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The online retailing is already disrupting the industry. However, studies show that traditional retail stores are not going to leave their position too soon.
FREMONT, CA: With the beginning of this New Year, brick-and-mortar retailers are quickly looking for new ways to lure their customers and convert casual borrowers into repeat shoppers.
In order to entice customers, brick-and-mortar retailers have started to increasingly invest in innovative technologies to offer improved shopping experiences that e-commerce is unable to replicate.
The following are major technology trends that retailers must consider for optimizing the in-store experiences of their shoppers.
Understanding customer needs and preferences
In order to uncover and leverage customers’ behavioral insights, tech-savvy retailers are investing in smart technologies, which includes video surveillance and cameras as well, for enhancing their in-store offerings and learning more about their shoppers. Today, security cameras are beyond just mere surveillance cameras for monitoring break-ins. These security cameras can now capture valuable insights and patterns for driving strategy and decision making.
The ability of video surveillance to observe foot traffic patterns and analyze consumer’s reactions at their physical locations, help the retailers in getting more information about the customer’s intent to purchase. The technology captures everything, including customer’s movements and reactions, what excites them, and what doesn’t. This information gives retailers the power to increase the placement of sales associates, their in-store displays, and develop individual promotions.
Besides, with more number of shoppers connecting to Wi-Fi when purchasing, retailers are digging out new ways to spur extra revenue streams. One way that they have already searched is by growing captive audiences via Wi-Fi log-in splash pages, where they display coupons, advertisements, or other marketing materials to shoppers.
Providing Wi-Fi for in-store shopper analytics
With every shopper equipped with mobile devices, creates an opportunity to measure and evaluate customers’ behaviors, patterns, and preferences.
Wi-Fi analytics allow retailers to interpret whether the consumer is a frequent visitor or not. For frequent customers, the analytics can provide useful insights about the amount of time they have spent earlier and where they spent it. This valuable data empowers retailers to tailor the customer’s experience accordingly.
Moreover, analytics also help the retailers in deploying sales team at a precise time, thus reducing the annoyance of a hovering sales associate.
The bottom line is that for standing out amid this fierce competition, conventional retail stores need to adopt new technologies and update their operating philosophy for maximizing consumer loyalty, grow revenue, and establish a robust future-proof technological foundation.
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