Our latest whitepaper
A better future for South African retailers: Self-Enablement
Retailers need to be self-enabled in order to retain skills, keep control of their technology stacks, and maintain their unique competitive advantage.
In order to be competitive, retailers must invest in the technology to remove friction for customers and employees, provide the agility and capability to take advantage of big events, improve operational efficiencies and build long-term customer loyalty.
However, many retailers in South Africa are dependent on international vendors to provide critical technology solutions and support, which can further compound the many uniquely South African challenges that they face. Unfavourable vendor dependencies can lead to business continuity issues, revenue losses, customer dissatisfaction and even reputational damage, especially during high-volume periods such as Black Friday.
According to the latest White Paper from redPanda Software, a retailer that is self-enabled, on the other hand, can take control of its technology ecosystem, reducing its reliance on external vendors: “Self-enablement protects retailers from both suboptimal dependencies and the high switching costs and disruptions associated with switching between vendors. The net effect of this is a retailer that’s able to take advantage of the rapid advancements in retail technology more effectively and efficiently.
“These include advancements in areas such as cloud computing, edge computing, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, which can result in improved agility, scalability and innovation as retailers adapt to changing customer behaviour, demands and market conditions,” says Peter Ludi, Business Development Executive at redPanda Solutions.
Report Contents
- Challenges faced by South African retailers
- International service providers in South Africa
- Typical deployment challenges and the rise of SaaS
- The loss of valuable skills and IP
- The risk of vendor dependencies
- Understanding the costs that lock retailers into suboptimal relationships
- Achieving self-enablement
- Delving deeper into true self-enablement