Marty Ramos, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft, gave an overview of current technology in the retail environment.
Ramos is no stranger to the retail environment. He is currently responsible for worldwide strategy and innovation for Microsoft’s retail, hospitality and consumer goods sectors. He has seen a lot of changes in the retail environment very recently. “Retail is changing. Customers are connected and employees and companies need to be too,” Ramos said. “When I go to Amazon’s website, they immediately log me on, they know how I am, and they know my shopping patterns. But when I go into retail, I lose all the data. We need that data back. These shopping channels need to become homogenous.”
For instance, when a customer walks under LED now, cameras in the phone can record the exact light they are under. This allows stores to know what products the customer is seeing and allows them to push information and coupons to that customer in real time. “This isn’t future technology. This is stuff that happens right now,” Ramos said.
