The Future of Retail Digitalisation
The Future of Retail
It was sometime in the late 90s that Amazon first came into existence. That was the first step towards B2C e-commerce. It wasn’t until 2003 that e-commerce became a full rage, with retail stores turning to the online medium to attract their customers, and generate more conversions. The way to a more profitable store was selling online. Retail has come a long way since then. A lot of changes, enhancements and convenience have been offered to the retail store to make them consumer friendly.
The main aim of embarking on an e-commerce journey was to make shopping convenient and easy for the end customers. Today, the industry has undergone a massive transformation. The customer expectations and their journey have evolved from the time retail commerce started out. The retailer’s goal is to enhance and personalize the customer’s journey on their online store.
Digitalisation has a significant role to play in this changing face of retail. With technology advancing and the nature of need evolving, the retail experiences are growing advanced, and the back-end processes highly capable. Digitalisation has majorly affected retail industry.
Let’s see what the future of retail digitalisation is.
Evolving Customer Journey
The mobile is at the core of the digital retail journey. Your customer uses the mobile to interact with your business, and you will need to engage them on this device. This digitally advanced technology calls for a more personalized and customized experience, which will translate into retention.
You no longer define the needs at the very start. It is when the customer enters the discovery phase that needs are identified. These requirements are set on the go through various mediums. It is thus important to offer a similar experience across the channels the customer is likely to use to connect with your brand. At the same time, you will need influencers who can help the customers in adopting the brands, and make the buying process easy for you.
The completion of online purchases depended on either internet banking or credit cards. Today, we are moving towards a cashless medium. We have cashless payment models that help us complete the purchases with ease. NFC will be the next level of payments that the online retailers will adapt to make things easy for the end buyer.
The idea is to solve every problem that the customer is likely to face while shopping. With 360 degrees engagement and post-purchase interactions, the brands are trying to identify the customer’s experiences and gain actionable insights.
How will digitalisation transform experiences?
Digitalisation is a result of emerging technologies and changing customer behavior. Here are a few aspects of retail that will transform with digitalisation.
In-store:
The time has come to alter the in-store experience to make it more relevant to the modern customer. We are striving to make the retail outlets customer-centric. This is indeed the future of retail digitalisation. You will need to study the customer, how they interact with the point of sale, what engages them, what makes them buy a particular thing, and finally what context is more relevant for them. Once you have these insights handy, you can offer an in-store experience that is personalized and relevant to the buyer. Few retail outlets have introduced QR codes to make buying easy.
The customer has to scan the QR codes of the products they want to buy, and the app will automatically bill them for these commodities. Using NFC or other cashless modes of payment, the can conclude the shopping. QR codes and cashless payments have changed the way you shop, which has personalized and evolved the in-store experiences.
Once you have these insights handy, you can offer an in-store experience that is personalized and relevant to the buyer. Few retail outlets have introduced QR codes to make buying easy. The customer has to scan the QR codes of the products they want to buy, and the app will automatically bill them for these commodities. Using NFC or other cashless modes of payment, the can conclude the shopping. QR codes and cashless payments have changed the way you shop, which has personalized and evolved the in-store experiences.
Customer service:
We live in an era that is majorly dominated by the Chatbots and other AI-driven devices. Both technologies will be a major part of the future of retail digitalisation. You will see that customer support is real-time, and personalized. Each customer connects with the retail outlet via different touch points. You will need to incorporate all these touch points and offer a service that is relevant. Even traditional touch points should be incorporated.
The idea is to understand the customer and offer them solutions that they want. You will need to use a combination of new and age-old methods of customer service to achieve an edge over the competition.
Supply chain:
Visibility within the supply chain can prove to be very insightful to the retailers. You want to know what is happening at the different critical points within the supply chain. You can accordingly change your inventory management as well as optimize the assets. This insightful data will help you keep track of your costs and the supply, without damaging the customer experience.
Future of retail digitalisation will help you in changing the value to delivery processes, thus creating unique and impressive opportunities. With extensive and insightful information, you can induce reliability and agility to your supply chain.
Digitalisation has brought Omni-channel at the core of retail strategies. You cannot strategize for the digital retail without planning for the Omni-channel consumer. Omni channel technologies will drive the future of retail digitalisation.
Sodio Technologies understands the retail industry and its changing dimension. We have been working in this niche for some time now, and have picked up quite an extensive experience. Combining knowledge with expertise, we offer intelligent solutions for your retail needs.
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