Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
It had been quite a while since I’d had the chance to sit down and chat with Tom Nix, but when I saw a recent comment that Scala had had a record performance in the past year, I wanted to meet up with the CEO and find out more about Scala and his views on what’s happening in the industry in general.
“We added 1,100 new customers in 2013,” Nix said. “We increased sales in the Americas with a 20% growth. In other areas, it was up and down, since there was a negative currency impact. But all in all, it was a great year.”
Nix said that Scala has been offering its retail clients mobile to connect to their customers and helping them to optimize their content with analytic tools.
“We want to show clients that they are achieving their goals,” said Nix. “And we are moving towards helping retailers realize their omnichannel strategies.”
Nix said he’s noticed that that retailers are beginning to be more interested in ‘small’.
“We believe that small is the next big thing,” he said. ”For example, Sprint is using 4” screens for product information. And while electronic shelf labels have so far had a light adoption rate, we think they are will come on strong in the next two or three years. You have to look at companies like Amazon that make 6 million price changes a day. Retailers are looking for better ways to make price changes. In fact, inventory is a $4 trillion problem, so use of dynamic pricing offers a big opportunity for smaller screens. We started seeing the trend to smaller screens in the 4”-to-8” range last year and that seems to be continuing.”
Driving more than 500,000 screens worldwide, Scala solutions increase sales, improve brand loyalty, optimize customer experience, and reinforce business objectives.
“We want to invest more in connecting with sounds, senses, gesture, for personalized experiences,” said Nix. “Personalization in-store will fill the missing piece in everyone’s strategy. Of course, security and privacy are super-important for Scala and for our clients.
“It’s important for clients to use information to enhance the customer experience. Retailers want to generate value for their customers. They want to get to know their customers, and that’s also something that we want to help them with.”
In total, Scala, based in Exton, Pennsylvania, has multiple subsidiaries across Europe and Asia, and more than 500 partners in more than 90 countries. It will be holding its North American client conference in Austin, Texas, April 3-4.
In the meantime, it is hosting a number of post #dse2014 webinars and plans to dive deeper into the Scala solutions that it presented on the show floor. These include: Message Design and Data Integration with Marc Rifkin , Feb. 25 at 2pm EST; The Connected Store with Amy Wilson, Feb. 26 at 2pm EST; and Analyze This: Leveraging Big Data for an Enhanced Customer Experience with Dina Townsend, March 5 at 2pm EST.
February 21st, 2014 at 01:14 @093
Genuinely nice bloke Tom Nix and he’s bang on about the ‘small’…..some adoptions in store are inevitable.