Connected commerce has become essential as today’s shoppers expect to ‘shop the brand’ irrespective of how retailers and brands are organizationally structured. This represents a fundamental change in the way that consumers behave, and retailers know they have to change or risk obsolescence.
You can see this in the performance of leading retailers where connected commerce has been embraced (like John Lewis in the U.K. ,where cross-channel sales including click and collect have powered incredible growth.) At the same time, new technologies have matured and prices have dropped significantly for a range of in-store innovations to become viable for the first time.
For a truly connected store, the physical and digital experiences can’t be siloed; the retailer must embrace strategies, data platforms (CDPs), technologies, and tactics that merge the two.
Customer identity management matters because requiring customers to log in each time they visit an e-commerce site or interact with your brand can erode CX, reduce conversions, and push customers toward competitors with easier authentication processes.
Mobile technology is on pace to become the go-to technique for empowering front-line store associates with the ability to provide even higher levels of customer service. For example, retailers can give sales teams tablets to assist customers, research answers to their questions, or help them order an item online that is not in stock.
More retailers are also using sensors to determine customer behavior within a store. For instance, they can learn how long a customer is looking at a product, footfall density, and traffic flow. By capturing this valuable data, retailers can drive supply orders and optimize merchandise assortment and shelf space. Sensor technology can also be used to play a detailed product video when the consumer picks up an item to explain benefits and other information.
There are ways for marketers to identify customers in the store through social media, geolocation data, loyalty programs, and questionnaires. With this information, retailers can link an unknown store visitor to a customer’s digital profile to bridge the gap between physical and online experiences to provide a truly omnichannel, connected commerce approach.
Types of customer data serve distinct purposes. Identity data, descriptive data, attitudinal data, behavioral data defined with examples.
With more technology used in-store, consumers will become even more in charge of their shopping journeys – and they’ll be clamoring for a connected approach to commerce. Store associates will no longer need to give their expert recommendation. Instead, they can help customers navigate reviews at a kiosk. Consumers can pick and choose what size they want from an iPad (or other tablet) in the store.
Armed with this insight in one unified location, brands can have comprehensive views of their customers and act accordingly for more personalized engagements that truly align with the customer’s view of the brand – which is not a siloed experience across channels.
In the coming months, there will be wider adoption of contactless payment, e-receipts, RFID, and in-store mobile POS to dominate the in-store digitization and personalization. These innovations and others lend themselves to making the experience more convenient and relevant for the consumer and creating a cost savings for retailers.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the most up-to-date e-commerce insights.
