Role of Telecom in Retail Industry
Technology has made its way into the e-commerce and not to mention the exponential growth that has been prevalent in the industry for the decade. It seems there is a growing pressure with the retail industry to keep up with its business and not to surrender to the e-commerce market. Thus, the retail industry would have to focus on bringing the customers back to their stores, and for this it might have to consider implementing technological solutions that would enhance customer experience and make them feel the value of visiting the stores rather than making an online purchase. Let’s discuss moving forward how telecommunication industry plays a role in this development of the retail infrastructure.
For the retail industry to gain prominence, it has to make sure that, in a way, it provides value which can’t be provided by the e-commerce players. This might include the option of donning the clothes for a trial in clothing industry, getting the look, feel, and touch of the product, which wouldn’t be possible in e-commerce. These are traditionally available in the retail industry but still the deterioration of the industry happened. So, let’s discuss few of the key technologies that could be provided in partnership with the telecom players to enhance the value generation of the retail stores.
One example would be the end-to-end Smart store operations. Shopping experiences have to be differentiated by “reimagining” the store processes. Cognitive techniques to be used to identify customers who have prior visits (even on websites, ecommerce, social media), intelligent fitment, immersive simulation on store, gamification for deal “walkthroughs”, cross-selling of products, discount notifications, AR/VR for furniture fitment testing in homes, and overall maximizing revenue per store customer. Sensors monitoring location, freshness, and consumption patterns, with ML techniques for a personalized customer experience. Let’s break it down into features and discuss below.
For Customers:
Product Browsing Stage
ü Webchat and video calling facility with store managers: When browsing through the retail website it becomes important to have a direct connect with the retail store to get product information based on preferences. A video calling option and webchat facility with the store managers would serve the purpose for a seamless communication
ü Personalized information provision: The above connect with the store managers would pave way for the personalized info sharing like videos, user experiences of the product to the contacted customer
Retail Store Visit Stage
ü Smart Parking: Provision for online booking for parking spaces of cars in the retail store’s application would save time for customers
ü Customer Identification on Entry: On entering the retail store the in-store Wi-fi network automatically could be connected to the customer’s phone and welcome messages, notification message to the store (where the customer is coming based on his online search) that the customer is visiting could be made possible
ü In-store Analytics: The CCTV analytics could be made to track customer’s movements around the stores, his buying pattern, and preferences, and provide discount information, notifications, and suggestions, as and when the customer crosses that particular store area.
ü Connected Digital Signage: The digital signage could be connected to the systems (for example through RFID of the product) and as the customer reaches one of the digital signage in the store targeted marketing or cross selling of associated products could be done. For example, on getting information of shirt purchase could go along with trouser suggestions, furniture purchase information could be used to advertise furniture expos that are going to take place etc.
ü Intelligent retail & fitting room: This could be a game changer where the customer could use digital mirrors to view how the products would actually look on them. Options to change the color, design could be provided that would save the customers time for making a trial every time.
ü AR/VR for product fitting in home location: This could be the case for furniture industry where using AR/VR the customers could visualize the product fitment in the desired location, for example in the customer’s home. Also, in-store navigation could be provided with the help of the technology making the customer journey easier.
For Store Managers:
ü Real-time Insights: The store manager would want to know the stock levels in the shelf and replenish accordingly from the warehouse. These could be done through sensors (like IoT devices) to track the product consumption
ü Information Insights: The customer behavior analytics gives the managers information about the designers that customers prefer, products that are moving fast, store employees who’ve gotten high customer ratings for service, time spent on each section by the customers, product conversion rate etc. of the overall store performance to make managerial decisions.
ü Flexible POS & Queue reduction: POS systems could be made flexible by the store employees and managers by using the PDAs for doing the same to eliminate queues in crowded stores.
ü In-store management: Through connected cloud systems managers could change the digital pricing label tag based on the requirements. For example, the price of least moved item could be reduced instantly to push the product. It could also be connected to perform activities like lighting change, music systems etc. for easier operational management. He could also engage with the employees through instant connect for seamless communication.
Thus, these are few of the many changes that are in a developing stage to reinstate the position of what traditional retail stores are known for. As we would’ve observed, most of the features mentioned above are dependent on the connected systems amongst employees, managers, and customers. This connected ecosystem, be it cloud collaboration, Wi-fi analytics, network connectivity etc., could very well be provided by the telecommunication players with their experience in networks and infrastructure with help from technology players. Hope that with the developments coming in this area, the effects that the e-commerce industry made on the retail industry could be neutralized and eventually people realize the value of the retail stores.
References:
1. Shotwell, L., 7 New Retail Technology Trends Reviving the Stores in 2022. [online] MobiDev. Available at: <https://mobidev.biz/blog/7-technology-trends-to-change-retail-industry>
2. Marr, B., The 8 Biggest Retail Trends Every Retailer Needs To Be Ready For. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2021/09/20/the-8-biggest-retail-trends-every-retailer-needs-to-be-ready-for/?sh=323cf1dc5d67>
3. Business.bt.com. 2022. Digital transformation in the retail sector | BT Business. [online] Available at: <https://business.bt.com/large-corporate/retail/>
