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Digital technology has changed the way we shop entirely; our online experiences and what we now expect in physical stores are now very different from a generation ago. Walking in-store and going around every aisle was the norm so far. We might want to credit the recent global pandemic for the novel change, but some experts say we were already on the trail to finish digitalization; Coved 19 just expedited it.
In recent years, Omni channel became the grail for retailers. And rightfully so. Consistent with the Aberdeen Group, companies that deliver consistent service quality across different channels keep 89% of their clients, while people who don’t only keep 33%. Online and physical delineated shoppers’ experiences; they were two different encounters. Now, technology is blurring these lines, bringing the web and offline worlds closer together and enriching our daily lives.
Retailers like Acme mastered this. You’ll flick through the Acme circular for in the week, select your goods online and inspect. You then attend the shop for collection, and therefore the attendants deliver them to you within the parking lot. They’re incentivizing online shopping by providing a $30 discount off your first purchase of $75 or more, then they provide you a warm, personal touch once you collect your groceries. It’s a replacement phenomenon mentioned as physical.
Physical is defined as a shopping journey during which physical and digital encounters are being combined to enrich each other. As a result, the experience becomes more personalized and interesting.
Retailers need to keep up of latest trends and innovations to feed their customers’ demands and expectations to survive. Competition is stiff within the industry; if you lag, you lose. We’ve seen self-checkout stations, and now the Amazon Go convenience stores have appropriated if you’re intrigued, here are five advancements which will wow you while boosting your bottom line as a retailer.
1. Augmented Reality (AR) and computer game (VR) Technology
2. Voice Assistant Technology
3. Autonomous Vehicles and Robot technology
4. Face recognition Technology
As a retailer, you would like to know how consumer demand is shifting within your environment. You want to anticipate the changes and cash in of them to remain on top.
The demand forecasting process relies heavily on data. Forecasting consumer demand becomes far more accurate when machine learning is employed.
1. Augmented Reality (AR) and computer game (VR) Technology
Augmented Reality (AR) may be a technology that overlays a computer-generated image over your real-world view. It provides a completely immersive experience. Virtual Reality (VR), on the opposite hand, may be a simulation during which you’ll interact with a simulated 3D environment using specific instruments like electronic eyewear with a screen or sensor-equipped gloves. Computer game (VR) nearly totally takes the user from the important world and places them during a simulated one, creating a completely different experience from what’s happening within the world.
This technology is getting used mostly by clothing retailers. They need created apps that use AR to return up with virtual fitting rooms. Customers can try outfits virtually before making a sale. They will also try make-up and jeweler also. It makes the user experience more engaging, and as Sephora can attest, this technology made an enormous impact on their bottom line in 2020 once they adopted it. Lid, Betsy, and Kendra Scott are few samples of other retailers also making use of this technology. .
2. Voice Assistant Technology
Alexa, Sire, Google Assistant; this is often what we are talking about here, the retail business is demonstrating that this trend features a lot of promise. Smart mirrors and smart displays, among other Iota devices in consumers’ homes, can help communicate product content during a non-intrusive and useful manner. The assistant needs only to find out the commander’s voice, then using smart speakers, it’ll respond accordingly. Customers can find products and place orders to form purchases this manner. Walmart is using this technology to assist customers as they shop on their site. You then collect your order from the shop afterward.
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3. Autonomous Vehicles and Robot technology
We wouldn’t have done this text any justice by leaving out this technology we only thought was made-up fiction from the films and would remain intrinsically .Safeway supermarkets are experimenting with driverless cars to form deliveries to locals.
Then there’s Smart Sight, the inventory management genius. It uses machine learning and computer vision to spot shelves with low quantities of products and people placed within the wrong section by customers. Staff need only listen in and make the required adjustments. This suggests you’ll not lose out on a purchase because the item wasn’t on the shelf when the customer wanted it, yet you’ve got plenty within the warehouse.
4. Face recognition Technology
If you’ve got frequent customers in your store, it’s easy to spot them and provides them a customized shopping experience in order that they keep returning. If you employ loyalty cards, even better, you’ll identify your customers at point-of-sale. However, if you employ face recognition technology, you’ll know all the purchasers who enter and out of your store.
This technology is sensible enough to spot lost or confused customers in your aisles, and immediately alerts your staff who can attend to them for assistance. It simply detects changes in facial expressions, that’s how it knows when to speak.
Most retailers within the US face an enormous theft problem in their stores – it’s a $50 billion per annum challenge to be precise. Shoplifting accounts for 36.5 percent of that pilferage. Face recognition technology has been most welcomed during this area. It helps to spot shoplifters, and sometimes, it’ll compare faces to a database of known offenders and supply alerts for theft prevention.
Be careful to think about the moral implications of this technology though. It requires user consent in order that customers remain on top of things of their shopping experience.
We’ve listed only five trends, but there are more to think about. It’s critical to believe where these advancements will lead retailers next in order that they’re prepared and still deliver shopping experiences that are expected by consumers, and a richer bottom line.
