New digital sales channels, more intensive customer relationships through improved customer knowledge, and increased efficiency of existing processes are all on the agenda of retail companies. This is why innovative retailers are testing the added value of new features and services such as service bots. As well as enabling tests to be set up quickly, the cloud paves the way for optimizing customer experience in the long term.

Retailers collect various KPIs such as sales figures, product stocks, etc., in a variety of systems. To manage the business however, comprehensive analyses are needed that comprise data from multiple individual systems. A data warehouse in the cloud can consolidate data from various databases (with different formats). On this basis, for instance, sales figures can be recorded by region, product and branch, thereby giving the retailer insights into historic and current figures thereby providing a sound basis for making decisions.
- Consolidate your database for deeper insights
- Retain control of your data
- Use needs-oriented computing resources for your analyses

Providers of innovative services offer an array of new ideas for the digital development of retailers. However, retail innovation hubs must first test these ideas in terms of their practicality and value contribution. To do so, they need cost-effective infrastructure resources that are available at short notice. Public clouds are the perfect solution for test platforms of this kind.
- Set up test scenarios at short notice
- No need to make investments and reserve capacities
- Use infrastructures as an all-in-one service

Retailers are setting up omnichannel strategies to establish themselves in the digital world. Depending on their success, marketing campaigns and sales initiatives can increase the burden on such online shops considerably. The actual load is hard to forecast. Insufficient resources for the shops can cause availability issues, while excessive resources generate unnecessary costs during quiet periods. This is a perfect scenario for the cloud, as it scales automatically with the number of requests.
- Ensure the optimum performance of your online shop at all times
- Provide an excellent customer experience
- Align your IT costs with your business requirements

Stock optimization provides retailers with various options for lowering costs by increasing their supply chain efficiency. Big data analyses serve to synchronize the supply and demand situation, reduce the overall inventory, and lower costs for logistics, warehousing and purchasing.
- Increase the efficiency of your operations
- Lower your costs for the supply process
- Avoid lost sales
