SalesTechStar Interview with Neeraj Methi, Vice President of Solutions at BeyondID

Neeraj Methi, Vice President of Solutions at BeyondID chats about the various ways in which automation and digital innovation is driving a new age for retail:

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Welcome to this SalesTech Series chat, Neeraj, tell us about yourself and your role at BeyondID?

I am BeyondID’s Vice President of Solutions and I’m responsible for leading our architects, developing innovating solutions, scaling the organization to grow revenue, and making customers raving fans of BeyondID. Prior to joining BeyondID, I served in leadership roles at Okta, OutSystems and CA Technologies. My experience includes strong technical skills and a diverse background in IT management, providing unique perspectives on enabling and executing playbooks, while ensuring cohesive and successful relationships with sales, customers, and product teams.

Tell us about your latest observations on the state of retail and how recent automation trends are changing the face of modern retail?

There are several areas where automation, and digital transformation, is driving new retail opportunities:

Payments: Retailers are realizing they need to make it easy to securely purchase without friction. This includes a one-click option, tied to Apple Pay, Venmo or PayPal. To take that further, retailers should offer similar in-store payments via the app where consumers can scan a barcode and walk out without waiting for a cashier.

Personalization: Retailers should put identity at the center of marketing to customers, from personalized merchandise to payments to offers. Every touchpoint is an opportunity to better personalize for that customer. For example, based on what we know about Paroma, should she get free shipping, or quick shipping, or easy returns? Then change the offer based on your profile and what you value most.

Passwordless: This is a far more secure approach that allows retailers to reduce fraud via account takeover. We are seeing an uptick in companies moving away from stored passwords. Anomalies such as large purchases, new locations, or any change to buying pattern can be flagged – retailers can even scan the dark web to determine if there is risk associated with an account. Then the customer can reverify themselves.

Seeing the need for better digitization across retail today, what are the top factors that modern retailers need to digitize and solve for, basis today’s customer expectations?

Security – It will come as no surprise that threats to data and consumer information will continue to grow and be an issue for retailers. Adopting an identity-centric zero trust strategy and implementing an identity-based Security Operations Center to catch threats automatically are great steps in securing company and consumer data

Trust – Consumers will continue to expect retailers to protect their data and personal information and lack of confidence in a retailers ability to do so will have consumers seeking other brands. This is one aspect of the overall consumer experience with a retailer but an essential one in keeping their trust.

Resources – IT will also require more expertise to help manage the threat landscape, especially with AI. Having specialized experts guiding the retailer’s digital journey ensures a higher likelihood of success and may not reside within their own organization.

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Can you talk about some of the most innovative and exceptional retail journeys you’ve seen brands sport worldwide and what takeaways you’ve come away with basis those?

Some of the most innovative and exceptional retail journeys we see being adopted are based on simple principles of find out what your customers wants and give it to them. They are meeting the customer where they are and providing them a seamless frictionless secure omnichannel experience, whether the customer is on their phone in a social media app, store app, or in store shopping. Again, I am seeing more retailers provide a secure login experience with multiple options – passwordless, one-time password, social login, standard login and stepping it up before they make a purchase, making it secure by leveraging risk profiles to have secure checkout.

We’d love to hear about some of the trends in retail-tech that are set to dominate the industry as a whole in the coming years in your view?

Passwordless authentication is going to dominate the retail industry moving forward, customers are tired of remembering yet another password. Personalization is going to follow that with just in time offering right in front of them to reduce time to search.

The key trends will focus on how easy retailers can make it for their consumers to do business with them – simplifying registration, signing on, self-service and account recovery. They will also have to make the experience a personal one; bringing in the human aspect, knowing their preferences, where they are and what they are trying to do.

If you had to share a few AI trends that will lead the retail-tech space in 2024 and beyond, what would you talk about?

Artificial intelligence will continue to dominate IT and cybersecurity discussions in 2024 but the nature of these conversations will evolve. President Biden’s Executive Order in October established new standards for AI safety, security, and privacy and it’s the first step to help protect organizations and individuals from the threats of artificial intelligence.

More will certainly follow and regulation around AI is a key element to managing these attacks. While retailers can use AI to better understand their consumers, it can also be used to breach systems. As in other industries, security and IT specialists in retail will leverage AI to develop algorithms to prevent those breaches. Many of those algorithms are in development now.

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