Using Mobile Technology to Build a Better Brick-And-Mortar
Since brick-and-mortar stores still play a big role in how people shop, it is important to continue to monitor the experience that customers are having. After all, research shows that 86% of sales in retail are happening within actual stores. However, it is also important to note that 53% of the purchases are impacted by things such as the Internet and mobile technology. Therefore, it is important to incorporate technology into brick and mortar stores to fuse the two concepts to provide a much more effective and efficient shopping experience. But, how do we do so?
Where Mobile Technology and Brick-And-Mortar Meet
While many people assume that those who shop on their phone simply scroll through a store’s app and make a purchase, in reality, that is not often the case. The thing is, people still really enjoy getting a feel for the items before they make a purchase while they also really love being able to take home an item immediately upon purchasing it. Now, technology meets the physical shopping experience when people are perusing stores; indeed, 71% of customers use their phones as they shop in order to read the reviews of item, look up features that the item offers, compare prices with others, as well as learn about the benefits that the item offers, among other types of information, too. This percentage has increased immensely, only yielding about 15% of customers back in 2017. As a result, it is clear just how much smartphones have influenced the brick and mortar shopping experience.
How to Use Mobile Technology for the Betterment of Your Store
To increase sales while bettering the experience for your shoppers, there are various steps that you can take to fuse mobile technology within your physical store. For one, you must encourage your staff to provide the best customer service that they possibly can. One of the best ways to do so is by giving them a mobile device. This way, staff are better equipped to pinpoint customers, thus raising the engagement of customers, as well as manage inventory so that they can easily figure out the most recent information about items. It is also a great way to process transactions as it is easily accessible, making it a quick process for the customer.
Beacons make useful tools for the fact that this technology lets customers get push notifications for any offers that are specific to their location within the shop. Based on some studies, it has been confirmed that those who get beacon-activated notifications on their devices, increase their chances of buying an item.
You can also begin to offer customers the option to simply pay from their mobile devices rather than having to go through the checkout process. After all, today, you can turn all devices into a POS system through various apps. Amazon has made it even easier for their customers at the Amazon Go stores; customers never have to take out their wallet or their items out of the bag and can, instead, simply leave the store knowing that their app will automatically do all of the work for them as they shop and then leave the store.
Using mobile devices is also a great way for customers to get easy access to rewards and offers, often gamifying the process as well to make it more fun. Indeed, they turn to activities such as giveaways and rewards for interacting with the store while, at the same time, ensuring that the content on their applications and sites are as user-friendly and intriguing as possible that way it is fun to search for items as well as make purchases.
It is also important that you cater to today’s hunt for personalization as well as prompt satisfaction. After all, everyone wants to have options that fit their wants and needs best within a moment’s notice. Take, for instance, Sephora’s new application. The launch of this app combined these two aspects by allowing shoppers to try on makeup virtually. As a result, they have seen 8.5 million shoppers on their app since they first brought it to the market.
You can even use a third-party application to assist customers in geo-locating items within your shop. This way, customers don’t have to physically find someone to quickly find an item that they are looking for. You can take these maps up a notch by offering information such as SKY numbers as well as the amount in inventory that way customers have all of the information that they need to ensure the best shopping experience possible.
Are You Ready?
While these are all great methods that we recommend you give a try, it is also important to keep in mind that it can be expensive to try to incorporate them, so make sure you figure out which strategy fits your business model best. There is no need to combine all of these; rather, be innovative and figure out what would cater to your shoppers needs and wants best while also ensuring that you don’t break the bank as you implement it. If you do it right, there’s no telling which heights your firm will reach.
