The retail industry has evolved significantly in the past decade, driven by the perpetual release of new, engaging and exciting consumer technologies that have effectively changed commerce forever. Although the release of services, solutions and platforms have appeared to peak, studies and forecasts indicate that retailers will continue to face a complex landscape of customer demands and competitive requirements for years to come with respect to embracing novel technologies. 

Retail customer trends have been closely tied to IT for years now, and those businesses that have been the quickest and swiftest to meet evolving demands tend to enjoy the strongest engagement, retention and attraction of consumers. Keeping one foot in the current and the other in the future is critical to ensure that every opportunity to excel and drive revenues is met with the preparation, agility and timeliness necessary to gain a competitive edge. 

Experts speak
The Guardian recently interviewed several expert marketers regarding the trends shaping the retail sector today, as well as those that are still somewhat rooted in the future. Many of the responses related back to certain technologies that have already become critical components of a successful industry player. Not surprisingly, an emphasis was placed on mobile purchases, ecommerce and continuous consumer engagement. 

According to the news provider, Michelle Whelan, managing partner of an international marketing firm, focused on the increasing ubiquity of breakneck mobile broadband speeds as one indication of where consumer trends are heading. 

"The arrival of universal 4G earlier this year brought with it a more immersive and instant shopping experience than ever before – putting the most exciting features of mobile retail as we know it into high definition," she told The Guardian. "The 4G experience means that far more people will be turning to mobile for shopping, which could mean an extra few million in the coffers of those retailers (such as John Lewis) who have invested in their mobile channel."

More to come
Mobile is just one of the many trends that all retailers need to have on their radar today, and there will be plenty of other disruptive forces entering into the industry before long. By ensuring that the business is functioning optimally and consumer demands are being met in stride, these types of trends will represent opportunity rather than stress to the average retailer. 

Faults are bound to happen in different facets of the retail operation, such as sales, experience, ecommerce and inventory management.

While many occur on accident, most, if not all, are preventable, regardless of whether they're occurring in the digital or physical arenas. Ultimately, too many mistakes can have a profoundly detrimental impact on customer perceptions.

Specialty retail companies are known for providing people with world-class experiences that are unique to their brands, and fixing the following grievances will allow them to uphold this reputation.

1. Leaving customers to browse alone
Bob Phibbs, a reputed author and retail expert, maintained that leaving customers to aimlessly search for items in-store isn't constructive to enhancing their experiences. In his blog, The Retail Doctor, Phibbs discredited the token argument employees usually give to their managers: "I want to be left alone when I shop."

Believe it or not, customers have specific choices and preferences in mind. No one browses just for yucks – people are looking for products that can satisfy specific needs, some simply just don't know exactly what those items are. Bottom line: Assess a person's desires and find the goods that will fulfill those preferences.

2. Choosing the wrong locations
It doesn't make sense for a retailer specializing in cold weather apparel to set up shop in an Alabama city. In a separate article for Retail Customer Experience, Phibbs emphasized that merchants may be sick and tired of hearing about how much of an impact location can have on their sales. However, it's a factor that companies shouldn't take for granted. Otherwise, overhead costs may eat up profits.

"Fortunately, rents are a good clue," wrote Phibbs, alluding to brick-and-mortar expenses. "Yes, you can save 30 percent with a location that's off the main road but you'll probably give that 30 percent back – and more with advertising to try to get them there."

3. Putting unknowledgeable employees on the front line
No matter how capable a floor salesperson is, he or she should learn about the products on sale before being put into action. It can be surprising how challenging some of the questions posed by the average consumer can be. The solution? Test your new workers' knowledge of specific items. In addition, allow them to interact with the materials to get a better idea of what they can be used for.

When merchants gain complete visibility over their supply chains, they believe they're inherently executing an omnichannel strategy.

Don't make assumptions
Just because a clothing enterprise knows exactly where a specific ecommerce order is located and how many designer jeans are held in a Grand Rapids, Michigan warehouse, doesn't mean it's running multichannel activities.

If merchandisers want to achieve this level of operability, they'll need to develop and initiate a retail inventory management plan. Knowing how to allocate goods in response to store demand and prioritize trucking routes to expedite ecommerce deliveries doesn't come with simply implementing a real-time tracking system.

Be proactive
Before having a clear idea of what decisions need to be made, it's important that distribution managers ask the appropriate questions. Retail Info Systems News contributor David Landau outlined several, all of which relate to improving cross-channel sales and creating an omnichannel customer experience:

1. Do warehouses replenish stock in order to satisfy both ecommerce and regional store orders, or are they designed to accommodate one or the other?
2. Do outlets possess the IT infrastructure (mobile devices, sensors, shipping label creators, inventory software) to keep fulfillment updates relevant to shopper demand?
3. Do stores have shipping docks at which small trucks can quickly deliver products to customer doorsteps?
4. When carrying out an omnichannel fulfillment strategy, do stores have the labor necessary to complete day-to-day operations? If so, does the workforce have the required assets to execute tasks in a cost-efficient manner?

Once these questions are adequately answered, the retailer can begin making applicable adjustments to the supply chain. While specific changes need to be made, a much-needed holistic adjustment is the dismantling of segregated processes. Any responsibilities defined by ecommerce and store fulfillment must be reconfigured to include both.

Be flexible
Even in omnichannel strategies, many merchants choose to fulfill store and ecommerce needs based on location. Initially, this approach makes sense because it reduces transit time and shipping expenses. However, Apparel Magazine posited an interesting situation.

Suppose an item is particularly popular in California, but a warehouse in Ohio has a surplus of that specific product. In order to liquidate as many items as possible, it makes more sense to fulfill California store needs with the inventory held at the Ohio distribution center.

That's where logistics come into play. While setting fundamental operational plans is a good measure to take, failing to make necessary adjustments simply because it's "not the way we do things" isn't conducive to implementing an omnichannel strategy.

It's not just hype: Mobile devices are becoming the No. 1 channel for retail customer engagement. 

Smartphone use has increased over the years, presenting merchandising professionals with a fantastic opportunity to redefine the patron experience. This level of service surpasses point of sale and goes into customer service and marketing. 

Mobile has the majority 
Retailers are cognizant of the fact people are visiting their websites in a variety of different ways, obligating them to program user interfaces to fit different screen sizes. The question is: Just how small do these websites have to be and what does that mean for navigability? 

Retail Customer Experience referenced Branding Brand's Mobile Commerce Index study, which discovered the majority of consumers (51 percent) accessed merchant websites on smartphones and tablets, while 49 percent visited such Web pages via laptops and desktops. Branding Brand Co-founder and CEO Chris Mason noted one particular device manufacturer boasts favoritism among mobile device users. 

"Not only is the majority of online visits coming from smartphones and tablets, they are occurring on Apple devices," said Mason, as quoted by the source. "Based on past adoption trends of Apple's newly released operating systems, you can fully expect the majority of holiday traffic to come from users running iOS 8, and it hasn't even launched yet."

What does this mean for the customer experience? 
With the ascension of mobile commerce in the retail industry, a new level of customer service will need to be brought to the table. When a customer visits a website, it's not uncommon to see a "Speak to a live representative" option on the side panel. What happens when a person wants to benefit from this option on a 4.7-inch screen? There are two options, both of which involve the use of co-browsing. 

1. A customer can navigate the website while simultaneously texting the representative.
2. A patron can call a service employee and set the device to speakerphone. From there, he or she can browse the Web page while the worker provides vocal instructions.

As texting and browsing at the same time can be quite tedious, the latter option appears the most attractive. This function directly relates to the development of mobile retail applications, which according to Belk Senior Vice President of Ecommerce and Omnichannel Digital Ivy Chin, is becoming an integral part of the customer experience. He told Media Post that synchronization with beacons and in-store implementations are going to be quite prevalent as well. 

The majority of merchandisers are now adapting to an omnichannel environment in which customers can seamlessly shift between brick-and-mortar stores and ecommerce venues. This high-tech atmosphere has convinced many retailers sticking with conventional practices to reorganize their store operations, integrating analytics, tablets, and entirely new formats into the physical shopping experience.

Scrutinizing what's popular
A mixture of online platforms and mobile devices have influenced the way in which consumers search for and purchase items. This was recently reflected when Street Fight Magazine referenced Future Stores' "2014 State of Brick and Mortar Report," which surveyed retail professionals spread across the United States. The study found that 57 percent of respondents claimed they are committed to investing in omnichannel operations, adjusting supply chain processes to adequately accommodate those shopping both online and in physical outlets.

Brick-and-mortar as a service
Another popular retail merchandising trend is experimentation. Future Stores discovered that 61 percent of the businesses surveyed stated that they are trying out alternative shopping formats. This could involve anything between self-checkout, equipping employees on the floor with tablets capable of finalizing purchases or setting up small kiosks that provide people with customer reviews of certain products.

According to The News-Journal, the look and feel of the typical brick-and-mortar store is likely to change in the near future. Many experts such as Doug Stephens maintain that these outlets will be more oriented around creating a fun and stimulating experience. However, an ingredient that's sure to influence these facilities is convenience. The click-and-go feature associated with the online retail industry is sure to make a place for itself.

The source noted Forester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru's summation that stores will become more service-oriented and make drive-through pickup, order-online and pick-up-in-store practices routine.

Mixing things up
The News-Journal cited a few examples of how physically-rooted merchandisers are adjusting their practices for the new age. Seattle-based merchandiser Hointer displays clothing in a gallery-like manner, showing one article as opposed to an entire rack. When customers see items that they like, they tap their smartphones to a coded tag and select the color and size they want. After they make their specific selections, they can go to the dressing rooms to try on the clothing they chose. CEO Nadia Shouraboura noted that the process has resulted in more sales and happier store visitors.

Innovation and creative thinking are sure to prepare brick-and-mortar stores for the next technological wave and ensure their place in the merchandising industry.

Age really does matter when it comes to retail marketing, as the approach you take to appeal to your audience will vary depending on what generations you're hoping to attract. For many retailers, the millennial generation of those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s, represents a major portion of their revenue, whether they sell clothing, accessories, technological devices or home decor. It is important to take the right steps toward engaging this group of consumers, and People StyleWatch recently conducted a study to determine the best marketing strategies for this demographic.

Millennials see shopping differently
The research, which will be presented at the fourth annual Share.Like.Buy. Marketing + Millennials conference June 17 in New York City, focused on the shopping behavior of millennials, from how they decide to make a purchase to the way they interact with and respond to brands. According to AdWeek, this demographic represents approximately one-quarter of the American population, and collectively spends between $200 billion and $1.3 trillion annually. Technological advances have helped shape the way millennials approach shopping, so there is no doubt that multi-channel strategies and intuitive ecommerce software will be important.

"Because their lives have been shaped by 9/11, two wars and the Great Recession of 2008, Millennials are more pragmatic than their parents about retail purchases," Jeff Fromm, author of "Marketing to Millennials" and founder of Share.Like.Buy., said in a release. "They have the tools at their fingertips to find the best deal with ease, and they use them, whether shopping from home or in store."

What millennials want
While the study won't be released until the conference, Fromm provided some insight into millennial shopping behavior. For instance, this generation typically wants to know more about the brands and products they're buying. Fromm suggested focusing on the origins of a product, from where and how it was made to the qualities that set it apart. It's also important to focus on your brand's image and reputation, as a strong brand will attract millennial consumers, who are likely to share their fondness for certain brands with their peers and on social media networks.

It can also be smart to emphasize savings, as this generation typically earns less than their older counterparts, due in part to unfavorable economic climates. Offering loyalty or reward programs for repeat customers can be useful. The best approach to this is to keep things simple and straightforward, according to Fromm. 

Many factors contribute to a business's overall standing, but some retail analytics categories carry more weight than others. Key performance metrics can be applied when developing new marketing strategies, choosing ecommerce software or improving the point of sale experience.

While there are many ways to market to potential and preexisting customers, email campaigns continue to prove useful for retailers. According to Practical Ecommerce, seven different KPIs are major players in developing an effective email marketing strategy – total sales, site traffic, bounces and the rates of conversion, clicks, unsubscribe and unique opens. 

Retailers should determine how much revenue resulted from prior email campaigns, between featured products and general sales increases following an email blast. By examining how many people read the messages and the change in sales, retailers can better align their strategies for the next email campaign to see better results.

For brick-and-mortar operations, Bindo suggested keeping track of how many people come into your stores daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly. This can reveal trends in shopping habits that may help retailers decide when to run sales and promotions. Merchants both on- and offline may also want to pay attention to not just the amount of transactions, but the number of items being purchased by individual consumers. If shoppers tend to buy three items at a time, running a "buy-three, get one free" promotion could effectively drive up sales.