DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN MARKETING AND BUSINESS - IMPLICATIONS ON RETAIL TECHNOLOGIES AND CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

Digital transformation of the global society and economy causes tectonic movements in doing business worldwide. Business marketing has become an arena where disruptive technologies literally change the marketing environment landscape, transforming the contemporary marketing into digital marketing, and thus implying newly emerged groundbreaking concepts in scientific thought in these fields. This paper discusses the phenomenon of digital marketing transformation, particularly on its impact on contemporary retail technologies, with emphasis on Russian economy. In addition to the theoretical analysis, selected relevant statistics and data are presented. Furthermore, the respective impact of marketing transformation on customer behavior in retail is elaborated. Marketing transformation implies substantial changes in retail environment of companies, because in an era of marketing digitalisation, customers are gaining enormous empowerment by development of new technologies; they are becoming more demanding, and their expectations are increasing. Consequently, companies are literally forced to constantly reevaluate and reshape their marketing strategies, especially sub-strategies that are directly influenced by development of disruptive technologies that are applied in business. Omni-channel retailing strategy is discussed as one of possible newly emerged solutions for meeting the increased customers’ expectations and responding to modified behavioral patterns, as well as for attaining the required level of digital customer engagement in retail businesses