Retail & E-commerce

Retail in Central Asia is at an inflection point. The shopper already thinks omnichannelly — compares prices on Uzum, orders through a Telegram bot, picks up in-store. But systems at most companies are still in a 2015 paradigm: 1C for accounting, a separate website, manual marketplace management, a plastic loyalty card with a flat discount.

The core problem isn’t a lack of technology but the disconnect between channels. The shopper exists in three or four versions: anonymous website visitor, loyalty card holder, marketplace account, and phone number in the courier database. None of these versions knows about the others. Marketing spends budget attracting people who are already customers. The loyalty team gives discounts to people who would have bought anyway. The commercial director can’t answer “who is our best customer” — only “which product sells best.”

I help retailers build a digital layer on top of the accounting system. I start with an audit: how the customer journey is structured, where the data is, what’s lost between channels. Then I design the architecture: unified product catalog, unified buyer profile, channel integration through a central bus. Priority is defined by business need — if online is growing, start with e-commerce integration; if retention is falling, start with CRM and loyalty.

The result is a retailer that competes not on price, but on knowing their customer. Marketplaces provide traffic but no data. Your own channel with proper analytics and personalization is what allows maintaining margin and building long-term customer relationships.