Hello everyone. I'm Rustam. I spent my entire career with telecom, with big tech companies, launching products and looking after products. And today I want to share something very interesting with you. It's a retail evolution and particularly it's cloud powered aspect. Story that we will go through today is basically around what is going on currently in retail industry. Where is the industry going and how. Retail with the help of cloud will be serving future needs of customers. I will start with a storyline on a page. It's always easier to have a helicopter view on everything that we will go through. And the story is very simple and engaging. First of all, cloud transforms retail. There is no doubt about that. And cloud makes it very personal and very engaging. It's also smart and scalable. Pandemic, as we remember, sped up that transformation. You remember that everything suddenly stopped and then went online where cloud essentially helped cloud reinvented the stores and it's now more, it's, if it's a physical store, it's more, experience hop rather than the traditional store 10 years, 15 years ago, omni channel is definitely driven by the cloud and the customer journey, very dependent on the cloud and the weight. mixes the online and offline journeys. And finally, future is advanced cloud technologies with AI, with machine learning, with the internet of things. we will be able to see a much better transformed retail going forward. And part of that transformation we already experienced today, but bear with me. We will get there, in a couple of minutes. Let's start with the transformative role of the cloud. So this is the. market somewhere in London, in early 20th century. And this is also retail, right? So this is the retail where you see customers coming and going, picking up what they want, strolling, going through different stuff, checking prices, et cetera, et cetera, all in an offline environment. That's the retail we had for centuries. Now, it's rapidly changing quicker and faster and quicker and faster. And basically, the question in front of retail, I think, is how to be relevant, personal and delightful. And that's a very big question because now consumers are much more picky and much more demanding versus a consumer of 10, 15, 20 years ago. And of course, cloud is the catalyst for change. If you look at the role of the cloud for retail transformation, you will see that it's innovation with advanced technologies, such as AI and machine learning, all those chatbots and, smart stores, everything is dependent on the cloud, retail analytic and personalization is imperative right now. Everything is in the cloud and basically no one. will be able to deliver top quality service without a cloud umbrella, helping them. Omni channel, again, the way offline and online are mixed. Is it seamless? Yes or no? Everything dependent on the cloud. Cloud delivers scalability and flexibility so that retailers can very quickly adjust, to, ever evolving customer needs. And of course it's cost efficient and agile. So Without the cloud, I think retail, will not be able to transform and to evolve up to the standard of the new customer. Today we will see where all the world's best companies are going, because I think it's very important to just go through the cases and this will give us, food for thought. Of where does the next retail step is leading us and let's start with the Walmart because I think Walmart is a great example of the company that understood the importance of cloud migration like 15 years ago. So they started as early as in, 2010. Always step by step evolving in that process, partnering with, Microsoft Azure, and we will get to that platform a little bit, later during the presentation, they launched different solutions and even today, this cloud transformation of Walmart is not done. So it's ongoing. And again, this giant, understands that Without the cloud retail will not exist going forward. And even today it's, it will lose the, I think the most of its competitiveness. Comparison of pandemic, pre pandemic, post pandemic, just to remind everyone, so I will not pause on this slide for long, but just a high level overview. Before COVID, we remember physical retail was dominated and online was a supporting channel. Now it's different. So now everything is, driven by innovation and physical retail becomes more, experience up and online become essential. So that's a massive difference between what we had back then and what we have now. And omni channel. It was mostly fragmented back then. Now the experience of Omnichannel become more and more crucial. And it becomes, I think overall, at least in the economies, economies like, our economy here in the UK, it becomes, seamless and really crucial for, the proper customer experience. And of course, we already mentioned the. Cloud enabled agility, data analytics. Now it's a must have. So you can't, develop your retail. You can't sell stuff. Without cloud enabled, data analytics personalization, it's simply not possible. So let's now look at the role of physical and online stores. And I think the most important thing is that now we only go to physical store if we want to. We never go there because we have to, right? We go there because we want to. Everything can be ordered online, more or less. So if we want a special experience, If we want touch and try only then we choose Deliberately choose to go to physical retail store and to give you an example of shops beyond shopping Let's start with the Nike live stores example first of all, they provide real time community engagement, which means that you can come to that store. Just look at this nice picture on your screen and you can spend your time there. You can discuss new products with professionals. You can choose your products. If you want to, you can attend an event hosted by Nike. So it's a great concept. We never had before. Of course, it's, also data driven personalization because cloud based analytics tailoring everything to customer preferences and purchasing behaviors, Nike application, the smartphone one. This is very important because. the integration is crucial for the right experience in the store. And of course, Nike are deeply integrated. So customers can reserve products, they can access exclusive offers. And if it's a Nike plus members, they will get something very special tailored exactly for them. in store technology, also cloud based in, Nike live stores, for example, every sales person, people, equipped with cloud connected devices. They know in advance from customer profiles, what to offer to that customer. And of course, omni channel integration is perfect online, offline. You will not feel the gap there so you can start your journey in Nike online store and finish it in Nike offline store. Everything is in place. Then let's think for a moment of the, about the evolution of online stores. The key thing here, I think that online shopping takes over offline. That's definitely a fact, especially after the pandemic, as we saw, three minutes ago, if we think about this and I've put a screenshot of, the, one of the biggest and the best and most advanced retailers, online retailers out there at the Amazon. if we think about this, Evolution is, first of all, scalability and flexibility. online stores are easier to scale operation, versus the physical stores because of their online nature. And with the help of cloud technology, it's even easier. Personalization, and again, I already said a few times that personalization is It is a must. It's imperative now for modern retail, real time data analytics allow this advanced personalization to work flawlessly for the customer. everything is integrated, seamlessly and especially the third party services we know all the payments, engines, the inventory systems that retailers are using. Everything is based on the cloud and integrated seamlessly. Of course, security and compliance, the GDPR, everything is very important and also cloud driven. And of course, the enhanced omni channel experience where. Cloud technology delivers a consistent shopping experience across all the websites and applications and physical store. That's basically in five simple steps, the key highlights of the online evolution based on the cloud. And here is another example. So I think Shopify, it is a great example of how empowering business of all sizes to basically be able to scale of how important this task is. In case of the Shopify cloud platform, first of all, it's a global scaling, literally almost in any country out there, becomes a portlet because Shopify has. infrastructure dispersed across the globe. Then of course, it's simplified international expansion. If you want to launch your store after launching in the UK, say into, I don't know, Ireland or in the EU, Shopify will help you with that. of course, that's also integrated, commercial solutions when the cloud based tools for inventory payments. or shipping. Everything is, provided to a retailer. Customization and innovation also very important because it enables businesses to customize stores with apps and APIs. And it's for all businesses out there. So for example, you need a 24 seven support. You got it from Shopify platform. You can lowering entry barriers and, enable global success through cloud based e commerce that way. So that's an example of empowering businesses of any sizes to scale based on the cloud technologies. Netflix, I think they are kings of advanced real time personalization. And I think that, as a great example, Netflix can literally in the, in almost in real time, offer based on your preferences and the videos you viewed or, even the, pages that you browsed when you were, when you've been looking for a movie, it can fine tune very personalized, very you tailored recommendations for you. And I think that capability of giving advanced recommendations is very unique for, for the modern retail. It's something we've never had, or even dreamt of 10, 15 years ago. it's here today within the best retailers and the best content providers, such as Netflix. And it's going to be more and more important going forward. Of course, they are also masters of scalable cloud infrastructure because it's content, right? And it's. I have heavy content, especially if it's a 4k HDR movies, right? So they can do that based on their cloud solutions. Of course, the user interfaces, they have everything personalized from artwork to previews and the layouts. And it's under continuous improvements because they test and refine and leveraging AI and machine learning to make New suggestions even better. So that's the netflix example of real time personalization Now let's switch to omni channel and how it's enabled by cloud I have nordstrom's unified commerce example here how they sync Inventory and customer data in online and offline and basically if we go only through highlights, of course, it's very good for consistent customer engagement because cloud platforms Unify marketing and support across all the channels like application online in store ensuring that the No, some basically can assist customers whenever and wherever they need Of course, it's seamless some seamless omni channel experience and we already I think know how important that is Remember the nike example. It's unified customer profiles. So All the data, customer data in the cloud stored securely, but most importantly, it's stored across all the channels, like in a one storage. So it's always in sync and it's unified. of course, as a modern retailer, they care about real time inventory updates. And especially it's important for services like, buy online, pick up and store. And finally, last but not the least, optimized order fulfillment. So cloud technology turns stores, into fulfillment centers, basically determining the best location to ship, online orders based on the location of the customer. Now let's look at evolution of retail with cloud. I have targets predictive analytics example here. I think we all know target. it's, massive, retailer, and they really utilizing cloud to anticipate customer needs and anticipation. Also, it becomes more and more important, going forward. let's start with key highlights, personalized marketing. So they target. target leverages, cloud based analytics to process customer data and create talent promotions. They also, do very precise product recommendation using cloud algorithm algorithms. So it's a, let's call it an advanced personalization. Of course, inventory is optimized using the, cloud capabilities. And cloud analyzes customer behavior, which is also very important for tailoring and anticipating the offers. And of course the dynamic pricing, because they work in a very, competitive environment. And adjusting pricing in real time based on the cloud analytics is of paramount importance for them Next is an example of starbucks rewards. So they are definitely mobile centric And they are definitely instant and so very personal real time updates So the rewards and offers are instantly synchronized across all platforms whether it's In store, app, online, everything is in sync based on your profile. Personalization based on cloud analytics deliver tailored promotions based on your personal preferences. And of course it drives up customer satisfaction and loyalty. Scalability, so millions of transactions are handled smoothly and resources scale automatically during peak times. Omni channel integration. Again, we will see it today multiple times, the omni channel integration. Rewards, seamlessly integrated across the app, website, stores, and you can flexibly redeem these rewards. And innovation. So basically, if you have a new feature to roll out, you can do that very quickly and with, protection of customer data in mind. Let's now switch to cloud integration today. and I think that Microsoft Azure's retail solution is a great example of how it's working and helping, businesses today because Scalable infrastructure and advanced analytic tools is something that retail really needs these days Scalable cloud infrastructure, when Azure automatically scales computing resources based on demand. And again, for retailers, it's someone else's computer resources. So you don't have to build data set, a data center yourself to analyze personalization, run your CRM stuff, et cetera. Advanced analytics and insights. And that's also very important because it's large data volumes and having a swift. Access to it, to having insights on customer behavior, sales trends, forecasts, pricing is very important. Then personalized customer experience, because Azure's AI deliver personalized recommendations and tailored promotions. Enhanced security and compliance. Again, GDPR, so everything is there and very secure with Azure. and operational efficiency and cost savings. Infrastructure as a service migrating to Azure reduces capital expenditure on hardware. As I said, you don't have to build all those servers yourself to improve your customer experience. Then my next example, is related to AI and cloud powered customer assistance. And I think H& M virtual assistant is just brilliant here. So interactive AI customer supports 24 seven, and it responds to you in a natural language. We all remember, and I guess we all don't much like those chat bots. We often hear when we call to our bank or to our retailer. So H& M is not the case. Their chatbot is answering naturally and that's called natural language processing or NLP. So that's a technology A cloud technology that is very important going forward. Personalized product recommendation. Analyzing customer behavior and preference stored in the cloud. Virtual Assistant offers personalized recommendation with, aligned with individual style. Efficient product search with AI interpreting intent to deliver accurate results. So that's also very important. AI Assistant based. Scalable and reliable cloud infrastructure. Scalability is very important, especially for the large retailers like H& M and Seamless Omnichannel. So today it's, Omnichannel, we've been hearing this for multiple times because this is of paramount importance the way your app, your social media, your assistant, your web, your offline store is integrated in one seamless experience. Now, let's have a look at the future of cloud integration, and I think Stitch Fix, AI recommendations is a great example here for personalized fashion suggestions from AI. Every time we deal with fashion, it's, it gets complicated because fashion is personal. Fashion is something. Tailored only to you and data driven personalization that StageFix provides is really revolutionize this industry in terms of collecting feedback preferences, processing them in the cloud and then understanding your personal unique style, giving your, you, giving you the unique, offers and suggestions. Machine learning and algorithms, offstage fix predict, basically fashion items that clients are likely to take based on your experience in the past. Hybrid human AI styling, is AI generated suggestions, basically curated by humans with human judgment. So basically ensuring that a tailored experience, delivered to you, based on AI plus human suggestions. Then again, it's scalable cloud infrastructure because the demand for analytics and for data, became, becomes, bigger and optimizing the inventory manage, management, which also helps drive up, customer satisfaction when. Everything is available, everything is planned, and the inventory is there when customer needs it. And Macy's example, so how Internet of Things inventory tracking and targeted advertising based on the cloud is driving, their retail forward. So first of all, it's real time inventory tracking and they basically equip, their shelves with RFIDs, technology to monitor merchandise in real time. It's also automated replenishment that smart shelves that they have detect low inventory and instantly notify, store associates, for restocking. Personalized in store marketing Macy installs Bluetooth beacons. to interact with the shopper's smartphones via the application. Of course, everything is with consent. Enhanced customer engagement, because beacons provide real time information, and in retail, it's very important to be up to speed, to be real time, because that provides a much more engaging experience. And data driven store optimization, data collected from smart shelves and beacons allow Macy's to analyze shopping patterns. and product interactions. Alibaba's new retail initiative example, I think it's, we all know Alibaba, it's a massive retailer. they are well known for innovations for blending, online and offline and for developing online element. So blending online and offline, commerce using cloud is what Alibaba is doing as part of their new retail initiatives. first of all, it's unified commerce ecosystem. So they use cloud to integrate e commerce platform, physical store and create seamless retail environment. It's data driven personalization based on cloud analytics. So all the customer behaviors and preferences are being collected and carefully understood. So they get, customers can get personalized offers, smart stores, and internet of things integration. They now launched what they call a hammer fresh stores and internet of things allowed them to in real time, analyze and manage inventory and provide interactive shopping experience. Optimize supply chain and logistics. Again, cloud based system. Enable real time inventory tracking and efficient fulfillment. And enhanced mobile integration, where mobile apps like Taobao or Alipay are integrated with the physical retail. Now, almost there. Thanks for being with me. Almost there. Key takeaways and conclusion. For me, it's very simple. Retailer is either in the cloud or out of business. There is no other way. So you either evolve and use all the goodness, the AI, the cloud computing, Internet of Things that we have. Or you just will lose your customer who will look for the right Cloud experience somewhere else and key takeaways can be summarized to five simple things. First of all, we go to physical store only if we want to. Second, retail, retailer only as good as it's online and mobile. I think it's very important. So you have to make sure that your, online, store, your mobile application is flawless. Omni channel integration defines customer experience. And that's so true for today. Predictive personalization is imperative and AI is part of sales from recommendation to support going forward. So that's it. Thanks for, being with me. Thanks for having me. And hopefully you enjoyed the presentation and the case studies. And if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out via email. Thank you. Have a lovely conference.