Executive Q&A: Predicting Microsoft Dynamics 365’s role in the future of retail

"Retailers today have to get unique, get efficient or get out of town," wrote BDO Canada's National Retail Leader Eric Matusiak, in his LinkedIn article The store is dead...or is it?

In his 20 years of consulting to retailers in North America, Matusiak has seen plenty of "it will never happen" predictions, only to see them come to be. Examples include consumers willing to purchase apparel and footwear online and, more recently, ecommerce-driven grocery shopping, with same-day or next-day delivery.

The retail store is far from dead, but, he advises, they too must offer a unique experience, and do so efficiently. Even a walk-in customer to, for example, Best Buy or an Apple Store, is beginning to expect the retailer to know his or her shopping history to more closely resemble Amazon's buying experience, he believes.

Eric describes for MSDynamicsWorld readers what customer demands are and will be, and how Microsoft technology (including Dynamics 365 for Retail, Power BI, and even bots) can meet those demands.

MSDynamicsWorld: You've offered predictions about the future of the retail store, including its likelihood of survival. Tell us what that future is. 

Matusiak: The question I often ask retailers is "What's the reason you're giving me to come to the store?"

[When] modern commerce began in North America about 300 years ago, stores ...