What is Microsoft Cloud for Retail?
In response to the industry's focus on cloud services, Microsoft has prioritized the development of services that are specific to the industry. Microsoft Cloud for Retail is a collection of proven tools to connect your customers, your people, and most importantly, your data.
Microsoft Cloud for Retail accelerates business growth by providing trusted retail industry solutions that integrate with retailer’s existing systems. Through this complete set of retail specific capabilities across the Microsoft Cloud portfolio, in addition to partner solutions, it becomes possible to seamlessly connect your customers, your people, and your data.
AI capabilities in Microsoft Cloud for Retail help you increase productivity across various aspects of your business. It helps in building and analyzing your data, creating personalized shopping experiences for your customers, supply chain management, and store operations. Microsoft Cloud for Retail brings together different data sources across the retail value chain and connects experiences throughout the shopper journey using capabilities from Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Fabric.
Priority retail scenarios and capabilities
Microsoft Cloud for Retail is an industry-specific cloud that introduces capabilities for retail customers across the following four key scenarios:
Maximize the value of your data
Retailers are challenged to unify vast and increasing amounts of data across various sources that don't necessarily communicate well with one another. Maximizing the value of your data is about unifying these data sources and increase data-driven productivity with AI driven data insights to realize greater value across your enterprise.
| Capability | Description | Solutions included |
|---|---|---|
| Unified customer profile | Gain insights across the complete view of a shopper's journey | Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Retail channel churn model |
| Retail data solutions | Unify retail data from disparate systems, create new shopping experiences, and reimagine retail with next-generation AI | Sitecore OrderCloud Connector (Preview) Frequently bought together (Preview) Retail industry data model (Preview) |
| Shopper and operations analytics | Unlock omnichannel insights with advanced analytics. | Application template for smart store analytics (Smart Store Analytics) Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Azure Synapse Analytics Microsoft Clarity |
| Retail media | Unlock ad revenue using your shopper data. | Microsoft PromoteIQ |
For more information, see Maximize the value of your data.
Elevate the shopping experience
Retail customers demand experiences tailored to their tastes and respect of their time and energy. Tools tailored for this scenario, along with hyper-personalisation using AI, help foster stronger customer relationships, increase online and offline cart size, and drive loyalty.
| Capability | Description | Solutions included |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligent stores | Maximize sales by optimizing in-store customer and product signals. | Application template for smart store analytics (Smart Store Analytics) Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces |
| Unified commerce | Increase engagement and drive conversations across channels. | Dynamics 365 Commerce Azure Cognitive Search |
| Real-time personalization | Enable personalized recommendations and search results to improve customer engagement and product discovery. | Copilot template for personalized shopping Microsoft Intelligent Recommendations Azure Cognitive Search Dynamics 365 Marketing |
| Digital advertising solutions | Enhance your advertising to drive growth and acquire new customers. | Microsoft Advertising |
| Seamless customer service | Utilize intelligent and automated customer service tools to improve the customer experience. | Dynamics 365 Commerce Omnichannel for Customer Service Power Virtual Agents |
For more information: Elevate the shopping experience.
Build a real-time, retail supply chain
Currently, supply chain stability and agility are the most pressing frontiers for retail organizations around the world. As a result, Microsoft has core solutions that include AI to provide visibility across your entire supply chain and to predict and manage changes in supply and demand at all points. Retailers can create an agile, resilient retail supply chain by connecting data across your ecosystem to identify issues and optimize performance.
| Capability | Description | Solutions included |
|---|---|---|
| Demand planning and optimization | Predict demand using AI to optimize inventory. | Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Microsoft 365 Teams for Frontline Workers |
| Supply chain visibility | Use demand and supply signals for future opportunities. | Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Insights Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management Microsoft 365 Teams for Frontline Workers |
| Flexible fulfillment | Optimize order management, giving customers a choice across delivery channels. | Dynamics 365 Commerce Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Microsoft 365 Teams for Frontline Workers |
For more information, see Build a real-time, retail supply chain.
Empower the store associate
Microsoft provides modern work solutions that help in collaboration and automation to manage burnout so that store associates can be as effective and empowered as possible. You can equip your retail workforce with AI based solutions to increase customer satisfaction while reducing the burden on your frontline and empowering your team's growth.
| Capability | Description | Solutions included |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time store communication and collaboration | Use modern tools for connecting your team. | Microsoft 365 Teams for Frontline Workers |
| Retail workforce management | Automate managerial tasks such as store scheduling. | Application template for store operations (Store Operations Assist) Copilot template for store operations Microsoft 365 Teams for Frontline Workers |
| Process automation and career development | Expand what your stores and people can do through automation. | Microsoft Viva Learning Microsoft Viva Insights Microsoft Viva Connections |
For more information, see Empower the store associate.