4 Realities Retailers Face in 2017: Digital Transformation, AI and More

To remain competitive this year and beyond, they'll need to embrace many new realities. Already, retailers are growing more skilled at providing the right customer with the right message -- and offers -- at the right time to generate the best results across sales and distribution channels. Both stores and online shops are growing more empowered with data and a more personalized understanding of customers, gaining better understanding of customer preferences, and better leveraging tools and technologies to become truly customer-centric organizations. And yet, there are still obstacles to address and new paradigms to understand, as these five retail and ecommerce experts attest. "Digitalization is massively changing all businesses in 2017. Retailers, both B2B and B2C, will have to deal with changes in the way their customers buy, communicate and search for information about products. "When organizations think about digitalization, they consider their marketing and sales processes, develop roles, analyze user journeys and optimize web sites.