New MuleSoft research highlights retail innovation gap

Despite the hype around new technologies like AR, VR and IoT, consumers continue to value service above all else and want retailers to get the basics right. That’s according to research conducted by Opinium on behalf of MuleSoft.

Over 9,000 people were surveyed across the UK, US, Germany, France, Australia, Singapore and Japan. Key findings include: the most important factors in determining customer loyalty are cost (63%), the accuracy of inventory availability/real-time delivery information (41%), in-store customer experience (40%), and consistent experience across in-store, online and mobile (36%). 60% of consumers would consider changing retailers as a result of receiving a disconnected experience – an increase from 57% in 2018.

44%, meanwhile, hadn’t seen technology innovations (e.g., cashierless stores, mobile-driven in-store experiences, personalised offers, interactive displays, AR/VR) at their local stores. From the innovations listed, cashierless stores (29%), mobile-driven in-store experiences (19%) and personalised offers (19%) were the most commonly seen.

“Being able to provide consumers with accurate, real-time inventory and delivery tracking information should be a prerequisite, yet it remains a challenge for many retailers who have siloed legacy systems,” says David Chao, Vice President of Product Marketing, MuleSoft. “Retailers that leverage APIs to successfully integrate their existing legacy systems in an application network will be much better positioned to deliver a connected retail experience.”