The amalgamation of in-store and online shopping has led to changed expectations of customers towards the services retailers have to provide. To respond adequately to the needs of the customer, requiring a continuous re-evaluation of processes and underlying IT architectures.
Solidsoft Reply supported a major grocery retailer in the UK to integrate their Point of Sale Cash Register solution with their back-end Data Warehouse. The goal of this project was to move beyond the day-to-day view, to identify customer needs more efficiently. In addition, the retailer wanted to integrate data from in-store activities and the customers’ online shopping to achieve a deeper insight into customer demand. In addition to having real time view of stock availability to improve the customer experience in-store and online and to be able to offer additional services such as home delivery.
Technically, the integration of POS solution in stores across the UK, the retailer’s backend systems and connected partners asked for the implementation of a new integration layer.
Solidsoft Reply provided the integration layer, hosted entirely on the Microsoft Azure platform using BizTalk Server (hosted on Azure) to provide a hybrid capability and employing the following integration technologies on Azure
To facilitate the communication between a variety of third parties, Solidsoft Reply provided API apps, enabling third parties to integrate with the retailer’s back end systems in a lightweight, low latency way.
The solution developed by Solidsoft Reply offers a comprehensive, connected and real-time view of stock, delivery and of customer buying habits. This has resulted in offering a home delivery service either online or in-store. This is the foundation to further improve the customer experience and to excel in a highly competitive market such as food retail, through offering outstanding services that add real value for the customer.