DevOps for Retail Industry Transformation

Meeting the preferences of today’s market requires all industries to constantly develop and improve. Of course, the retail industry is one of those that started their transformation to become closer to customers and keep up with current trends. That is why it comes as no surprise that the retail industry takes third place in the DevOps application market. If you want to compete in today’s world you should catch up on trends and be ready for digital transformation regardless of your industry.

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DevOps is used by retail companies to bridge the gap in software lifecycles and enhance the productivity of their businesses. With DevOps and retail transforming ideas, every retailer can reach a new level of quality and innovation. How? Read on and find out!

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DevOps implementation for retail businesses

Online shopping makes up one-fifth of the retail economy. E-Commerce businesses have completely changed the concept of shopping. The traditional ‘brick-and-mortar’ model, which implies face-to-face sales, is having difficulties competing with web-based shops and platforms like Amazon and AliExpress. The lack of comfort and long lines in stores are just two of the many reasons that shoppers today are turning to online retailers.

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Online businesses stand out because of their high flexibility and low operating costs. Moreover, online shopping trends have changed people’s perception of shopping. Online shops often offer free delivery and returns, as well as save you money and time by avoiding a trip to the store.

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Sorry to break it to you, but if your retail business still isn’t online, you are most likely going to lose your existing customers and not gain new ones unless you launch a website. Imagine that you decide to move your retail business online; the first thing that you should understand is that the digital transformation takes more than a day or even a week. It should be wisely planned and implemented so as not to upset the business workflow, continuity, or quality.

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The milestones of digital transformation include a setup that involves the initial configuration of backup systems, network, application development, testing, monitoring and executing processes, and others that maintain the production cycle. These processes will also require some assistance to make everything work smoothly.

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The task of a DevOps team is to minimize misunderstandings between Development and Operations departments and to enable the Development team to test and deploy the new versions of applications in a straight-forward manner. Hence, DevOps for the retail industry is a solution that brings you one step closer to being a strong competitor.

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What services does DevOps offer retail businesses?

DevOps teams do not carry out the digital transformation on their own, but they do assist clients on their way to infrastructure/processes optimization. To understand how, let’s take a look at the possible steps in digital transformation for the retail industry:

1. Identifying transformation objectives
2. Upgrading technologies
3. Driving operations using data
4. Benefiting from the digital experience.

Сonsider DevOps services to make the software development process faster, more efficient, and less prone to errors.

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Over the last few years, retail businesses have seen the huge impact of digital transformation. Read about some such examples of digital transformation below.

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There are samples of such transformations below:

• Transition to mobile. People are using smartphones for more than 3 hours per day on average. Looking for better deals and making online purchases is now a daily activity. Retailers can bring their businesses online and consequently increase their sales. Considering the situation in 2020, choosing to stay offline, especially during lockdowns, can lead businesses to face real challenges.
• Wearable technology. Smart glasses, smart bracelets, smartwatches, or any form of technology that you can wear as an accessory, can be a significant tool to use. Today, retailers can promote their products and increase their brand awareness by interacting with their potential customers on a variety of smart devices.
• Beacons. Beacon technology is quite simple. First, retailers strategically place beacons around their physical stores. Then, the beacon connects to customers’ Bluetooth devices, enabling a smartphone app. It sends a notification to the phone and opens the application. Finally, customers see the information related to the retailer’s products on their smartphones.

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All these transformations depend on the development of software solutions. DevOps has given us an opportunity to make the development and maintenance processes more time and cost-efficient.

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The services that an outsourcing DevOps company will offer you depend on the specifics of your retail business and the technology used. Generally, outsourcing DevOps partners are product and customer-centric. They may organize the process of DevOps adoption for your company, assist you when choosing the software development technology stack or a Rapid Application Development (RAD) platform that supports cloud and API-based integration, and speed up the software development process.

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DevOps practices include cloud adoption, configuration management, continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD), infrastructure automation and orchestration, web attack prevention, and many more.

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How do businesses benefit from DevOps?

There are at least 5 benefits that DevOps may bring for every retail business:

• Flexibility. DevOps makes the collaboration between Development and Operation teams smooth and effective. Consequently, your business will be ready for new upgrades and integrations more quickly and more frequently.
• Cost. The fact of the matter is, working with an outsourced DevOps team costs less than hiring an in-house DevOps team.
• Convenience. You can expect 24/7 support from an outsourced DevOps team compared to an in-house team that works 8 hours per day. In the case of downtime, the outsourced team is likely to require less time for recovery and minimization of outcomes of downtime.
• Sales benefits. If your company releases and upgrades its products more often and makes them more reliable, the number of your potential and existing customers may increase as well as your sales.

Pros and cons of DevOps for businesses

In the age of the technological boom, you cannot deny the importance of digital transformation for any type of business, and the retail industry is no exception. In their turn, DevOps helps digitize operations and automate the software development industry itself.

If you find the right outsourcing partner and agree on all of the terms of your future collaboration, the partnership with them is likely to result in increased net profit for your business. As DevOps companies already have a variety of tools and an established expert team, they can speed up the implementation of the solution for your retail business.

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Well-known retailers that use DevOps services

By implementing DevOps practices, the following retail companies have increased their profits and have overtaken their competitors on the market.

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Etsy. In the beginning, Etsy used a traditional approach to software development. Having realized that it took months for their Development department to write codes and for the Operations department to deploy them, the company decided to take action and begin collaboration between developers and operators with the help of DevOps. This year, Etsy is among the most rapidly growing companies. Its stock more than tripled in 2020.

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Walmart. Walmart is another excellent example of digital transformation. The company’s technology platform has already embraced DevOps and lets developers focus exclusively on writing codes. As for this year’s revenue, Walmart made $134.8 Billion — a significant increase from last year’s $128.0 Billion.

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Target. Target Corporation has almost 2,000 stores and 300,000 employees. Obviously, such a large enterprise experiences hard times automating IT processes, developing, and deploying software faster and more frequently without DevOps. In 2020, their sales growth saw a 21,3% increase compared to last year.

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The OpsWorks Co. DevOps team provides automated processes, quick releases, and quality code. With DevOps practices, amplification of feedback loops, continual experimentation and learning, our DevOps team will surely boost your business.