Digitalization of the retail sector

How can I adapt my company to the digital era so as not to lose my competitive advantage? If your sector is retail, don’t worry because you are taking an important first step. Viafirma’s solutions will help you to achieve success in the digitalization of your company. We tell you how we help leading companies in the sector to take a step further in their digital life cycle.

The right digital transformation process will help any company in the retail industry to improve its productivity and create new opportunities.

We will bring you 3 success stories of the use of digital signatures in retail, but not before a brief review of the current situation of the sector in Spain.

Retail industry in Spain

The Spanish retail sector is currently in good health, with promising prospects for the future.

In fact, according to a study by Think With Google, e-commerce in Spain has grown by an average of 22% per year over the last four years. In just 8 years, e-commerce has become a trend and is now commonplace among the population.

In fact, Spain ranks as the fourth most online shopping country in Europe, behind the UK, Italy and Poland, and the average annual online shopping expenditure has almost doubled in less than 10 years to reach €1,366 per online shopper.

Por otra parte, la transformación digital es fundamental para afianzar esta tendencia creciente. Por esto es nuestra obligación analizar, en líneas generales, en qué punto de este cambio se encuentra

To do so, we will first turn to the diagnostic study The Digitalization of Retail in Spain, prepared by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Tourism. From this we can draw the following conclusions of interest:

• E-commerce penetration levels are below average in small commerce, while in large competitors it is above average.
• Since 2015, small commerce has been closing the gap with larger competitors.
• Most companies outsource their digital transformation processes, as they do not have in-house specialists.
• Most companies employ some form of management software.
• Entrepreneurs think that they have a degree of digitalization on a par with their competitors.
• In terms of sales levels, traditional sales continue to reign over electronic sales, mostly from the business’ own website, and not on external platforms.
• The main obstacles perceived are the lack of economic resources and the low digital skills of the staff.

In addition, we can make use of the OpenText and IDC report entitled The challenge of omni-experience and customer intelligence in the digitization of the retail of the future. This report concludes that only 9.9% of the companies surveyed claim to be in an initial phase of digital transformation, while 11.9% consider themselves to be at the most advanced stage of the process.

Among all the measures contemplated in this study, one of the most outstanding is the investment in cybersecurity measures, especially with regard to the privacy of their customers. All of this is largely encouraged by the GDPR Regulation on the protection and processing of personal data of natural persons and their free movement.

 

Advantages of digital signature in retail

The digital signature fits perfectly to most parts of this sector. To prove it, we can make a brief review of the main business sections.

From the commercial perspective, it speeds up sales contracts and invoicing; in human resources, it speeds up hiring and document management, such as payroll, sick leave and other types of procedures; for logistical aspects, it makes the receipt and delivery of goods more fluid.

This superficial glance is enough to give us an idea of the tool’s potential for the sector. Thanks to it, we achieve processes with more legal guarantees that eliminate barriers such as those related to geographical aspects.

3 Viafirma’s success stories in retail

Viafirma offers its signature solutions to important companies in the Spanish retail sector. Next we will talk about some of them and how they have been able to optimize their business processes.

Heineken

The Heineken Spain group is the leader in the national beer sector, being also in a prominent position among food and beverage companies, with profits that exceeded 70 million euros last 2018.

Heineken Spain makes use of Viafirma Documents in cloud mode, integrating the mobile CRM that its salespeople carry on a corporate iPad and incorporating biometric signature in the contracts formalized with its customers. Hesafirma, the customized app, is integrated into the company’s suite of internal apps.

The integration and distribution project is carried out with our partner Guadaltech, a technology consulting firm also from Seville and responsible for the development of CRM for Heineken’s iPad.

Mediamarkt

This multinational reference in the marketing of electronic products, household appliances and computer equipment, invoiced in 2018 more than 2,000 million euros in Spain.

Mediamarkt Spain uses Viafirma Documents, also incorporating the biometric signature in contracts with end customers, being carried out directly in the store.

The project has the integration of its system through the Sevillian consulting firm S-DOS, Viafirma’s partner.

MAS Supermarkets

Grupo Hermanos Martín is a family company with 40 years of experience in the food distribution sector. Supermercados MAS is its main brand, with more than 100 stores in Seville, Huelva, Malaga, Granada and Cadiz.

Supermercados MAS relies on Viafirma Documents in its SaaS (Software as a Service) mode. The Andalusian company in strong territorial expansion uses Viafirma Documents to speed up the process of signing labor documentation, such as communications or contracts, among others.

As we have seen, the digital signature in retail is an important contribution to its digital growth, obtaining benefits that, in one way or another, will have an impact on the welfare and satisfaction of the final consumer.