EN- Industry Focuses

Stacey Shulman: a retail reality check With a retail career spanning the better part of three decades, Stacey Shulman is perfectly placed to give us an industry lowdown. e visionary innovation officer talks about what retailers can do to build truly joined-up shopping experiences. Case study Stacey Shulman knows a thing or two about the retail industry. For the past 25 years, she has served in leading roles across the board – from retail buying to product development and, most recently, as chief innovation officer in Intel's retail solutions division. In 2013, she was named CIO of the year by the Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) Program for her work at American Apparel, where her commitment to in-store analytics was central to its strateg y of using technolog y to improve in-store operational effectiveness. During her tenure, the recently resurrected retailer saw a 16% reduction in the, an increase in sales of more than 30%, and a 40% saving on capital expenditure. As a leading authority on innovation, and a champion of new technologies, Shulman is ideally placed to deliver a health check on the industry. We caught up with Shulman to hear her thoughts about the industry at large, as well as what it must do to prepare for the challenges ahead. In a rapidly evolving industry, a commitment to innovation and customer understanding are essential for retailers to survive and thrive. What's the biggest challenge retailers face? e challenge for legacy retailers is to reinvent themselves with very little working capital. ey've got systems that need modernization, while their competition is using modern systems and solutions. New retailers are natively digital so can run much faster with new technologies and new ways of servicing customers. For the legacy guys, it's about catching up and making sure they have a consistent consumer experience across every channel. ey should be creating a better shopping experience by freeing up personnel through automating elements of their business. "Let's stop talking about the transaction; let's talk instead about the whole journey." 34 35 Retail Retail reality check

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