{"id":2909,"date":"2021-06-10T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/innovation\/blog\/ms-industry\/explore-the-new-wave-of-cloud-innovation-at-nrf-retail-converge\/"},"modified":"2021-06-10T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T13:00:00","slug":"explore-the-new-wave-of-cloud-innovation-at-nrf-retail-converge","status":"publish","type":"ms-industry","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/microsoft-cloud\/blog\/retail-and-consumer-goods\/2021\/06\/10\/explore-the-new-wave-of-cloud-innovation-at-nrf-retail-converge\/","title":{"rendered":"Explore the new wave of cloud innovation at NRF Retail Converge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"108075_MS_NRF_Cloud4Retail-BLOG_4000x2000-1\"<\/p>\n

It is hard to believe summer is already here and I\u2019m preparing for my BIG Ideas session<\/a> at the upcoming virtual NRF Retail Converge event. Honestly, I can\u2019t wait to talk more about \u2018retail\u2019s new clock speed\u2019 and how we\u2019re helping retailers unlock a new wave of cloud innovation. Although retail leaders continue to refine their \u2018retail playbook\u2019 they\u2019re increasingly asking, \u201chow can we go faster?\u201d<\/em> And there\u2019s five key areas where they\u2019re looking to\u00a0<\/span>do that<\/span>:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Employee wellbeing<\/strong>\u2014how is everybody doing?<\/li>\n
  2. Personalized shopping experiences<\/strong>\u2014who took my cookies?<\/li>\n
  3. Sustainability<\/strong>\u2014what\u2019s our plan? Or if we have one already, how do we execute it?<\/li>\n
  4. Innovation<\/strong>\u2014what can we learn: from East to West?<\/li>\n
  5. The future of our business<\/strong>\u2014\u00a0how much industry convergence and new ecosystems are we going to see?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Beyond\u00a0<\/span>looking<\/span>\u00a0at all five of the above<\/span>\u00a0some more<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>I\u2019<\/span>ll\u00a0<\/span>also\u00a0<\/span>be\u00a0<\/span>sharing<\/span>\u00a0details on\u00a0<\/span>our\u00a0<\/span>amazing\u00a0<\/span>industry cloud\u00a0<\/span>Microsoft Cloud for Retail<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>And hosting<\/span>\u00a0a short<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>fireside chat with\u00a0<\/span>two\u00a0<\/span>incredible\u00a0<\/span>CEOs \u2013\u00a0<\/span>Navjit<\/span>\u00a0Bhasin, CEO,\u00a0<\/span>Newmine<\/span>\u00a0and Tom Ripley, CEO,\u00a0<\/span>Lids\u2014<\/span>who talk about\u00a0<\/span>how they\u2019re embracing\u00a0<\/span>our<\/span>\u00a0cloud\u00a0<\/span>to move fast today and\u00a0<\/span>future-proof<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>beyond 2021.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    The industry is talking: Microsoft Cloud for Retail<\/h3>\n

    Back in January at NRF, we announced Microsoft Cloud for Retail<\/a>. Our vision: to deliver seamless experiences across the entire shopper journey. Since then, we\u2019ve been hearing great feedback. Customers have been kicking the tires and loving what they see. Partners have also been joining the fun, testing their solutions with Microsoft Cloud for Retail. What\u2019s more \u201ccustomer zero\u201d, our very own Microsoft Store<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>team has launched and is showcasing Microsoft Cloud for Retail features and capabilities that are helping influence our future product roadmap. And with all this great feedback, our engineering team is hard at work to keep improving the product and bring new capabilities to market.<\/p>\n

    Announcing even more new capabilities<\/h3>\n

    I\u2019m excited to announce we have some additional new features being released this month as part of Microsoft Cloud for Retail public preview.<\/p>\n

    First, Intelligent Recommendations<\/strong> is releasing in general availability next month. An incredible 76 percent of consumers say they are willing to buy more from brands who deliver personalized products, value, or services. Intelligent Recommendations enables retailers to deliver a shopping experience that provides relevant, context-driven discovery, and personalization. Intelligent recommendations can help uniquely tailor experiences and increase conversion by helping customers find more of what they want, where and when it is needed, both using historical information, as well as real-time signals.<\/p>\n

    Intelligent Recommendations comes with several patented capabilities, such as \u201cShop similar looks\u201d and \u201cShop by description\u201d that expands the relevant possibilities and further elevates shopper experiences for retailers, while making the integration and onboarding simple, very composable, and extensible. Using the Intelligent Recommendations simple APIs, schema and some sample code, retailers can get plugged into a state-of-the-art recommendations service started and finished within a matter of days or weeks. And for more advanced analytics tasks they can seamlessly bring Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Apps data to our unified analytics service using Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Second, we are releasing Dynamics 365 Commerce and Power Virtual Agents Integration<\/strong> ready for public preview. This new integration allows retailers to improve customer engagement, enable continuous support and deliver proactive customer interactions. Retailers will be able to streamline engagement across commerce channels and customer service tools to gain better understanding of customer interactions for both insights and ongoing improvement of the customer experience.<\/p>\n

    Third, I am thrilled to share the great partner progress we are seeing with Blue Yonder and Zebra\u2019s Reflexis Shifts connectors, which are starting private customer previews next month. These strategic partnerships with retail\u2019s leading digital supply chain and workforce<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>management providers will simplify access to scheduling and time and attendance\u00a0<\/span>capabilities<\/span>\u202f<\/span>through a new connector<\/span>.<\/span><\/span> This connector<\/span>\u00a0will surface information into Shifts in Teams<\/span>\u00a0so that employees\u00a0<\/span>are empowered to manage their schedules<\/span>\u00a0directly<\/span>\u00a0without having to switch apps<\/span>.<\/span><\/span> For example, Blue Yonder\u2019s connection to Shifts enables the Marks & Spencer associates to see and swap shifts, review their schedule and make changes as needed, leveraging the richness of Blue Yonder\u2019s solution in the back end while combining all its employee solutions in one place.<\/p>\n

    And we\u2019re seeing incredible momentum with Teams.\u00a0Year over year, Teams daily active users in retail grew more than 280 percent to support their accelerated digital transformation in response to the pandemic. Frontline workers have increased their reliance on the Teams mobile app to perform their jobs.\u00a0I learned early in my\u00a0own retail\u00a0career\u00a0that\u00a0every good or bad decision we make in retail shows up in the store somewhere.\u00a0Nothing has been more inspiring than the work we\u2019ve been doing to empower the industry\u2019s frontline workers. With Microsoft\u00a0Teams<\/a> we bring information and frontline workers together on the same platform to be able to innovate quickly. Just take REI who launched a new virtual outfitting service to help customers assemble bikes, find the right hiking boots, and gear up for camping trip. Frontline associates have emerged as true heroes in the past 18 months. We are focused on enabling them to be recognized with Praise, giving them flexibility with Shift management and empowerment with Task management as well as democratizing access to learning to give everyone the chance to thrive and grow.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s not all though<\/span>\u00a0on the Microsoft Cloud for Retail front<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>Our incredible\u00a0<\/span>ecosystem\u00a0<\/span>of industry\u00a0<\/span>partner<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>is<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>building\u00a0<\/span>out\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>extended<\/span>\u00a0value of\u00a0<\/span>Microsoft Cloud for Retail<\/span> with additional solutions to address the most pressing challenges the industry is facing today.<\/span>\u00a0Many of our leading partners are\u00a0<\/span>working with<\/span>\u00a0public preview<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>now, check out the progress<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"diagram\"<\/p>\n

    Customer zero: Microsoft Store<\/h3>\n

    Since opening its doors in 2009, Microsoft Store has been a showcase for Microsoft technology, launching new products, and growing existing ones. Today, Microsoft Store is benefiting from Microsoft Cloud for Retail across its business. Microsoft Store is<\/span>\u00a0transition<\/span>ing<\/span>\u00a0its web platform to Dynamics 365 Commerce and Adobe\u2019s Experience Manager.<\/span><\/span> Today, the platform is live in Singapore and will shortly launch in the U.S., followed by more markets over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

    \u201cRunning Microsoft Store on Dynamics 365 Commerce not only simplifies the operational back-end processes through automation and significant reduction in the number of web management tools but provides the opportunity to improve and introduce new customer experiences with more speed and flexibility\u201d, says Tuula Rytila, CVP Microsoft Digital Stores.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    They\u2019re also leveraging capabilities from Dynamics 365 Customer Service Hub, Microsoft Teams, and Power Platform, to digitally serve thousands of customers through 1:1 appointments with Personal Shopping, Business Consultations, and Personal Setup. Coupled with digital events enabled through Dynamics 365 Marketing Event Management and Teams Live Events that have hosted millions of attendees, customer reach has never been greater, all while achieving high customer satisfaction.<\/p>\n

    Behind all these new experiences are a diverse workforce of Microsoft Store associates leveraging Microsoft Teams as their primary interface for engaging in operations and collaboration. Teams is streamlining communication, adding clarity, saving time, and improving the culture. Through Teams Shifts, associates can view their day-to-day work schedule through a single screen. Teams Templates enables replication of Teams with the same Channels and Tabs across a variety of organizing structures. Teams Praise is also used every day by associates to give kudos and celebrate wins. In the next year, associates will also be able to track their daily activities and update their work schedule through Team Tasks and Shifts and access a single catalog of learning opportunities through Viva Learning in Teams<\/a>, enabling them to succeed in a digital-first environment.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe are energized about the opportunity to innovate in how we engage with all customers, optimize our talent for greatest impact, and most importantly \u2013 help our valued customers achieve more,\u201d says David Porter, CVP of Microsoft Store.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    What\u2019s next?<\/h3>\n

    Here\u2019s the four things I encourage you to do as we continue the journey to Microsoft Cloud for Retail together:<\/p>\n