The Oracle Retail Week Awards 2012 were another great success, building on the legacy of previous award ceremonies. Over 1,600 of the UK's top retailers gathered at the Grosvenor House Hotel and many of Europe's top retail leaders attended the prestigious Oracle Retail VIP Reception in the Grosvenor House Hotel's Red Bar. Over the years the Oracle Retail Week Awards have become a rallying point for the morale of the retail industry, and each nominated retailer served as a demonstration that the industry is fighting fit. It was an honour to speak to so many figureheads of UK - and global - retail.
All of us at Oracle Retail would like to congratulate both the winners and the nominees for the awards. Retail is a cornerstone of the economy and it was inspiring to see so many outstanding demonstrations of innovation and dedication in the entries.
Winners 2012
The Market Force Customer Service Initiative of the Year Winner: Dixons Retail: Knowhow Highly Commended: Hughes Electrical: Digital Switchover
The Deloitte Employer of the Year
Winner: Morrisons
Growing Retailer of the Year Winner: Hallett Retail - The Concessions People Highly Commended: Blue Inc
The TCC Marketing/Advertising Campaign of the Year Winner: Sainsbury's: Feed your Family for £50
The Brandbank Multichannel Retailer of the Year Winner: Debenhams Highly Commended: Halfords
The Ashton Partnership Product Innovation of the Year Winner: Argos: Chad Valley Highly Commended: Halfords: Private label bikes
The RR Donnelley Pure-play Online Retailer of the Year Winner: Wiggle
The Hitachi Consulting Responsible Retailer of the Year Winner: B&Q: One Planet Home
The CA Technologies Retail Technology Initiative of the Year Winner: Oasis: Argyll Street flagship launch with iPad PoS
The Premier Tax Free Speciality Retailer of the Year Winner: Holland & Barrett
Store Design of the Year Winner: Next Home and Garden, Shoreham, Sussex Highly Commended: Dixons Retail, Black concept store, Birmingham Bullring
Store Manager of the Year Winner: Ian Allcock, Homebase, Aylesford Highly Commended: Darren Parfitt, Boots UK, Melton Mowbray Health Centre
The Wates Retail Destination of the Year Winner: Westfield, Stratford
The AlixPartners Emerging Retail Leader of the Year Winner: Catriona Marshall, HobbyCraft, Chief Executive
The Wipro Retail International Retailer of the Year Winner: Apple
The Clarity Search Retail Leader of the Year Winner: Ian Cheshire, Chief Executive, Kingfisher
The Oracle Retailer of the Year Winner: Burberry
Outstanding Contribution to Retail Winner: Lord Harris of Peckham
Oracle Retail and "Your Experience Platform"
Technology is the key to providing that differentiated retail experience. More specifically, it is what we at Oracle call ‘the experience platform’ - a set of integrated, cross-channel business technology solutions, selected and operated by a retail business and IT team, and deployed in accordance with that organisation’s individual strategy and processes.
This business systems architecture simultaneously:
Connects customer interactions across all channels and touchpoints, and every customer lifecycle phase to provide a differentiated customer experience that meets consumers’ needs and expectations.
Delivers actionable insight that enables smarter decisions in planning, forecasting, merchandising, supply chain management, marketing, etc;
Optimises operations to align every aspect of the retail business to gain efficiencies and economies, to align KPIs to eliminate strategic conflicts, and at the same time be working in support of customer priorities.
Working in unison, these three goals not only help retailers to successfully navigate the challenges of today but also to focus on delivering that personalised customer experience based on differentiated products, pricing, services and interactions that will help you to gain market share and grow sales.
