For brick-and-mortar retailers, success requires creating optimal shopping conditions. Most store owners understand this point. In fact, a recent survey found that 89 percent of retailers recognize that in order to thrive they must compete on customer experience.
An essential step to winning this battle is to understand the purchasing life cycle. The three steps to this process are promote, find and purchase. And, the best way to maximize performance in this cycle is to embrace digital transformation by creating an Intelligent Retail Space, which leverages available technologies to enhance the shopping experience. Simply put, a digitally transformed brick-and-mortar establishment will improve sales and lower costs.
Here’s how it works:
Promote:
Stores have always looked for ways to make sure their customers are aware of the best deals on their products. Meanwhile, shoppers want to feel like they know a store and that the store recognizes their specific wants and needs. This kind of experience results in loyalty from that consumer. Intuitively, businesses realize this. According to a Beaconstac study, 65 percent of retailers say they are aware of the need to be able to target customers down to the aisle level.
In an Intelligent Retail Space, this is accomplished through shopper personalization. Pinpointing user preferences is the best way to make sure you’re pushing the right promotions. To do this, brick-and-mortar sellers must create a branded online portal, know purchase histories, offer targeted and loyalty e-coupons and present focused interactive displays.
Find:
That said, it isn’t enough just to get a shopper excited about your product through online ads or e-coupons. Customers must also be able to find what they want quickly, when they enter the premises.
Maximizing the power of smartphones is a key tool for satisfying this need. Statistics show that 94 percent of smartphone owners use their mobile devices while in stores. Wayfinding via in-store navigation is essential for these wired customers. Beacons, directions and POI and proximity ads, can all be used by wired buyers to easily guide themselves through shops so that they can smoothly get want they want.
Purchase:
Nobody likes to stand in lines. In fact, a study in the Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce found that convenience and time-savings are two of the key reasons shoppers are attracted to online purchasing. However, an efficient in-store checkout driven by technology can go a long way to solving this problem.
When configured in a secure and simple manner, stores can enable mobile devices to bypass traditional cash register sales. This not only improves the customer experience by minimizing buying time, but it also frees employees to invest more time helping shoppers with questions while they pick out the perfect products.
Surveys show that more than 47 percent of businesses have not yet started their digital transformation. If you’re one of them, Black Box is the perfect trusted partner to help companies meet customer needs during every step of the purchasing life cycle. To deliver in the promote, find and purchase stages, a store must set up Wi-Fi, optimize cellular coverage, ensure security, develop physical infrastructure and assure carrier connectivity. Black Box has the breadth of products and experience to deliver all these elements quickly and seamlessly, as well as build out any additional retail-specific solutions necessary.
For more information, go to https://www.blackbox.com/en-us/industries/retail
