Connecting Retailers to Customers
It is reported by 70% of retailers, that consumers will wait a maximum of five minutes before abandoning a purchase and leaving the store.
The Internet of Things (IoT) can reduce risk by allowing retailers to understand their customers, to help them throughout the purchasing journey, creating a seamless and personal experience.
From mobile points of sale, connected self-serve kiosks, digital signage and shelf-edge pricing, IoT can take retail and enhance it to the customers’ needs. Through effective inventory keeping, ensuring the products that customers want are on the shelves at the right time, to pointing customers in the right direction to those products with in-store digital signage becomes beneficial to the customer journey.
To enhance the customer experience, to gain repeat purchase and to satisfactorily complete the buying cycle is paramount to all retail businesses, and through careful implementation of IoT both bricks and mortar and online retail can benefit.
Mobile points of sale:
By giving customers the ability to self-serve, staff can focus on customer service and creating further opportunities of purchase. Autonomous payment options, like contactless and mobile apps can help to reduce queues and speed-up overall purchasing time.
Digital Signage:
Creating a connection between the retailer and the customer, signage can give up to date information on stock levels and location of product, negating the need for staff-intervention. Creating personalised offers and discounts for customers to use in real-time.
Shelf-edge Pricing:
Eliminating the risk of human error when applying new pricing, and allowing roll-out in real-time, reducing time-taken and cost to business in staffing.
Beacon Technology:
Using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), businesses can directly target shoppers within a pre-determined geographical area – either in-store or walking by. By aiming so directly customers can be encouraged for impulse or repeat purchase.
BLE technology and Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID):
For use within the supply chain, warehousing and delivery, to improve stock management, reduce theft and reduce overall wastage.
Customisable Billboards:
Creating an entirely bespoke experience for each customer by targeting with personal messages, using set preferences and historical purchasing patterns to have pin-point accuracy.
External Input Monitoring:
Managing stock levels and staffing, making sure product and people are where they need to be, when they need to be.
Connectivity which is dependable is essential for retail, as any outage can cost potentially thousands in revenue, as well as introducing risk to retail and warehouse security systems, it can also affect productivity and customer loyalty.
Cloud-based connectivity is reliable, secure and quick. Both 3G and 4G wide-area networks (WAN) can be used as either primary connection, or to have in place as a fail-over measure.
The benefits are plentiful, and at Zest4 we can guide you to the right solution for your customers. Get in touch to see how we can help.