Retail It Systems Architecture

Retail It Systems Architecture. A strategic approach to retail systems architecture Many retailers of scale have at least one ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution covering key back office functionality and often a wider footprint supporting for example merchandise planning merchandise management and supply chain functions such as demand forecasting and warehouse management.

IntroductionRetail Trends and ChallengesThe Business of RetailApplication Landscape of RetailTechnical Architecture For RetailReference Software Architecture For RetailKey TakeawaysThis article presents a retail business architecture and a technical reference architecture suited for large medium retail chains as well as adaptable to smaller retailers The architectures are based on an analysis of the projected retail landscape influenced by changing customer behaviors evolving stores omnichannel experiences and demands for sameday delivery of consumers With the light of market knowledge we identify the retail enterprise’s business objectives towards transformation and present it as business architecture along with an existing application landscape In the discussion we articulate the key technology success factors for making this business architecture a reality Thereafter we propose a retail reference architecture that is useful to transform the retail business to a futureproof business through digital transformation Irrespective of whether you are a large retail chain like Walmart The Home Depot Walgreens Marks & Spencer Carrefour a mediumchain or a momandpop retail store in the locality all retailers are equally challenged by shifts in consumer behavior growth of personal computing devices developments in technology and other changes in the past few decades As new technologies grow we explore the impacts of these shifts on the retail industry to identify how a retailer needs to transform its business 31 Business Architecture for Retail Each retail enterprise is different from a business perspective in the simplest instance Walmart competes in the market on the lowest price strategy and appeals to mass markets The rest of the business’ strategic and tactical initiatives teams and operations are organized to generate this value across all activities in the value chain Of course today’s retail enterprises are a step ahead and have business systems in places like pointofsale systems inventory systems sourcing and hu Figure 4 depicts one of the possible application landscapes for a typical large/ medium retail chain To make this retail store possible different retail components like pointofsale systems inventory management warehousing sourcing and instore devices have to work together However it is not currently designed to achieve the business architecture or objectives set out in section 31 above as there are several challenges For instance the systems may have been acquired at different points in time and may not be connected to achieve the desired objectives The common problem with these types of application architectures is that systems are from various vendors that adopt heterogeneous technologies and standards Retailers must connect them to solve certain challenges like offering seamless omnichannel experiences and opening up new online revenue options Sometimes the applications are designed to work in isolation and it results in data silos The underlying connective te The value of digital connectivity has become more and more evident in modern times with a lot of people using their mobile phones tabs and computers to do absolutely everything possible through that medium Retail shopping is one of the most popular applications of digital connectivity With the Covid19 pandemic which started late 2019/early 2020 and caused 70% of the world population to be in lockdown status for weeks if not months this digital connectivity is becoming far more critical to carry out the daily activities Technology has come to the forefront to rescue mankind from extinction and help millions of people to survive at this trying time But the retail industry has been utilizing the technology for a considerable amount of time and the companies who were ahead of the curve in terms of technology utilization were the first to respond to the current situation successfully As we have seen in the previous section under the business architecture it is evident that reta The technical architecture presented in the previous section is designed in such a way that it can be implemented with a variety of software vendors available in the market Let’s select a few vendors in the market and design a reference software architecture so that readers of this article can correlate each product into their respective counterparts more clearly Opensource technology vendors provide the flexibility and the freedom to design and implement this sort of architecture without much trouble The above figure depicts a reference software architecture implemented using opensource software products These products were selected based on their capabilities and the flexibility they possess through their open source licensing model Here are the main components used in the above figure 1 WSO2 API Manager as API Gateway Developer portal and Analytics — This is an opensource API management solution that provides capabilities for full API lifecycle management along with s For Large and Medium Retail Chains The retail industry is on the rise like never before If you are a large or a mediumsized retail chain there are many small retail chains gaining momentum in their localities and pose a challenge to your global business To tackle this challenge you need to innovate faster and go towards the consumer rather than expecting consumers to reach you Technology takes you to places where you couldn’t reach before The consumers can automate their ordering of retail items so that they never need For Retail Technology Solution Providers Retail business is one of the most innovative and technologycentric businesses at the moment The brickandmortar stores are long gone and retailers like Amazon Walmart have made the shopping experience so simple that you just have to press a button to refill your essential items But the reality is that there are a large number of mediumsized retailers who are yet to concur with the technology landscape and build effective retail businesses to compete with megaretailers As technology s For Small Retailers MomAndPop Stores and Similar Businesses Technology is the weapon that large and mediumsized retailers use to ditch the small retail chains More often than not small retailers choose the options of unique products localized packaging and easy access to name a few as their competitive advantage over these competitors But these factors are no longer true and small retailers need to think about utilizing the technology in a broader sense and beat these large players with the technology itself As we mentioned before technology a Author Chanaka Fernando.

Retail IT Architecture IT Application Systems in Retail

IoT based Smart Retail System Architecture This page describes IoT based Smart Retail System Architecture for businesses It mentions benefits or advantages of IoT based Smart Retail System Introduction IoT (Internet Of Things) based sensors cloud storage servers and data analytics tools have made it easier to develop smart retail outlets The system helps in building smarter retail infrastructure and customer relationships.

IoT based Smart Retail System Architecture

Retail IT Applications Architecture Course This course examines the architecture of retail applications systems and the use of Quadrant Analysis as an aid to interviewing retailers about their current systems To view a sample of this Retail IT Applications Architecture elearning course select the Video tab above.

Connected Retail Reference Architecture

Point of Sale • Most of the vendors offer similar solutions • Integration of POS with all other retail systems is important • Oracle Retail InStore Operations solutions enable true multichannel retailing by delivering a consistent shopping experience across all retail channels — in your stores on your Web site and through your catalog or call centre • The SAP PointofSale (SAP.