At Forrester's Digital Business Forum in Chicago today, we announced the launch of our brand new Digital Store Playbook. This playbook provides a structured framework to guide eBusiness professionals through digital store transformation – from creating a digital transformation vision to developing a digital store business case. 

As part of a much broader and highly digitally-influenced customer shopping journey, brick and mortar shopping is increasingly becoming a digitally enhanced experience. Retail stores that use digital technology to drive convenience, service and relevant personalized experiences for customers will succeed, while those who fail to make smart investments in technology that enhances the in-store experience risk losing market share to more customer-centric competitors. As such, it is imperative that retail eBusiness executives have the appropriate tools, knowledge, and cross-role alignment to operate a digital store platform that not only unlocks new sources of value for customers but also increases operational agility in service of customers. We crafted this playbook to address key elements of digital store success. The Digital Store Playbook will help you:

  • Discover the far-reaching impact of store digitization. Forrester’s Digital Store Playbook introduces the value of using digital technology to enhance the in-store experience for customers and associates alike. Along with outlining the benefits, we discuss the costs associated with digital store transformation.
  • Plan and evangelize your digital store strategy. Within the playbook, we cover the process of planning your digital store transformation and mapping out stakeholder responsibilities and objectives. We help to set you up for success by providing guidelines on how to communicate your strategic vision and implement effective plans throughout your organization.
  • Act with agility and test and refine as you go. Digital store transformation requires a visionary leader who can rally senior executives to support these new initiatives. However, this leader must also be able to execute and prove value to the company, including making decisions on the technologies needed for success. We provide guidance on the technologies, vendors, people and processes needed to drive transformation.
  • Optimize functionality to incorporate evolving customer demand. Embracing the complexity that store technology presents to the sales and service experience requires a deep understanding of its impact on your customers. We provide consumer data and benchmarking information so you stay ahead of customer expectations.

We published four new playbook reports, including How To Transform Your Retail Store (our executive overview chapter), Construct The Business Case For Digital Store Transformation (our business case chapter), The Visionary’s Guide To Digital Store Planning (our strategic plan chapter) and It’s Time For Retail Stores To Open Their Doors To The Digital Org (our organization chapter). If you’re not sure where to start, I suggest reading our vision report The Future Of The Digital Store to get a better sense of what digital store transformation is all about and why it is so critically important. As always, clients are encouraged to continue the conversation with me via Forrester’s inquiry process.