This month, ORTEC organized the 2nd Global Retail Summit. This second edition of the event was held online and was very well-received by our customers: 90 people from 43 companies in 21 countries participated. Read on to discover the highlights and key planning insights we got from the event.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its effects have led to more uncertainty and volatility for retailers. Pierre Mercier from Boston Consulting Group offered a presentation on the “Future of Retail,” which looked at several stats that promise lasting changes for online and offline sales channels. Many of these changes are projected to last after lockdown measures are lifted. Retailers must focus more on e-commerce and accelerating digitalization and automation.
On the planning and scheduling front, two themes stood out: the importance of improving the store delivery process, and workforce efficiency and engagement.
Our customers Carrefour (Europe’s largest retailer) and X5 Retail Group (the largest Russian retailer) presented their learnings about the store delivery process. Their key insights:
S-Group, the largest Finnish retailer with over 40,000 employees and 19 brands also presented during the event. S-Group is using our cloud-native solutions for workforce scheduling, employee self-service and ad-hoc planning. With our tools, they have been able to avoid over- and under staffing. They have now a more accurate payroll calculation process, and have improved employee satisfaction. They pointed out that workforce efficiency and employee engagement are very important, especially as companies face the pandemic. Key learnings from their presentation include:
All in all, presentations and discussions confirmed that relying on optimization is more important than ever to face the challenges ahead.