5 Ways To Help Retailers Raise Their Store IQ In 2019
Published by - OP Team on January 29, 2019 Uncategorized
Thinking, planning, and applying a retail strategy that works for your business can be a tough job. To add to all that finding a strategy that covers from modern consumer demands to the store itself is a bit challenging. Therefore, we have put down 5 best practical ways which businesses of any size can raise their store’s IQ with in 2019.
It’s first month into New Year and you should already start sketching your retail strategy for rest of the year. Today, the consumers have become smarter and want things to be done quickly. The changing and evolving technology as well as working of market must be adapted by every business in order to satisfy their customers.
Building a retail strategy requires getting deep insight into your current working system and how well you can manage to adapt it according to the modern times. It’s no secret that all the competitors out there are always trying to be two step ahead of everyone else. Technology is the integral part of such important operation and it must help towards increasing the in-store productivity as well as providing services that make customers come back to the store again and again.
Thinking, planning, and applying a retail strategy that works for your business can be a tough job. To add to all that finding a strategy that covers from modern consumer demands to the store itself is a bit challenging. Therefore, we have put down 5 best practical ways which businesses of any size can raise their store’s IQ with in 2019.
1. Install Easy Payment System
Customers these days want faster checkout and don’t like to wait in lines for their turn to purchase the products. Making your customers wait more than 10 minutes can discourage them to buy those product/s at all and they will most preferably move to another merchant for the same product or simply purchase online.
To keep your sales flowing and avoid such instances where customer loses interest to purchase the product you need to install easy payment and checkout systems in your retail store. Also known as Line Busting this method not only helps you sell what a customer intends to purchase but also your employee can suggest them to purchase some other product too.
How does Line Busting work? Well, it’s quite simple. Firstly you need to equip your employees with mPOS (mobile point of sales system) and train them well so that they don’t get stuck while facing a customer. Having wireless mPOS devices allows the employees to walk freely in the store and bill customers’ products right where they are standing.
Another advantage of this method of payment is that your employees can suggest some more products to the customers and increase the sales. A study has found that retail stores with in-store mPOS systems have experienced a whopping 146% growth in their sales. Mobile Point of Sale can be implemented in various businesses including restaurants, clothing stores, etc.
2.Self-Service Kiosks
As the technology is getting smarter your options to implement better technology to increase business are also increasing. One such best way is to implement high-touch self-service kiosk which not only increases the interaction between shoppers and the employees but also make in-store navigation easy.
Implementing self-service kiosks has found to increase the business by a staggering 30% and you don’t even have to do any practical work here. Kiosks also allow customers to customize their orders and most of the time it helps in generating a larger cheques than those through counter orders. One additional advantage of self-service kiosks is that it allows you to gain insights into your customers’ details like their personal data. You can know where they come from, what they search for most, what kind of keywords they use to find a particular product, etc. So you can use this data for marketing your products, customizing the keywords so that your products pop up when searched, etc.
Self-service kiosks works almost like the ecommerce. This is truly an advantage as you can determine the best way to market your products. You also get honest customer feedback that helps you to improve your services.
3. Buy Online Pick-Up In Store Services
Even though online shopping with home delivery has become most preferable today several studies have shown that bringing shoppers into the stores increases the sales as the customers make additional purchases in the store. Buy online pick-up in store service is one such model where you can actually invite the customers into your store and make them do additional shopping. This service allows your customers to shop online and instead of getting the product home delivered the customers would pick the products from the store itself.
Big ecommerce giants like Amazon, Walmart, etc. also have implemented this services and have experienced positive results. The uniqueness of this service is it is not just for big retailers but small businesses can also implement it and get amazing results. With the help of social media you can reach even larger customer base and with the right system in place your customers can purchase the products right where they saw it (for e.g. on instagram or facebook).
Once a customer orders any product/s online and decides to pick it up from the store chances are he will end up buying additional products from the store. Therefore, implementing this strategy will definitely increase your sales and revenue.
4. Using Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is undoubtedly helping the retail sector evolve. AI helps retailers to gain better customer insights and, in turn, offer personalized services according to the customer needs. If you think that only big companies have the access to AI-powered assistants to mine data then you should know that analytics services like Data Studio offer free data visualization. Therefore, you can also now get better understanding of your customers and offer services accordingly.
Artificial Intelligence technologies can save a hell lot of time and money that you would otherwise spend to know which products are going to be popular next season, etc. This year AI is the one technology service that will work for your and that too for free. Offering best services to your customers even before they know makes them like your attitude towards them and also encourages them to visit your store again and again.
5. In-Store Displays And Cloud Based Printers
Customer engagement is the most important thing in a business. The time when offers used to be displayed on a cardboard, whiteboard, etc. is long gone. Now high-tech in-store displays can continuously play different offers that you are offering, various deals on products, new products in store, etc. The interactive displays not only display offers but also encourage and engage customers during their shopping experience.
You can curate personalized ads that not only give the information about latest offers but also entertain the customers while they shop. This increases their engagement during their shopping spree.
Another way to increase your sales is to implement cloud-based printers. Your receipt printer prints hundreds of receipts everyday which has important data such as details of the purchase, time and day of the purchase, amount, etc. Cloud-based printers allow you to capture that crucial data and you can use it to curate various programs like loyalty programs, surveys, coupons, etc. This increases your customer engagement.
Conclusion
Implementing a right strategy can completely change the way you do your business and increase your revenue by multiple folds. Doesn’t matter if you apply a strategy mentioned in this article. All that matters is any strategy that you apply in your store should ultimately help your business grow. Introduce technology in your business and take advantage of it as much as you can. Innovate, grow, and encourage within your business.
