The bricks-and-mortar store can provide a very special buying experience which the customers won’t get when they shop online. The human touch is essential and an employee can give attention and be helpful in a way that is never possible on a website. But the experience must be unique to attract customers to the stores, and that’s the major challenge for many retailers. The store of the future is focused around customer experiences and use technology to support it.
Our Point-of-Sales software has a clear purpose to support our customers’ innovatory plans and contribute to an exceptional buying experience for their customers. Some are already there, while others now take the first steps. Netto announced on June 6th, 2018, that they’ll open the discount food store of the future, and introduce a whole new store concept that makes the store experience nice, easy to navigate and takes the starting point of the customers (Read announcement in Retail News – in Danish). We believe that more and more will introduce new store concepts in the years to come to attract customers and stand out from competitors. We are ready to support this transformation.
But how do you become a store of the future? We give you our 3 best tips.
Our 3 best tips:
1. Get technology to support the buying experience
Technology must never replace the human employee, but it can on the other hand provide the best possible starting point for an exceptional experience. The employee must have easy access to e.g. product and customer information and several options to serve customers.
2. Be relevant and give a personalized experience
No two are alike and everybody wants personalized advice and individual offers that we can use. Make sure that your IT solution can both integrate your loyalty program and manage prices and discounts across channels when customers shop online but also in the store. You can also consider attracting customers using an individual voucher.
3. Meet customers where they are
Think in new ways to serve your customers and try to meet them around the store instead of only giving the payment option at the checkout counter. This is especially effective in stores where the need to give individual advice is high. Mobile Point-of-Sales solutions are great in these situations. Giving the staff mobile units, they can move freely around the store together with the customer and allow them to pay instantly.
