By Donny Askin, Principal, TechTurn Consulting
Published: January 12, 2020
The year was 1974. Bruce Springsteen, now affectionately known as, the BOSS, was a 25-year-old newbee, playing a show at the Harvard Square Theater in Cambridge, MA. Influential music critic Jon Landau happened to be in the audience. Captivated by what he saw from Springsteen, he wrote about the performance in The Real Paper with a line that would change the trajectory of rock and roll.
“I saw rock and roll’s future and it’s name is Bruce Springsteen.”
Landau spotted something in Springsteen. He was the complete package - extraordinary singer, pro guitar player, masterful composer...the list goes on. He brought an allure back to rock and roll that had gone missing.
Fast forward to 2020 and jump the tracks to retail. With over 40 years in the industry, including CEO of OMS providers such as CommercialWare (which I founded and was acquired by Micros Retail and ultimately, Oracle) and OrderMotion (acquired by CommercialWare and ultimately, NetSuite), I can confidently say this:
“I’ve seen the future of retail and it’s name is NewStore,”
the retail technology company founded by commerce pioneer and visionary, Stephan Schambach.
Like Springsteen, NewStore is the complete package. Omni order management - check. Mobile point of service, check. (The fact that they’re connected, double check). It doesn’t stop there! NewStore is hitting the high notes on endless aisle, inventory management, store fulfillment and clienteling, too. All the things customers increasingly demand and expect in modern retail.
While traditional companies are spending effort cobbling disparate systems together to achieve omnichannel, on aging architectures, NewStore was built on day one with the “holy grail” - a unified platform with the plumbing for data aggregation and the tentacles of commerce. We’re in the midst of a major transformation in retail, so having one piece of the puzzle just won’t make anyone a superstar.
Beyond NewStore being an end-to-end solution, what I really like about the company is that its mission is not about upgrading the status quo but rather visioning the future. With its API-first architecture, it is well-positioned to play the big stage in retail no matter what the next generation customer touchpoint is - iPhone, wearables, voice, AR, VR, you name it.
This is true of Stephan’s entire career, actually; he has a knack for creating what the industry needs before it knows it needs it. Just look at Intershop with ecommerce and Demandware (now Salesforce Commerce Cloud) with the cloud.
As retail sings from a new song sheet in 2020 and beyond, we’ll see the curtain close on those retailers that resist change. The ones who succeed will be those who have a vision for greatness like Landau did with Springsteen. NewStore is the future of retail - the store, as we know it, is dead. Long live NewStore...and, of course, The Boss!
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