OMNI-CHANNEL NEEDS OMNI-SECURITY

Transcription

1 OMNI-CHANNEL NEEDS OMNI-SECURITY isheriff RETAIL INDUSTRY WHITE PAPER COPYRIGHT 2015 isheriff, INC.

2 A customer-centric experience that seamlessly connects a company s digital and physical stores and allows buyers to sample and purchase merchandise via a variety of mediums, including in store, online and mobile. - Omni-Channel Definition, Deloitte Consulting Jane Smith strolls into Acme Brands Stores on a quiet Friday morning and whips out her smartphone. She s looking to buy the items she selected online the night before. Her initial visit to the store s website was inspired by the boots she saw in the spring catalog mailed to her house. Jane s list quickly grew as she interacted with an online stylist who suggested emerging trends for the new season and answered her sizing questions. While scrolling through her feed that morning, a post from one of her favorite fashion bloggers featured Acme s new fall sweater line. Jane promptly added a gray cable-knit to her list. As Jane enters the store, Acme s smartphone app directs her to where her items are shelved and alerts her to daily deals. The store s smart beacon system tracks her progress through the aisles and sends her a special offer as she passes the perfume section. Because Jane is a repeat customer, an alert with her profile is sent to the store s manager who is able to add a personal touch to the experience. Finally, when Jane goes to check out, arms laden with outfits, Acme offers her complimentary, next-day home delivery. Jane s experience is not the distant, sci-fi future of shopping. Today, retailers and brands are testing and implementing new ways to connect with customers everywhere, across technology channels, in-store and online, to better use information to enhance the shopping experience. This strategy is known as omni-channel retailing. The new technologies and shopping everywhere nature of omni-channel have the ability to transform retail, but the transition will also raise new security challenges. Jane s hypothetical Acme shopping spree depended on the security of her digital information. Her main focus was on how best to complete her seasonal wardrobe, not fears of intercepted messages, credit card fraud, or compromised personal data. As Target and other major data breaches vividly displayed, lost customer confidence can have an immediate and dramatic impact on sales and a long term impact on brand value. A successful omni-channel strategy requires omni-security. COPYRIGHT 2015 isheriff, INC. 2

3 WHAT IS OMNI-CHANNEL? Have a store? a website? a catalog? an app? a call center? If you answered yes to more than one, you are an omni-channel retailer. But being an omni-channel retailer is not the same as deploying a successful omnichannel strategy. An omni-channel strategy requires organizations to carefully plan the best ways to reach consumers, like Jane. Retailers must leverage all of their assets and technologies: software, communications systems, hardware, and POS devices, to reach customers at many touch points. Today, major retailers like Wal-Mart, Costco, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and successful upstarts like Bonobos, Warby Parker, or Rent-the-Runway, are deploying omni-channel strategies by optimizing cross-channel assets and resources, and blurring the lines between physical and virtual shopping to deliver a differentiated customer experience. 63% 60% 50% store transformation for customer experience digital advisory and assisted sales platform for store associates added fulfillment choices for customers 60% 20% 58% customer analytics, insights and personalization in-store and on digital channels MDM, integrated data (customer, inventory, product) and BI visualization customer facing mobile initiatives 75% 66% 60% threat management, vulnerability, data security solutions, internal identity and access management solutions online channel modernization flexible and fast fulfillment COPYRIGHT 2015 isheriff, INC. 3

4 Consumers are ready for a new era of shopping and many of the underlying technologies are already in place. Just a decade ago the idea of purchasing online was novel. Now look where we are. As the chart above details, 60% of retailers have already incorporated a digital advisory program for in-store sales personnel, and 58% have developed an app for consumers to shop via their mobile devices. WHY IS AN OMNI-CHANNEL STRATEGY IMPORTANT? First, omni-channel presents a huge revenue opportunity. Studies, such as the Deloitte survey below, show consumers buy more products when they shop via multiple channels. In addition, an online and mobile presence allows a retailer to reach customers in places where they do not have a physical presence. No longer do you need a store in Mumbai to reach your Indian customers. Tactically deploying omni-channel also can minimize shopper frustrations, driving purchases and repeat purchases. The presence of interactive kiosks, smart shopping carts, and RFID tagged products all enhance the customers in-store experience. According to Kurt Salmon, a retail focused management consulting firm, RFIDbased interactive systems can improve conversion rates by 40% to 60% and increase cross-sell opportunities by 15% to 25%. COPYRIGHT 2015 isheriff, INC. 4

5 Equally important, the checkout process can be enhanced by equipping employees with smart phones and tablets that easily accept mobile payments and credit cards. These are effective at reducing long lines and capturing sales more immediately. A 2014 Retail Industry Survey by timetrade found that 70% of retailers report consumers will wait 5 minutes or less before abandoning a purchase and leaving the store. The more efficient the shopping process is, the higher the sales close rate. Second, omni-channel is a critical defensive strategy. The expansion of Amazon and other online-only sellers is impacting every retail sector. U.S. online retail sales are expected to reach $334 billion this year and will grow to $480 billion by 2019, according to Forrester s latest five-year ecommerce forecast. At the same time, the share of retail growth by traditional in-store retailers has been negligible. According to Internet Retailer s 2015 Top 500 Guide, web sales grew by 16% while total U.S. store sales grew a paltry 2.4%. Online retail growth has come at the expense of traditional retail for a simple reason consumers expect instant gratification and a varied selection. The previously cited timetrade survey found the following pitfalls of physical retailing contributed to lost customers: Online-only retailers are now also innovating to further erode traditional retail market share. The growth of ecommerce giants like Amazon have led to a phenomenon known as show-rooming, where customers test a product at a retail location, but purchase online from the cheapest site. COPYRIGHT 2015 isheriff, INC. 5

6 Third, omni-channel presents an opportunity to change the retail game and reset the playing field. Retailers may not be able to beat Amazon at the online game, but they can leverage their unique asset: the physical store, to change the playing field. Instead of competing head-to-head in an online-only strategy, traditional retailers can integrate their online and offline assets to create a seamless omni-channel experience. The more interaction channels, the more customer data you are able to collect. In-store traffic and behavior provide an asset that online retailers do not have. Combining the physical and online footprint provides a richer view of consumer behaviors and can lead to a more powerful selling strategy. Omni-channel retailers are able to enhance marketing programs, drive specific offers, and influence pricing decisions. All the inbound information from multiple channels can also be leveraged to create digital loyalty programs and customized marketing strategies to achieve optimal ROI. OMNI-CHANNEL REQUIRES OMNI-SECURITY Connecting with customers everywhere, means securing customer data everywhere. Whether they are buying online or in-store, at a fixed register or mobile POS, by swiping or typing, customers need to know their personal and payment data is secure. An omni-channel strategy should focus on addressing 3 major security risks. 1. Protecting multiple points of exposure. If the bring your own device risk challenged IT departments, omni-channel will increase that burden exponentially. Expanding security from a few fixed computers to multiple mobile POS devices, sensors, employee smartphones, workstations, and tablets on the corporate network, will increase exposure points and risk substantially. In addition, transactional data that moves from online to in-store, means even more sensitive information flowing across more networks and devices. This creates more points of entry and opportunities for cybercriminals to infiltrate and extract payment data. 2. Enhancing security visibility and policy enforcement. Deploying new technologies and point products will make it more difficult for IT departments to get a clear and comprehensive view of their security posture. More points of delivery means a more complex information supply chain. Likewise, the need to interact with and manage many vendors can create additional risk and introduce unsecured devices into the network. COPYRIGHT 2015 isheriff, INC. 6

7 Target for example, fell victim to the largest data breach in history when a compromised vendor created a hole in its network security. 3. Addressing new, device-specific malware. As recent history with POS devices has shown, cybercriminals will develop malware that is device specific. In that case designed to scrape card information from the POS device, before it is safely encrypted. This POS malware is widely available for purchase on the dark web. As new omni-channel devices become integrated into the retail IT infrastructure, malware will emerge specifically targeted to exploit vulnerabilities unique to these new devices. CONCLUSION Omni-channel is a compelling vision for the future of retail. But the definition of omni - meaning in all ways and in all places - must also be part of security strategy. Omni-channel will not succeed if consumers are worried about who is accessing their data or, worse, if a major breach erodes the trust a brand has developed over years of work. Omni-channel requires omni-security - a security posture that is always on, that is pervasive across all devices, and that can be easily managed. isheriff can be a critical part of a successful omni-channel deployment. Together, omni-channel and omni-security can transform the shopping experience. LEARN MORE Visit to learn more about isheriff Cloud Security To contact sales, call or [email protected] ABOUT ISHERIFF isheriff is a leading cloud-based provider of Enterprise Device Protection to more than 3,000 organizations worldwide. The company s global cloud network, award-winning security, and SaaS delivery model, provides a single security platform to protect all of an enterprise s internet-enabled devices, including laptops, servers, tablets, point-of-sale terminals, industrial equipment, and Internet of Things technologies. isheriff has been recognized by leading analysts and industry publications, including SC Magazine, Network Computing, and IDC. Virus Bulletin s VB 100 independent comparative testing named isheriff the most effective solution against new and emerging malware. COPYRIGHT 2015 isheriff, INC. 7

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