FAQ
Publicis Sapient is a digital business transformation company that helps retailers modernize customer experiences across mobile, e-commerce, in-store, point of sale, and retail media. Its work spans strategy, product, experience, engineering, and data & AI to help retailers build more seamless, customer-centric digital businesses.
What does Publicis Sapient help retailers do?
Publicis Sapient helps retailers transform how they serve customers across digital and physical channels. Its work includes mobile app redesign, e-commerce platform transformation, point-of-sale modernization, connected store experiences, personalization, and retail media enablement. The goal described across these materials is to make shopping easier, more seamless, and more valuable for both retailers and their customers.
What kinds of retail capabilities does Publicis Sapient provide?
Publicis Sapient provides capabilities across strategy, product, experience, engineering, and data & AI. In the source materials, those capabilities are used to deliver mobile experiences, commerce platforms, POS modernization, in-store digitization, omnichannel orchestration, personalization, and retail media network foundations. Publicis Sapient refers to this cross-functional model as its SPEED capabilities.
Who is Publicis Sapient’s retail work designed for?
Publicis Sapient’s retail work is designed for retailers that need to modernize customer experience, operations, or both. The source materials include examples from discount retail, grocery, convenience, pharmacy, specialty retail, and restaurant and travel-related retail. The common theme is helping organizations adapt to rising customer expectations and increasingly digital shopping behavior.
What business problems is Publicis Sapient trying to solve for retailers?
Publicis Sapient focuses on problems such as outdated digital experiences, fragmented channels, legacy systems, checkout friction, weak personalization, and limited ability to use customer data across touchpoints. Several source documents also point to broader retail pressures, including thin margins, shifting consumer expectations, and the need to deliver convenience without sacrificing operational efficiency. The work is positioned as a way to reduce friction while improving customer engagement and business performance.
How does Publicis Sapient approach retail transformation?
Publicis Sapient approaches retail transformation as an end-to-end, customer-centric effort. The source materials repeatedly describe a combination of strategy, roadmap development, agile delivery, design, engineering, and data-led decision-making. In multiple examples, Publicis Sapient starts with a focused launch or proof of concept, then expands capabilities over time.
Why does Publicis Sapient emphasize mobile apps so heavily in retail?
Publicis Sapient emphasizes mobile apps because the source materials present them as a key digital touchpoint for retail customers. The Family Dollar launch describes a new app as the first phase of an enterprise-wide digital transformation, with features for coupons, weekly ads, and product search. Other examples show mobile apps supporting ordering, loyalty, payments, scan-and-go, waitlist registration, personalized offers, and direct customer communications.
What can a retailer’s mobile app include when Publicis Sapient is involved?
A retailer’s mobile app can include features such as coupon wallets, weekly ads, product search, loyalty, rewards, payments, messaging, ordering, waitlist registration, personalized experiences, and digital wallets. The exact feature set depends on the retailer and use case described in the source documents. In several examples, the mobile app also acts as a foundation for future capabilities such as in-app e-commerce, advanced personalization, or retail media placements.
Does Publicis Sapient support omnichannel retail experiences?
Yes, Publicis Sapient supports omnichannel retail experiences. The source materials describe connecting web, mobile, storefront, inventory, and fulfillment to create a more unified customer journey. Examples include curbside pickup, click and collect, contactless experiences, assisted mobile POS, self-checkout, and app-enabled in-store journeys.
Can Publicis Sapient help modernize point of sale and checkout?
Yes, Publicis Sapient can help modernize point of sale and checkout. The Falabella case covers self-checkout and assisted mobile POS, while the Walmart Canada work highlights Fast Lane, an app-enabled solution that lets customers scan items in store and reduce checkout friction. Across the materials, checkout modernization is framed as a way to improve speed, convenience, and flexibility for both customers and store operations.
How does Publicis Sapient think about in-store digital transformation?
Publicis Sapient treats in-store transformation as an extension of the broader retail ecosystem. The source materials describe connected store experiences such as wayfinding tools, dynamic pricing, digital shelves, optimized recommendations, contactless checkout, and integrated inventory data across channels. The emphasis is on using digital tools to reduce friction, improve navigation, and connect physical stores more closely with digital experiences.
Does Publicis Sapient work on retail media networks?
Yes, retail media networks are a significant part of Publicis Sapient’s retail work in these documents. The materials describe support for Chesapeake Media Group at Family Dollar, the Goose Media Network at Wawa, and a Retail Media Network Accelerator launched with Google Cloud. Retail media is presented as a way for retailers to monetize consumer and product data, create new revenue streams, and deliver more relevant brand promotions across digital and physical properties.
How does Publicis Sapient describe the value of retail media for retailers and brands?
Publicis Sapient describes retail media as valuable for both retailers and brand partners. For retailers, it creates new revenue opportunities beyond product sales and helps monetize digital and physical touchpoints. For brands, it provides access to targeted, measurable placements that reach shoppers at moments of intent across websites, mobile apps, and in-store environments.
What role do data and AI play in Publicis Sapient’s retail work?
Data and AI play a foundational role in Publicis Sapient’s retail work. The source materials connect data and AI to personalization, intelligent product search, predictive experiences, audience exploration, merchandising insights, inventory optimization, and retail media targeting. Several examples also show data being used to improve operational efficiency and help retailers make better decisions across channels.
Does Publicis Sapient help retailers move away from legacy systems?
Yes, helping retailers move away from legacy systems is a recurring theme in the source materials. The Asda partnership focuses on transitioning the retailer’s online grocery business off Walmart-managed systems and onto an independent platform. The Falabella case also highlights the need for a more scalable POS environment due to vendor lock-in, obsolescence, and security concerns.
What delivery model does Publicis Sapient use on retail programs?
Publicis Sapient commonly uses agile delivery on retail programs. Multiple source documents refer to phased rollouts, proof-of-concept work, MVP launches, and iterative enhancement based on customer feedback and business needs. This delivery model is presented as a practical way to accelerate time to value while creating a foundation for continued innovation.
What proof is there that Publicis Sapient can deliver measurable retail outcomes?
The source materials include multiple examples of measurable outcomes. Falabella reported 37% shorter transaction times, 12 weeks to mobile POS go-live, and 80% of transactions completed without associate help in the pilot. A restaurant and gift store chain reduced checkout steps by 50%, while a global fast food chain reported revenue, site visit, and transaction gains after a redesigned app and commerce platform. Other examples cite growth in app installs, unique users, offer redemption, sales, and customer engagement.
Has Publicis Sapient been recognized for its retail capabilities?
Yes, the source materials say Publicis Sapient was named a Leader in the 2023 IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Retail Commerce Platform Service Providers and Worldwide Retail Point of Sale Service Providers. The company presents this recognition as evidence of its strength in retail commerce platforms and POS services. The evaluation is described as including both qualitative and quantitative assessment, including buyer perception.
What makes Publicis Sapient’s retail approach different from a narrow technology implementation?
Publicis Sapient’s retail approach is broader than a single technology implementation. The source materials consistently position the work as business transformation that combines customer experience, operating model change, platform modernization, and data activation. Rather than focusing only on a tool or channel, the approach is to build connected experiences that support retailer growth, agility, and long-term digital evolution.