The recent Economist Brazil Summit in São Paulo focused on how Brazil will change in the decade to 2022 – a significant date because it will mark 200 years of independence from Portugal. One of the conference speakers was Deborah Wright, an independent member of the board at Lojas Renner, one of the largest department store retailers in Brazil.
IT Decisions has recently spoken to the chief information officer at Lojas Renner, Leandro Balbinot, about his strategy for the retailer so we asked Wright about Brazilian retail in general and how IT can support the changes needed for the decade ahead.
“We consider, of course, that in order to be able to operationalize and enable our growth strategy for the company , we must have the best and most robust IT platforms in place. We have been supporting Leandro Balbinot in his strategic systems plan and we know it is a challenge for him and his team to make all the changes necessary in a seamless way,” Wright explained.
“I personally am very bullish when it comes to new technology and more efficient ways to streamline operations and to drive productivity . As a retailer, IT is all about improving the customer experience and engaging, delighting your customer. I am not in favor of technology just for the sake of technology: there has to be a business case with clear advantages, which I guess goes without saying,” she added.
IT Decisions has recently written about how some stores in Brazil compete with their own website. Something that is astonishing to consumers in markets where prices can be checked online before visiting a store – with an expectation that the store will at least match the prices on their website. We asked what Wright thinks of this and the increasing transparency of competition with tools such as price comparison sites.
“I am all in favor of transactional retail websites, price comparison websites, and I know that hyper-competition and multichannel retail competition is the name of the game in todays market. It’s not actually the case of being in favor or against, rather a reality to be faced and learn to deal with. In actual fact I think that when that is the case, it is best to embrace and be one’s own competition offering consumers greater convenience and choice,” she said.
“It is my view that the consumer is in the driving seat – and has been now for quite a while – and consumers will not change their lifestyle to fit any companies’ model or offer. So if you wish to be a winner in such an environment, you had best understand what the leverage points are for your customer and adapt your service to their needs,” she added.
This is a strong vote of support in helping the consumer to choose their products with good information, but all of these strategic issues depend on IT to underpin the services.
“It is my belief that actually one platform complements the other and in the end it is good for business growth. The key issue I see in this scenario is getting your supply chain, fulfillment and logistics correct, which is not a trivial task by any means. Here again, information systems will play a key role and are a powerful enabler,” Wright explained.
As Leandro Balbinot said in our interview with him, making technology systems work in any business depends on your team and how you approach the challenge. In her final words, Wright emphasized this point again.
“As with all new systems implementation the three building blocks are systems, processes and people. In my experience, these last two areas are where the greater challenge lies. ”
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