Digital Retail I: How digital innovations are transforming the retail sector

Thursday 20 May 2021

The retail sector has gone through an unprecedented transformation in the last 12 months. The shift to online and omnichannel retailing has been swift. However, digital transformation is not just about implementing a specific function, like a shopping cart to your existing website. In reality, organizations must make fundamental changes to their operations, supply chains, inventory management, and customer relationship processes. They must analyse data to accurately project demand, react to customer needs, and ship products quickly and efficiently. As now we are hopefully moving towards post-Covid retailing, businesses need to assess which digital innovations will help them sustain and grow and how these innovations need to be naturally engraved in the existing business models.

Watch video

Emer McCarthy

Emer is a Chartered Accountant (FCA) and is the Group Strategy and Ecommerce Director at Kilkenny Group. She is an experienced director with experience growing businesses operationally and functionally to deliver sustainable growth as part of overall company strategy. Prior to joining Kilkenny Group, Emer worked across a wide variety of sectors (retail, consumer electronics, aviation, corporate finance and banking institutions) and held senior positions across audit, corporate finance, investor relations and financial control.

Dr Rehan Iftikhar

Assistant Professor of Digital Marketing & Information Systems, Dublin City University

Dr Rehan Iftikhar is an Assistant Professor of Digital Marketing & Information Systems at DCU Business School. He holds a M.Sc. degree in Engineering Management from the University of Exeter, UK, and a Ph.D. degree in Business and Management from Maynooth University, Ireland. Previous to this role, he worked as a Lecturer in Maynooth University. He has an engineering background and previous experience of working as a Project Engineer and an Operation Analyst.

His research is regarded highly and has been published in  renowned journals, such as the Journal of Global Information Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and Journal of General Management. He has also won multiple awards for his research including the best paper award at European Conference of Information Systems (ECIS). Dr Iftikhar’s main research interests are digital transformation, disruptive technologies, digital marketing, digital retail, and technology management.

Artem Bielozorov

Artem Bielozorov is a PhD student at Maynooth University and a Marie Curie Training Network Fellow. Artem’s research interest are Digital Retail, Service Modelling, and Business Process Management. Artem investigates organisational capabilities and key success factors for implementation and reuse of cross-channel delivery processes in the digital retail context.

Facilitator: Joan Mulvihill

Digitalisation Lead, Siemens Ireland

As the Digitalisation Lead for Siemens in Ireland, Joan Mulvihill continues to be at the forefront of driving technology adoption in Ireland. Having held the position of CEO of the Irish Internet Association for 7 years, followed by 2 years as the Centre Director for the Irish Centre for Cloud Computing and Commerce, her role at Siemens builds on Siemens’ and her deep commitment to and understanding of the needs of Irish business for their digital transformation. Digitalisation means working differently. Siemens will always work with their clients to meet their operational technology needs with world class products and services and now through Digitalisation, Siemens leverages its domain expertise with clients to transform and create the businesses of their future.

Previous Webinars