What You Missed at Reflexions 2019, Days Two and Three

The second day of Reflexions 2019 – Intelligent Retail focused on what’s new and what’s next—for Reflexis and for the retail industry—including a look at how industries like branch banking are addressing similar opportunities and challenges. Finally, the conference wrapped up on Thursday with sessions focused on practical skills. Here’s the highlights from Day Two and Day Three of retail’s most exciting user conference.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Practice

Reflexis CEO Prashanth Palakurthi put the focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, explaining his goal of making this technology both available and relevant for frontline retail managers and associates. He explained that by identifying patterns in your data and empowering staff to act on them, AI and Machine Learning can help you answer the questions that matter most to your stores.

In order to achieve this goal, Reflexis debuted a range of new solutions that use Machine Learning models and AI-augmented analytics to empower the Intelligent Retail environment. Kevin Tapscott, Vice President of Solution Consulting – Americas, discussed how these new products drive improvements to labor planning, store execution, and more. David Lancefield, Vice President of Solution Consulting – EMEA, then took the stage to present the Reflexis Roadmap, highlighting our continued commitment to enhancing the usability, accessibility, security, and functionality of the Reflexis ONE platform.

Global Retail Panel

Representatives from Coppel and Waitrose came together to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing retailers internationally. Coppel, operating in Mexico and Argentina, implemented the Reflexis ONE platform in order to improve organizational structure in stores and automate and digitize their processes. Waitrose, based in the UK, wanted to use the platform to scale their operations in the face of intense disruption in the UK food and grocery industry.

While both retailers have unique cultural and organizational challenges, a common theme between them was the importance of their workforces. Both Coppel and Waitrose prioritized building a positive work experience for their store associates, making it easy for them to access store systems and execute projects, while also ensuring that the right staff are in the right place at the right time to offer exceptional customer service.

Customer Breakout Sessions

One of the highlights of Reflexions every year are the customer-led best-practice sessions. Reflexis customers came together to share the results they’ve seen with Reflexis, their change management strategies, and techniques for maximizing the ROI of their solutions.

This year’s speakers included:

AutoZone – AutoZone’s Executive Vice President of Store Operations, Commercial, Loss Prevention, and ALLDATA presented on mitigating the impact of rising labor costs with Reflexis Workforce Scheduler. In a slow-growth industry, it was key for AutoZone to optimize their labor spend. By refining their labor models and improving scheduling processes, they were able to reduce overtime while still improving customer service.

Tractor Supply Co. – Tractor Supply’s Vice President of Store Operations Administration discussed strategies for implementing the Reflexis ONE platform. With task management, store auditing, workforce management, and employee self-service on a single, mobile platform, Tractor Supply was able to simplify store execution, align schedules with customer demand, and streamline work for store associates.

Luxottica – Luxottica’s Senior Communications Specialist shared the key tools they had created for field leaders using Reflexis Task Manager. In order to improve strategic communication and accountability from corporate to the field, Luxottica developed a single Leadership Calendar to consolidate key activities for the year in one mobile location and created a Project Status Report to offer field leaders a one-stop-shop to track all project execution. These tools reduced back-and-forth between the field and corporate, saving time and effort for field managers.

Other sessions included presentations from Shoe Sensation, Gate Petroleum, Cumberland Farms, Fanatics, and Bob’s Discount Furniture.

Hands-On Trainings

The final day of Reflexions 2019 – Intelligent Retail was spent applying the lessons learned from the conference. Customers attended hands-on trainings on Task Manager, Workforce Scheduler, and Advanced Analytics and Reporting lead by Reflexis’ retail experts. These sessions focused not only on developing practical skills to maximize the value of the Reflexis platform, but also on how to achieve strategic goals by improving processes. Several areas of focus were gatekeeping communications, scheduling at the market-level, and building custom reporting in order to quantify both wins and inefficiencies.

Save the date for Reflexions 2020 – June 15-18 at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel!