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Retailers are focusing on building strong relationships with their customers by providing them with surprise and delight that is beyond just transactions.
FREMONT, CA: Frictionless retailing is the emerging trend in the retail industry. It is about removing all the barriers that come in the way of customers while shopping. It is mainly centered around checkouts without cashiers and humanless communication. Many companies are providing their staff with mobile devices for either pre-scanning a client’s cart, accelerating the procedure, or remotely checking the clients out without any need to pass by an actual register terminal.
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Following are five different kinds of frictionless retail that hold the potential to change the client’s experience forever.
1. Multichannel Alignment: It involves offering shoppers the option through which they want to complete their purchases like shopping carts matching across desktops, mobile and applications, or staff with devices. Google and Sephora have integrated to enable the booking appointments through the Google Home speaker. The Companion application uses the geofencing technology to forewarn the customers to the location of neighboring stores. Once the customer reaches the store, the app uses information about earlier orders to provide product recommendations to shoppers.
2. Easy Access: This kind emphasizes on the span of time a client takes from the first contact to the transaction. It can be divided into two ideas: how quickly the client can find what they are searching for, and how quickly they are able to pay for it. Apple Stores are an excellent example of this type.
3. Personalization: This involves tailoring the services according to the customer requirements. It can be a grocery store with users having a choice of quickly repurchasing everyday items, or experimental technology like Under Armour, which has a chip embedded inside the shoes to find and evaluate how much a person runs.
4. Security: Frictionless security introduces different and unique challenges for online as well as offline retail. Offline retail has to face the challenge of shoplifting. Scanners can be easily misguided, intentionally or unintentionally. In case the scanners don’t work, the frustrated customers, feel entitled to the product. The online retailers have to continually audit their systems with the third party providers for the protection of sensitive data of the organization.
5. Positive Friction: This kind is all about adding and improving the shopping experience with a moment of pause. These mediations help in providing useful information, recommend complementary items, or can create an enjoyable experience around the purchase like a complimentary drink or a popup message giving extra information about the purchase.
When the word frictionless comes to the mind, it is essential to think about the amount of effort, risk, and burden that one will put on the customer. So, adopt frictionless technology to remove all the barriers that come in the way of customers.
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