March | 2015
Can you increase the relevance of your brick and mortar store? Admitted, there is a storm around online digital retail, but it is the physical store that offers shoppers a chance to touch, feel, try and test products. It is also an opportunity for customers to interact with sales associates and gain valuable first-hand information about products, choices, pricing and offers.
Even when completing a retail transaction online, a physical store is where most shoppers make up their mind about a purchase. Without doubt, it is the store that continues to remain one of the strongest pillars of retail. It is no surprise then that leading retailers are quietly working on innovating to enhance the in-store customer experience.
There are a number of solutions available to ensure that in-store shopper experience leads to more shoppers per store, more visits per customer and more minutes per visit. This is being done using advanced technologies to recognize customers, create personalized content and offer a variety of delivery and payment options.
Some of the large global chains are using facial recognition technology, smart phones, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth signals and opt-in apps to identify and track shoppers, and alert in-store associates. Innovations in technology are also giving the store associate a single view of the customer, from purchase history to demographic profiles and social data that can then be leveraged to map customers and personalized offers, which until recently was the exclusive purview of the online channel.
One of the most significant technological retail innovations made in enhancing in-store customer experience has been in the area of creating faster, easier payment and checkout experiences. Today payment solutions ranging from Apple Pay to self-check outs, contactless mobile payments, mobile wallets and mobile POS machines are making it possible for customers to spend more time browsing and arriving at purchase decisions than stand in tiresome check out queues.
Physical stores will continue to be a critical part of a shopper's purchase journey. What these stores need is an aggressive digital strategy that continues to draw customers by creating better experiences and delivering more value.
What are your thoughts on improving in-store customer experience using technologies? Leave your comments in the section below.
Hari Shetty is part of the senior leadership team at Wipro and heads the Retail vertical across the globe. As head of Retail, he is responsible for strategy and execution of Wipro's business plan within the industry segment. Hari has been part of the Retail vertical since its inception and today Wipro is among the top 7 Retail technology service providers across the globe and provides services to 10 out of the top 20 retailers
Hari has over 20 years of consulting experience in the industry. His experience spans across multiple functions in retail and he has worked with some of the best-in-class retailers on cross channel strategy, business transformation, simplification, predictive analytics, and technology transformation. Prior to his current role, he was responsible for technology and architecture in Retail and Consumer Goods industry groups.
Hari has multi-disciplinary background in technology, management, finance and law.
He is an evangelist on multi-channel retailing and strongly believes social media and a connected customer experience will change the face of retail
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© 2021 Wipro Limited |
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