Question

The five suggestions to the government to increase the country's potential digital transformation in retail sales;

(each point 200 words)

Answer 1

1. For retailers, digital transformation starts with the cloud
   1. A shift to digital commerce is not just about building a website and launching a series of new product categories. Retailers also need to think about their web hosting infrastructure.
   2. Online storefronts hosted in legacy static data centers can be severely limited in terms of scalability, performance, security, and total cost of ownership. A move to the cloud is inevitable if retailers care about creating world-class digital shopping experiences.
   3. “Hyperscale cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure provide merchants with significant benefits – great flexibility, infinite capacity, massive scalability, and a lower cost of ownership by having a system that is always right-sized,” said Puri.
   4. Moving to the cloud, however, is just the start. Modern retailers must also take steps to avoid some common pitfalls when beginning their digital transformation journeys.
2. Reducing website downtime is critical
   1. Site downtime for a large or mid-sized retailer can result thousands or millions of dollars of lost revenue. It can also permanently damage brand reputation and customer stickiness (as shoppers will likely visit competitors’ websites if they have a bad experience). This happens more often than you realize, even to large companies that one would think can outspend smaller ones on infrastructure. Downtime happens most often when online storefronts get flooded with more traffic than their infrastructure can effectively handle, such as during peak sale events, aggressive marketing promotions, and holiday seasons.
   2. What retailers need is auto-scaling, which forecasts changes in site traffic and adjusts capacity to prevent expensive drop-offs, as well as eliminates the challenge of overpaying for capacity during slower periods.
   3. “The ability to scale capacity ahead of demand is critical for a digital storefront so it can cater to a growing base of shoppers,” explained Puri. “Predictive auto-scaling guarantees reliable and consistent site uptime while ensuring that your capacity is always right-sized.”
3. Slow page load times lead to unhappy customers
   1. In digital commerce, slow is as good as down. There is a fair amount of research available that correlates between page load times and end-user satisfaction, loyalty, revenue, and even, traffic from organic search engines.
   2. Retailers must adhere to several best practices and invest in technologies such as content delivery networks (CDNs), content optimization, application delivery controllers (ADCs), and image management to ensure a lightning-fast digital experience. Web pages, content, and images should be optimized for both performance and experience.
   3. For an online business, a slow load speed on a webpage can lead to a lack of sales conversions and a general loss of traffic.
   4. Modern consumers would prefer to search for a new page than spend time waiting for a page to load.
   5. There are actionable steps business owners can take to improve the speed of their website.
4. Invest in security to fight cyber threats and bot attacks
   1. Cyber attacks are becoming increasingly malicious and frequent, and digital commerce is one of the top targets. While hackers in the past would inundate digital storefronts with DDoS attacks to bring them down or hold websites for ransom, the more sophisticated attackers today insert malicious scripts to steal identities and credit card data. Cyber criminals also have more resources available to them in the form of bots that scan for vulnerabilities and attack the sites most exposed.
   2. Retailers must invest in a comprehensive security solution stack – one that includes a web application firewall, intrusion detection, bot management, and machine learning – to fend off advanced threats. Security vulnerabilities must always be patched in near real time, and a team well-versed in these technologies is a critical requirement.
   3. “Modern retailers can’t afford to ignore security as they embark on digital transformation,” Puri said. “Security solutions must be implemented at the edge of the network, as well as at the origin infrastructure where the digital storefront is hosted, not one or the other alone.”
5. Digital skills and executive commitment also key to success
   1. Finally, digital transformations can never be successful without executive commitment and involvement of the right people. Often, these may involve radical changes in the organizational structure.
   2. Creating stunning digital experiences to acquire more customers and drive new revenue streams requires willingness, expertise, and experience. Modern retailers must consider hiring experts as employees, vendors, or consultants – people who know what a great digital transformation looks like and have done it before.

   3. Leadership is a driving factor in the success of a business particularly in this age of digital.

   4. The pace of change means that today’s leaders need to be reactive and proactive in the face of challenges. A successful digital leader also must bear in mind that while technology is important, the people part of transformation is just as crucial.