Technology and Innovation – The Evolution of Retail
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Introduction
The retail industry is in the midst of a major evolution. It was not that long ago we were talking about how to bring customers back to brick-and-mortar locations. Now what we are seeing is retailers are looking at the in-store experience they offer to ensure that they are getting the footfall they need, and ultimately the conversions they need to grow.
Today, any brand that wants to compete on the high street needs to have an excellent approach to customer experience. Only retailers with the best engagement and responses will gain and retain customer loyalty.
Digital innovations are re-shaping how consumers shop, and it’s creating winners and losers among retailers. Online-only brands like Amazon have grown at the expense of traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
At stake is nothing less than survival: According to data compiled by Bloomberg Businessweek, business closures in Retail in the UK were 40% up on the same time last year alone—an increase from past years despite what experts call a moderate economic recovery.
Now, by engaging new innovation including AI driven retail technologies, many retailers are starting to find new ways to positively influence the experience of shoppers – leading to new and returning customers and increased footfall in brick-and-mortar establishments.
The Retailer’s Dilemma
Retailers face particular challenges when competing against online retail giants like Amazon that offer consumers the convenience of shopping from home or on their phones 24/7 because they don’t have to worry about staffing costs or inventory management issues associated with having physical locations where shoppers can browse goods before buying them; but just because these challenges exist does not mean entrepreneurs should abandon their dream of owning successful businesses in this sector altogether! In fact, retailers are leveraging digital technologies and remain competitive against such powerful competitors while still leveraging physical locations as well.
You may be thinking, “What’s so hard about selling stuff?”
The answer lies in the fact that retailers are struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of change in their industry. Retail needs to consider the new and innovative technologies as they could transform how consumers shop and pay for goods.
Digital innovations are revolutionising the retail industry, and the physical stores still play a vital role in retail success.
Retailers need to actively draw consumers back to brick-and-mortar establishments by delivering in-store experiences that reflect the needs of the customer and delight them at every turn. This can be done through mobile apps, virtual reality (VR) headsets, AR, Point of Sales solutions, digital experiences, technology to provide actionable insight based on vision analytics and more. In fact, retailers who embrace these technologies are finding they’re able to differentiate themselves from competitors by offering unique services like click & collect or try-on features through smart experience that allow shoppers to test products before buying them.
The ongoing drive to push online shopping means that retailers are under even more pressure to create outstanding customer experiences that will attract a return to normal levels of in-store customer visits.
Retailers need to find new ways to modernise the on-site brick-and-mortar shopping experience – without alienating or offending their customers with ultra-intrusive and unsubtle uses of valuable customer data.
Many retailers have already tried (and in some cases failed) to introduce personalised customer experiences by leveraging customer data. However, some of these solutions simply give the customer more reasons to shop online. Retailers need to continually understand and stay in step with the ever-changing desires of their customers.
Geopolitical and environmental factors are increasingly influencing consumers in their decision-making. As Fiona Swerdlow, VP, Research Director at Forrester said in her October 2021 report – “Overall, consumers’ consciousness about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues and policy is taking hold. Almost half of online consumers consider themselves environmentally conscious – but their sentiments run much deeper.”
Retailers must find more ways to get in step with their customers. It is no longer good enough to use customer data to simply personalise a transaction. They need to actively draw consumers back to brick-and-mortar establishments by delivering in-store experiences. Estate owners can dramatically improve matters by bringing the innovative digital experience into the physical retail world.
Online versus in-store shopping
Despite the fact that online shopping has grown to be a major channel for retailers, only a small percentage of consumers are exclusively online shoppers, and most customers still prefer to shop in person.
So, what does it mean? Retailers need to focus on their in-store experience if they want to drive growth and win in today’s market. In addition to an engaging atmosphere and friendly staff, the key is having data available at every step along the consumer journey—from tracking customer behaviour inside stores all the way through purchase completion—and using it to personalise experiences based on each individual’s preferences or needs at any given moment.
It’s important to understand what makes a successful in-store experience and why it matters so much today. If a customer can find the same product they want at another location at the same price, they will choose that option every time. Instead of just focusing on selling products or services to someone who has already made up his or her mind on where they want to buy something from, retailers need an effective strategy for engaging people who aren’t yet convinced by what’s being offered at local shops.
Technologies for Retail to consider
Smart Multi-Application Software as a Service platforms
Smart Multi-Application Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms are helping retailers deliver in-store smart data-driven experiences. These platforms are integratng apps and in-store signage to intelligently influence consumer behaviour with the delivery of real-time and relevant shopping information.
Consumers can easily discover services and products that are relevant and of interest via smart display solutions. Customers are now easily able to book appointments, manage queue positions and arrange delivery schedules to bring a familiar and reassuring online style experience to physical retail shopping.
When integrated with consumer data platforms, solutions can leverage data intelligence to attract consumers with relevant offers within smart window displays that are then reflected in-store and at the till. What’s more, the solutions can help retailers manage and control store occupancy levels within an area, floor, department or across the entire store – so retailers can ensure customer safety and bring staff to a location when needed.
Customer Journey Vision and Integrated Display Solutions
These solutions allow retailers to intelligently leverage real-time demographics and analytics to deliver customised multimedia content using smart displays. By combining these solutions with smart display technology, the system can actively track each visitor’s behaviour and emotions – so retailers can adjust their in-store campaigns for more positive outcomes.
Technology can now provide shopper intelligence such as gender, age and other demographic data as well as physical attributes (such as wearing make-up and/or glasses). Perhaps even more importantly, the technology can determine the customer’s current emotions, such as their happiness and satisfaction during and after a transaction.
Such data is invaluable for intelligent retail operations wanting to better understand their customers. For instance, a woman between 25 and 30 years of age can receive different in-store messages from those shown to a 40–50-year-old male. These messages can recommend products that are more in line with a person’s likely tastes, in addition to their previous purchasing habits.
Computer Vision AI Analytics
There are a number of focussed vendors who are combining AI for retail environments with smart camera solutions. The combined in-store solution is helping retailers gather real-time behavioural analytics from audio and visual data feeds which can deliver powerful intelligence. Retailers can then use this intelligence to influence in-store operations including staffing, security, and marketing.
This solution can power granular alerts based on pre-defined customer and staff behaviour events or patterns. It can also reveal the bigger picture of aggregated data on a custom dashboard, enabling better business decision making. This solution can also tell where a customer went next and their post-transaction satisfaction (happiness) levels after an engagement. Integrated to a POS solution technology can additionally provide real-time data on individual consumer transactions, such as who buys what – and it can generate live alerts when store performance looks set to miss targets or exceed them.
Finally, AI driven dashboards allow retail operations managers to fully understand staff and store performance – enabling them to act on accurate data across multiple sites.
Instant Live Video Connection
We are now seeing solutions that are essentially a bit of a hybrid, giving the in-store experience where the customer is unable to get to brick-and-mortar locations but needs that in-store experience to make a final decision on a purchase. These platforms deliver instant live video connections for customers to salespeople and service providers at brick-and-mortar locations. It aims to bring retailer service experience closer to a traditional pre-internet level for a more personal and guided experience, whether the customer is in-store or not.
For retailers, they can now ensure that customers can speak directly to a qualified brand manager about any of their products, guiding and helping the customer to fully appreciate the product and options available to them. Built-in features also help retailers gather customers’ information and process payments on the same platform.
Conclusion
So, how do you create a digital experience in your physical retail space? The answer is simple: by adopting innovative retail focussed technology. Retailers need to embrace new ideas and adapt them to their business models. In order to stay competitive in today’s market, retailers must find ways to engage with customers.
We know that digital transformation has moved from being an option to being a necessity. Customer expectations have shifted, and it takes a new kind of customer experience and engagement strategy to attract customers back to the shops.
By enabling AI and IoT technologies within a store, retailers can unlock a multitude of benefits; including improved customer satisfaction, increasing referrals and online review scores – as well as achieving direct cross-selling and upselling advantages.
Retailers can also gain better ways to engage with customers on an intelligent basis. They can also leverage their in-store capabilities to communicate messages around the business’s attitudes to sustainability and other relevant customer concerns.