Many businesses are looking at ways to transform to not only survive but thrive in the new normal. Régis Schultz, President of Retail, at Al Futtaim Group shared his learnings about becoming more agile and how to leverage investments in technology and innovation to grow stronger and more profitable.
Digital transformation – Play with your strengths
In terms of digital transformation, you need to make sure that you play on your strengths. You are not digital born, your business does not have the agility, doesn’t understand how the web works. Make sure that your stores are aligned with your strategy, are omnichannel, and that your people are convinced about what you’re doing. The first thing is to make sure that your stores are promoting your e-com and not the opposite. Don’t hesitate to partner because you will learn much quicker and much faster.
When you are a brick-and-mortar retailer, you want to be known for what you want to be famous for, something that you can be good at. You don’t want to do everything because we know that if you do everything in a store, you start to dilute your concept. But the rules that we apply offline are not the rules that you apply online, the rules are different.
The beauty of ecommerce
The ability to have a marketplace on your website is a fantastic opportunity to learn, to keep your customer and a fantastic opportunity to get free traffic on your website. And you can decide overnight you want to stop. This is the beauty of the e-comm of the digital world. This is about reality; it is about understanding what’s happening in the market. And it’s fantastic because it is happening on your website. So, you don’t have the excuse of not knowing.
The region has a better balance between store and e-comm. While e-comm is developing very quickly and will continue, I think we will still invest in our stores. It is a way of living, the social life around the mall, which is less happening elsewhere. 
Régis Schultz
The future of stores
I think the big difference with the Middle East is the quality of the mall and the store estate. The region has a better balance between store and e-comm. While e-comm is developing very quickly and will continue, I think we will still invest in our stores. It is a way of living, the social life around the mall, which is less happening elsewhere.
The value of data
The success of a loyalty program when you have an app, depends on your ability to combine your instinct with the data. If you are able to do both, I think you have the strongest proposition. We have been living in this world of emotion, interacting with customers, so this part we know; we don’t know the data and we tend not to be good at that. How you put the two together will define if you will be the winner of the game.
