Mike Tippets, VP, corporate marketing, PR and communication at Hughes Network Systems, shares key early steps that will ensure your network and retail technology stack is at peak performance for the year’s busiest shopping events.
Consumers may spend the long summer days enjoying pool parties and packing for camping trips, but for retailers, this is the time to get things in order for the holiday season. There’s plenty to think about as the seasonal rush nears. You may have temporary locations to set up and staff, promotional pricing to drive sales, and new fulfillment options to help customers get their gifts out on time. While you’re finalizing your holiday plans, this is also the time to carry out essential network and security updates to ensure your infrastructure and systems are ready to meet the demands of the season.
Review your integrations and fine-tune omnichannel and third-party systems
Most retailers rely on multiple technologies to power their operations, from inventory management systems to loyalty programs. If you’re looking to elevate the shopping experience or enhance associates’ capabilities, you still have time to wrap up testing the latest technologies and upgrading existing platforms, such as handheld devices, digital signage displays, and interactive kiosks. Partnering with a managed services provider that knows what it takes to configure, deploy, and maintain all this equipment can help you scale your technology early and get you through your busy time successfully.
Prepare your technologies for temporary or pop-up locations
It isn’t just demand that’s tied to the holidays — many brands have their own seasonal technology requirements, and they come with tight timelines that aren’t forgiving if you experience missteps or delays. Providing the best possible customer experience requires months of careful planning. Confirm the features you want to support across your physical footprint now, so you’re working far enough ahead to finish your preparations before the full force of the holiday traffic arrives. You may need to adjust your technology deployments to make new concepts, such as pop-ups and temporary locations, a success.
Develop your strategy to equip and train seasonal employees
A crucial area of focus is the time it takes to get a seasonal employee proficient in their job, including familiarizing them with the solutions and procedures they will use. Efficiently completing employee training benefits both the employee and the customer experience, plus it can increase your profitability. By deploying employee-facing digital signage solutions, for example, retailers can shorten the time it takes to train seasonal workers. Giving your IT team enough time to make these changes and map out the hardware and software needed at each location can help you maintain a tight schedule and avoid mistakes down the line.
Assess your network for strength and resilience
The network is the backbone of retail. It makes individual systems work and moves data where it needs to go. Consumers increasingly expect fast mobile commerce on the phone, online, and even in the store. Employees rely on handheld devices to stay on top of backend activities, as well as to deliver the excellent service customers want. With an expanded footprint of devices from both staff and guests, retailers need to verify that their networks have the capacity and optimization tools to handle bandwidth-intensive apps and heavy transaction traffic.
An early assessment confirms your networks are ready to perform during peak shopping times. To achieve consistent enterprise performance, retailers should consider solutions such as SD-WAN and 5G or other wireless backup to bolster performance, increase reliability, and reduce friction for customers and employees.
Evaluate and update your network security protocols
In today’s cyber threat environment, network security is just as critical as network response and strength. Depending on your technology landscape, you may need to secure connected third-party devices, such as product scanners or security cameras, ensure your network is configured to safeguard POS transactions, extend secure internet access to guests, and protect data traffic to and from the cloud. With so much at stake, a layered approach to security is recommended, so that even if a cybercriminal finds a way around one of your security controls, they still won’t be able to access your network and launch an attack. Retailers already know how costly breaches and other security incidents can be, potentially exposing sensitive customer information and damaging your brand.
A network intrusion or ransomware attack during the holidays could take stores offline when you can least afford an outage. An expansion of your store footprint — through temporary kiosks, seasonal staff, and other activities that put additional devices and data traffic on your network — creates an expanded attack surface that you need to protect.
While it can sound daunting to implement multiple layers of security, organizations like managed security service providers can provide many of these services and the expertise to get your security posture ready for the busy holiday season. Retailers can also turn to MSPs to handle the deployment and operation of their technology infrastructure to take the guesswork out of ramping up the holiday digital experience. These partners often provide tools and cybersecurity professionals to enhance your in-house IT capabilities and get you through the holiday season.
