Meet the Advisors: Brandon Rael
Brandon Rael is a trusted advisor with significant experience in strategy, operational improvement, digital commerce, profit optimization, technology, and organizational change.
He has partnered with Fortune 100 companies and has a deep understanding of the retail, wholesale, and grocery market landscapes. Brandon has an exceptional track record of successfully leading complex global teams on digital commerce and business transformation journeys.
He is a valued partner for companies to identify and drive key initiatives to enable business growth, reduce costs, define new operating models, enhance capabilities, and shift go-to-market strategies. He has authored industry articles, is a regular podcast contributor, and is a Rethink Retail Top 100 Global Expert.
How have you seen the retail industry evolving? Can you point to any hot trends?
There has been an aggressive push in the retail industry towards digitalizing all processes and experiences across front-line worker capabilities and enhancing the customer experience via mobile applications.
The rise of cloud capabilities and leveraging GenAI solutions have provided retailers with the tools and solutions they need to address a changing and dynamic retail industry.
Embedding more intelligence across the retail value chain solutions is critical, to center all your strategies around the customer and driving outstanding experiences across all channels.
What does retail innovation look like to you?
Retail innovation has to be purpose and solution-driven. It all starts with the business case and what needs to be done to address either an opportunity or challenge across the customer journey.
Any innovation must have a clear value statement and ROI. Innovations come in all forms and should be a business-led process supported by technology partners to drive transformations.
What role does cloud technology play in retail's digital transformation?
Cloud technologies play a critical role in retail's digital transformation, enabling businesses to adapt quickly to shifting consumer demands, streamline operations, and enhance customer experiences.
Cloud capabilities are not only helping to optimize processes and reduce operating costs, but they are also providing the ability to react and execute strategies at the scale and speed retailers need to compete in today's marketplace.
What advice would you give to aspiring retail executives and thought leaders?
Collaboration is key to success in the retail industry. Building every strategy around driving outstanding customer experiences and optimizing the frontline worker journey is a fundamental element that really requires a team effort. Retail is fundamentally about having the right product in the right place and at the right time.
While that will never change, leveraging cloud, GenAI, enterprise analytics, and other technology capabilities are there to ensure that brands and retailers can execute their strategies at scale and profitably.
Why are you (and company) excited to be a part of the Retail Cloud Alliance?
It's been such an honor to be a part of the Retail Cloud Alliance Advisory Board.. I have learned so much from my fellow community members in the discussions I have been a part of. It's clear that the conversation is just getting started, as every single retailer is experiencing similar challenges and will benefit from all the insights and perspectives the RCA provides.
