The amalgamation of in-store and online shopping has led to different expectations from customers in regard to the services retailers must provide. These customer experience demands require a continuous re-evaluation of processes and underlying IT architectures.
Cluster Reply supported a major grocery retailer in the UK with the integration of its Point of Sale Cash Register solution with its back-end Data Warehouse. The goal of this project was to identify customer needs more efficiently. In addition, the retailer wanted to integrate data from in-store activities and customer online shopping, to achieve a deeper insight into customer demand; they set out to create a real time view of stock availability to improve the omnichannel customer experience and offer additional services such as home delivery
Technically, the integration of POS solution in stores across the UK, the retailer’s backend systems and connected partners demanded the implementation of a new integration layer.
Cluster Reply provided the integration layer, hosted entirely on the Microsoft Azure platform using BizTalk Server (hosted on Azure) to provide a hybrid capability which employed the following integration technologies on Azure
To facilitate the communication between a variety of third parties, Cluster Reply provided API apps, enabling third parties to integrate with the retailer’s back end systems in a lightweight, low latency way.
The solution developed by Cluster Reply offers a comprehensive, connected and real-time view of stock, delivery and of customer buying habits. This has resulted in providing a home delivery service either online or in-store. This is the foundation for further customer experience improvements that offer outstanding services that add real value for the customer, particularly in a highly competitive market such as food retail.