data, contributing to a fluid customer journey and promoting brand loyalty.
7. Need for an Outstanding Customer Experience to Attract Loyalty
The need for an outstanding customer experience is critical for securing brand loyalty. With customer experience being a significant factor, retailers face the challenge of creating personalized and engaging interactions.
How SAP can help
LeverX addresses this challenge with SAP Marketing Cloud, which provides tools for personalization and customer engagement.
- Leveraging customer data, retailers can tailor promotions and offers through personalized content and recommendations.
- SAP Marketing Cloud allows businesses to deliver targeted messages across preferred channels, enhancing the overall customer experience.
- Personalization fosters a connection between the customer and the brand, increasing the likelihood of repeat visits and building long-term loyalty.
8. Challenges with Siloed Marketing Infrastructure
The challenge of siloed marketing infrastructure arises when marketing efforts across various channels lead to fragmented customer data.
How SAP can help
SAP Customer Data addresses this challenge by unifying customer data from different channels. This platform ensures a cohesive marketing approach by providing marketers with a single, comprehensive view of customer information. SAP Customer Data streamlines communication, enhances marketing effectiveness, and prevents customer confusion, promoting a more unified and efficient marketing strategy.
Our Cases
TOP Software Developers 2023
The LeverX project helped to improve customer interactions and sales processes by creating a global E-commerce platform based on Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) and SAP Hybris Commerce.
The result?
- Robust E-commerce platform with tailored product catalogs
- Refined demand forecasting
- Data silos eliminated
- Streamlined data collection and processing
- Cost-effective data aggregation and visualization
- Customer experience improvement
TOP Systems Integration Company 2023
We helped our customer increase profits from product sales by customizing SAP solutions. The stock balance and all merchandising processes are now presented on timely reports and convenient dashboards.
The result?
- Tailored adjustments to the existing SAP solutions
- Distribution processes optimization
- Effective personnel evaluation processes and training
- Advanced batch tracking features
- Calculation of the stock balance volumes
The Bottom Line
With over 20 years of close collaboration with SAP, the LeverX team possesses deep expertise in SAP products for all retail sectors. LeverX offers the full cycle of development and integration services, joining projects at any stage, from design to implementation and support. To overcome your business challenges and navigate the future of retail, partner with LeverX — your reliable and innovative ally in the ever-changing retail landscape. Fill out the form below, and our experts will contact you to discuss your project. Embrace the future with LeverX and SAP!
