How retail technologies have reshaped the customer experience
Over the past few years in particular, retail technologies have evolved well past foundational digital assets like PoS systems.
Nowadays, virtually all retail businesses are equipped with sophisticated digital technologies, ranging from a retail staff scheduling tool for easy rostering, to cloud-based inventory management software designed to help retail managers and their staff securely keep track of stock numbers.
Although it’s undeniable that retail technologies have revolutionised the way retail staff manage business operations on a daily basis, the impacts that these technologies have had on the industry don’t just stop there.
Retail technologies have naturally also played a major role in the evolution of customer experiences within both the retail and service industries.
How exactly have they reshaped the modern customer experience? And to what extent can we expect these technologies to continue moulding the industry as it adapts to the novel challenges posed by digital transformation?
We’ll be exploring the answers to these questions in this article.
PDA technology supporting both staff and customers
Similar to staff rostering software, PDA (or personal digital assistant) technologies have genuinely been considered to be in the background of the retail industry for the most part.
A majority of retail businesses invested in PDA technologies as a means of simplifying inventory management, as the scanner devices could be used during stocktake periods to process and record stock numbers without necessarily having to close your store for a day.
In truth, PDA technologies hold a great deal of value when it comes to revolutionising the customer experience in traditional bricks and mortar retail environments, and this technology can do so in more ways than one as well.
Many retailers have used PDA technologies to provide floor team members with production descriptions and product information that they can use when interacting with customers to support them in their decision-making process with regards to making purchases.
The ability to pull up information on products is a game changer for retailers who stock specialty items or technical products like consumer electronics.
Alongside providing customers with a wealth of additional information when speaking with retail salespeople in traditional retail environments, PDA technologies can also boost the efficiency of salespeople and by extension, the customer’s purchasing journey.
As staff members are able to promptly and efficiently check stock numbers, source stock, and then even process sales all through their PDA devices, customers can enjoy a speedy yet thorough shopping experience without needing to shop online if they’d prefer not to.
The power and convenience of multi-channel retailing
Speaking of shopping online, one thing that industry analysts and business owners alike have learnt from these last few years of industry transformation in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic is that providing customers with both in-store and online alternatives for completing purchases is essential for ensuring your business’ longevity in our rapidly digitising future.
Given the growing demand for convenience in the customer experience and the flexibility of choice to shop both in-store and at home, it’s in the best interests of retail business owners to invest in implementing e-commerce channels for their business.
This includes both social media retail channels as well as developing an online store using a branded domain.
Of course, making these adjustments is easier for larger, established retail businesses over smaller or medium sized enterprises, who may lack the resources to develop sophisticated online stores with a streamlined UX and beneficial features like shopping cart recovery, which is growing increasingly valuable as cases of abandoned carts are well and truly on the rise.
This is where e-commerce platforms come into play, however.
These innovative platforms allow owners of small to medium sized retail enterprises to develop their own online stores with ease, providing them with ready-made site templates and a multitude of user-friendly features like cart recovery, scheduling sales, and additional product recommendations or related product buttons on select pages or stages of your customer journey.
On a similar note, multi-channel retailing holds a variety of business development benefits just like multi-channel marketing. Simply put, the ability to connect with your customer base on the platforms that they are most interested in using will allow you to generate the largest number of sales opportunities.
If there are any platforms or channels that are underperforming, then you can adjust your budget accordingly and invest more time and money into developing the channels that align best with your customers and thus, with your business.
It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement for both business owners and their customers, as business owners can grow profits whilst customers simultaneously get to reap the benefits of an increasingly convenient shopping experience.
AI and AR technologies to enhance the shopping experience
An emerging retail technology that’s been showing great promise in a variety of retail spaces, is the use of AI or AR as a means of enhancing the customer experience.
Let’s start with the benefits of AR technologies first. Using augmented reality technologies, customers can essentially ‘try before they buy’ without having to physically use a dressing room, in the example of attire.
‘Virtual’ dressing rooms are allowing customers shopping at designer boutiques to sample luxury wares without having to risk causing damage to items through mishandling.
But this technology isn’t just an asset for fashion retailers. AR technologies are also being trialled in furniture retailers as well as by tech giants like Apple as a means of allowing customers to sample furnishings and even smart home technology in their own living rooms without necessarily having to take these products home.
And how does artificial intelligence factor into retail innovation? A good example here is Amazon’s new Amazon Go stores, which are popping up across the US and the UK.
Using artificial intelligence technologies, these innovative stores can keep track of what’s in your physical shopping cart as you shop, and deduct the costs of these goods from your account’s assigned payment card as you’re leaving the store, removing the need for cashiers or even self check-out processes and thus, providing the customer with a more efficient shopping experience.
The concept of ‘autonomous retail’ is looking to be the future of bricks and mortar retail environments as a whole, and it’s likely that the next few decades will see these automated shopping processes be utilised by a growing number of retail businesses across the globe.
Whilst these are the most prominent emerging and established retail technologies to have held an impact on the customer experience as we know it, this is by no means an exhaustive list of all the technologies that continue to reshape retail environments across the globe.
Other digital resources and technologies like digital signage and the in-store demonstrations for tech retail goods and other technical products, also allow customers to have consistently enriching and satisfying shopping experiences.
Customers are undoubtedly getting accustomed to a certain way to shop, and it’s up to retailers to continue catering to these demands in order to flourish in this rapidly evolving industry.
Knowing what’s on the horizon will absolutely help you stay ahead of the curve as a business owner, and staying ahead of the curve will naturally come with the potential to reap some serious profits.
