As more and more people buy online, our shopping experience is transferred from the traditional physical shops to the virtual world. But how can the traditional shops and service providers survive and thrive in the digital age, where shopping is done online 24/7 and goods either downloaded or delivered directly to our home?
“The internet hasn’t destroyed brick-and-mortar retailing, as many once feared. But it has changed consumer behaviour forever,” according to Gwen Coble, retail solutions product manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa at technology solutions giant HP.
“Stores are playing catch-up with shoppers accustomed not only to the speed and convenience of purchasing online but also to the control it gives them.”
Ms Coble explained to i-Tech that the shopping experience no longer begins and ends in the store. Consumers increasingly see stores as just one part of a multi-channel offering, so shop systems must seamlessly integrate with other channels and provide services equivalent to the rich real-time data available online. However, retailers and service providers shouldn’t underestimate the value of personal interaction and tactile, immersive in-store experiences. By making the shopping process entertaining and engaging, retailers can maintain, or even increase, footfall in their physical outlets.
“We do see a discrepancy today between the consumer experience across channels. There has been much focus in recent years on innovation in shopping experiences online and on mobile devices, yet these same experiences do not exist in many stores today.”
According to Aberdeen’s Customer Connected Store report, two-thirds of retail stores need to introduce or improve access to cross-channel retailing on a continued basis so customers are able to research product information, leverage promotions, check inventory, and place an order at any store using an online, mobile, call centre, or catalogue channel.
The research also found that retailers that provide customers with this type of in-store activity are 1.4 times more likely to see higher than 80 per cent customer satisfaction in stores, compared to retailers that do not provide cross-channel capabilities.
According to a survey by the Malta Communications Authority published last April, some 72 per cent of the population has access to the internet while 65 per cent of the Maltese use the internet mainly for shopping, sending and receiving e-mails, researching information, browsing for products or services and reading newspapers. Online purchases from Maltese websites doubled from previous years, with items such as flight reservations, and concert/event tickets topping the list.
“Increasingly, retailers are taking these considerations on board and remaking their physical store into representations of the virtual shopping experience. This often means deploying interactive web-style technology solutions, like touch-enabled digital signage, to bring the store to life, provide enriching personalised experiences and help shoppers find the products that are right for them,” explained Ms Coble.
HP has a strong heritage in retail and its industry-standards based IT solutions, whether it’s servers, networks, printers or PCs, can be found in the premises and back offices of retailers worldwide, including 90 of the top 100 global retailers. The company’s customer-facing retail solutions now include point of sale and digital signage solution. Increasingly, it is also seeing its touch-screen PC’s being deployed in–store as interactive kiosk solutions that enable consumers or store associates to browse the shop’s stock.
There are many ways in which digital retail solutions can provide value to retailers in these areas. A few specific examples are how they can provide better visibility and access to inventory, drive dynamic promotions, and provide associates with better-assisted selling tools, explained Ms Coble.
“HP’s touch-screen solutions, for example, can be used as self- or assisted service stations within the store to provide information on inventory availability, access to product reviews, or use loyalty information to make personalised recommendations. By creating similar shopping services in the store to online and mobile, it will help retailers to create a more consistent brand experience across channels.
“We also see retailers integrating our digital signage solutions with their back-end systems to create greater efficiencies in inventory control. If a given promotion is created in back-end systems, for example, the digital signage network can be dynamically updated to show product images and information on the offer.
“A third example is how retailers can create in-store assisted selling tools in the form of an interactive digital signage application or mobile assisted selling device so their employees have better access to information and tools designed to improve customer service.”
In terms of investment, what kind of investment in human resources and financial resources do retailers have to make to render their retail outlets more receptive to the demands of today’s consumers?
“The kind of investment retailers need to make to align their in-store technology to meet the evolving demands of their customers depends entirely on the retailer, their objectives and the type of customers they’re aiming to reach. In the case of small retailers, the perceived costs and complexities associated with new technologies can sometimes be daunting. However, increasingly many smaller retailers are adopting more cost-effective off-the-shelf technologies to improve day-to-day operations, increase sales or communicate more effectively.”
To give an example from the field, many store owners are also now looking to digital signage solutions, which are engaging and effective methods of communication, that allow instant message changes without the cost of re-printing graphics. PC-based point-of-sale systems with POS software can also be easily deployed cost-effectively, replacing basic cash registers. These provide automatic inventory tracking, reporting on sales trends, managing employee hours as well as integrating with accounting and other management software. Such systems are intuitive to operate and require minimal training for the store associate.
“By incorporating better access to information in the stores and automating administrative tasks, store associates can focus their time on customer service and selling activities,” concluded Ms Coble.