Nested in the natural beauty of San Luis Obispo, California, the Madonna Inn and its three internal retail shops radiate an eccentric pink excellence of their own that attracts celebrities and whimsical wayfarers from across the globe alike. The Inn is famous for the extravagant and unique décor of each guest room and the premise at large – especially around holidays, when they go all out with their decorations. This, along with their fine cuisine, local entertainment, and much more, is part of the extravagant experience Madonna Inn offers its patrons.

The Madonna Inn Experience

The eclectic experience is augmented by the venue’s three shops, which are powered by the Retail Pro software platform. A clothing boutique, a gift shop with glassware, candy, and Madonna Inn-branded mementos, and a gourmet shop with wine, chocolate, cheese, and toys offer a broad variety of the lux facets of Madonna Inn and give each patron the joy of bringing home a small treasure from their vacation.

Lauren Chester, the Retail Coordinator for the shops, told Retail Pro International in an interview that they will do whatever it takes for the customers to have a fun experience during their stay at the Inn. “We’ll happily keep the store open past closing hours to let patrons explore everything we’ve got,” she told us.

At the boutique, the Retail Manager, Cheri, who has been with Madonna Inn for over 30 years, leverages her fashion expertise to give customers the pampered experience of having a personal shopper. With her cultivated eye, Cheri chooses the apparel and style that will be most flattering to each customer’s unique figure and tastes. If a particular item is out of stock, a shop associate will create a special order through Retail Pro, so every customer leaves satisfied.

Beneath the pomp and pink, Madonna Inn is still a business, and patrons have come to expect this caliber of shopping experience every time.

Connected Software for a Seamless Stay

Retail Pro provides the retail management platform that makes this unique experience happen. From the outset, the management team at Madonna Inn worked closely with their Retail Pro Business Partner, Big Hairy Dog Information Systems, to define the optimum workflow and customization for their particular needs. As a business that is primarily a venue, Madonna Inn already had in place hotel management software, so integration between these and Retail Pro was of first priority.

Thanks to the integration through the Retail Pro Property Management Link, Madonna Inn can offer their patrons the ease of connected shopping. The technology integration allows the shop clerk to bill that purchase directly to the patron’s room, so customers have supreme ease in buying memorabilia from the gift shops or ordering add-ons like customized gift baskets with champagne, chocolates, and cheeses. In addition, the café runs the Retail Pro touch menu presets and is integrated across the board, giving customers complete freedom to satisfy their every craving without the hassle of going back up to their room for their wallet.

Customers also have the convenience of purchasing whatever they want from each of the stores in one trip, without having to walk to each of the locations on hotel grounds. Retail Pro gives complete inventory insight so employees can virtually transfer the item from one store to another within the system and streamline the checkout process. This boosts sales for Madonna Inn and saves management the headache of tracking where and why the accounting has gone into the negatives, since the behind-the-scenes inventory management is quickly and easily done right on the spot. This results in a seamless transaction for both the customer and the employee.

Learning the Ropes and Running the Business

Many of their store associates are college students, so their retail staff is a transient bunch as experienced employees graduate and new ones are hired on. Thankfully, the Retail Pro interface is intuitive and completely tailorable to the stores’ workflow, so training is simple.

To get everyone up to speed on how to use the software, Madonna Inn had on-site training for their clerks. Even after the comprehensive training, however, they still encourage every clerk to practice with the Retail Pro functionality by diving right in and exploring everything. “We know that since there are different access levels, new employees can’t actually hurt anything in it when they tinker around,” Lauren told us.

Lauren added, “There is a learning curve, of course, like with anything else. But after one month, we were fairly comfortable using Retail Pro. After 6 months, it was easy! And we’re still discovering new functionalities. Employees help each other learn more efficient ways to use the software.”

The software’s consistent interface across the devices on the sales floor and back office of Madonna Inn shops means Lauren and other employees can use downtime on the floor to more productive ends, like processing their many purchase orders.

All staff is able to search the system for needed customer details, product information, or anything else, so management is freed up to do more critical work and to engage customers. With Retail Pro customer management features as their relational memory, all of the shop clerks can access pertinent customer details like size, previous purchases, what their shoppers wear, what they like (and what they don’t), and whether the customer is easy going or prefers to be treated like the Madonna Inn royalty that they are. 

“Cheri is the personal stylist for many of our customers so she is our human customer database,” Lauren laughed, “But when she’s not there, we’re so glad we have our customer notes in Retail Pro!” With Retail Pro, every employee is able to give customers the fullest Madonna Inn experience possible.

Behind every amazing customer experience is an efficient set of operations, and Retail Pro gives Madonna Inn the tools they need to deliver on their unique offers and extravagant experience.

Want to see what Retail Pro can do for your business?

This entry was posted by Ulyana Avetisov on Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 at 10:39 am .

IoT Connectivity Enters the Luxury Luggage Market

Though consumer talk of the impending Internet of Things revolution is still primarily on the buzz, a handful of progressive retailers are converting talk into action and laying the groundwork for connectivity in their operations and products. One such Retail Pro customer is the luxury luggage manufacturer and retailer, Rimowa (pronounced Ri-moh-vah, for its German heritage).

From its genesis in 1898, the company has always been a leader in innovative luxury design, focusing on lightweight construction and stability. Today, they are leading the way with IoT innovation. They have combined the durability of their polycarbonate luggage with the intelligence of modern IoT technology in a smart luggage design that connects, for example, to proximity-based beacons in airports or airline barcodes. Their new Bag2Go will be able to exchange relevant data with beacons and other devices to streamline the check-in process and decreases the likelihood of losing luggage, as notes Skift, a travel marketing platform.

IoT is Not As New As We Think

Popularity of connectivity is growing among consumers but as a last-year’s article in The Economist on the Internet of Nothings pointed out, businesses have been operating with this kind of connectivity “for ages” and “without any hoopla.” In fact, such connectivity is the fundamental premise to Retail Pro. Its platform design makes it the mission-critical retail management software backbone through which retailers connect all their applications and drive processes.

Tom Nelson, Executive VP for Rimowa Distribution, shared in an interview with Retail Pro how this network effect impacts their ability to connect with customers and earns them a reputation for 5-star service.  “The network of connection – between customer data stored in Retail Pro, geolocation data, and the human connection of stellar, take-on-any-challenge customer service – enabled our company to deliver an excellent brand experience.”

Long before the tech trend’s recent rise to fame, Retail Pro has been giving its customers complete flexibility to “[interope] with adjacent applications,” as a Retail Info Systems article on the new POS put it. Retail Pro is the foundation, connecting all of the data from retail processes – both in stores and online – for a unified, omnichannel view of company-wide operations and customer engagement.

Efficiency and ease of use are without question the biggest benefits in the Internet of Things, and these are hallmarks of Retail Pro. When used in the retail context, such connectivity improves retailers’ ability to mold their processes according to customers’ needs.  It allows them to offer a higher level of contextualization in customer engagement in their corporate and franchise stores everywhere in the world. Retailer support, too, is globally local, with the Retail Pro Business Partner network. In Retail Pro, the Internet of Things has been a longtime reality, without any hoopla.

Enabling Human Connection at Every Point

Rimowa’s entire philosophy of retail revolves around making the experience special at any touchpoint. Whether it’s service in the field or in stores at the checkout area, Rimowa’s luxury customer experience is enabled by the wealth of customer details stored in their Retail Pro. “Every customer is a VIP customer,” Nelson told us, and they treat them as such. The exclusive VIP area in each store allows for shopper connectivity as well, both technological with Wi-Fi accessibility and personal, with Rimowa sales associates taking time to really get to know their customers.

Rimowa employees love the ease and intuitiveness of using their Retail Pro, because it allows them to focus on clienteling. As part of their engagement strategy, Rimowa is planning to taking on mobile POS. “We’re going to be that cool company on mobile,” Nelson commented. Their Retail Pro Business Partner, Retail Information Systems, is their go-to resource for all their implementation support needs.

The natively mobile Retail Pro Prism®

Rimowa uses Retail Pro customer management and analytics features to actively manage their customer profiles and mine their demographics data. With Retail Pro, they access and act on their shoppers’ preferences for special editions and colors. Through it they tell their unique story in every retail interaction – because, as Nelson said, “it’s plug and play,” so they tailored their software to completely reflect the sleek beauty of their brand essence.

Retail Pro software is continuously adapting to ensure that retailers’ tech investment is always two steps ahead of the ever-evolving industry trends and requirements. In addition, Retail Pro takes into consideration the actual, tangible needs in the retail ecosystem, so every process and functionality built into the software is a tool that is critical to simplifying retail life. “They listen to retailers and are committed to innovation. Years and years of expert adaptation and intelligent reinvention make Retail Pro the perfect solution to run my business,” Nelson stated.

The Connected World

The increasing adoption of IoT goods promises more opportunities for retailers and manufacturers to build connectivity into their customer relationships, and progressive companies have been leading the way among their industry peers. With phenomenal luxury luggage and the efficient, integrated retailing made possible by their Retail Pro retail management software, companies like Rimowa are getting connected in the network of IoT.

Want to see how you can get connected with Retail Pro?

Image sources: rimowa.de, The Essentialist

This entry was posted by Ulyana Avetisov on Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 at 10:12 am .

The global IoT in Retail Market is expected to grow from USD 14,280.0 Million in 2015 to USD 35,640.0 Million by 2020, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20%, according to a new report on the Internet of Things in Retail, published by Markets and Markets.

The IoT in retail has helped retailers improve customer experience and increase sales. Increasingly, retailers are using IoT technology — such as beacons, RFID, gateways and remote management — to track theft and loss, as well as manage mobile payments, shopper intelligence, and advertising and marketing inventory.

The demand for this market is driven by the fact that the Internet is available virtually everywhere around the globe, and at the same time the cost of IoT components such as sensors and RFID is decreasing. In addition, cloud computing is also increasingly available as an affordable storage solution. Furthermore, the report notes that retail will need more software support in the coming years due to the growing use of mobile applications.

While North America is expected to lead the way in IoT because of the proliferation of smart phones and Internet access, security is a concern. No application is entirely safe; don’t make the mistake of thinking no one will want to hack into your network or product. Smart devices as well as hardware components and software applications in IoT are vulnerable to various cyberthreats. Any connected device can be hacked and become the entrance to a company’s network.

In addition, interoperability of the devices and common standards for IoT solutions are a concern. The IoT is fragmented and lacks interoperability; disparate or overlapping solutions can’t easily “talk” to each other. That can be for many reasons, including: the devices are not made by the same manufacturer can cannot integrate; they cannot run on the same operating systems; they are different ages or from different batches; or they just weren’t made to communicate, period.

Technology is emerging that enables interoperability through open-source development. The hope is that in the not-too-distant future, every IoT device is compatible with its own platform and ecosystem as well as others: A device used by a warehouse employee running on the Android operating system will be able to interact with the inventory tracking system that runs on iOS without a proprietary gated app developed by the brand.

A technology framework without proprietary gates – but that has high security standards—may be tough to imagine, but is critical to the success of IoT moving forward in retail.

This entry was posted by Jennifer Bosavage on Friday, July 31st, 2015 at 6:00 am .

Retailers looking to personalize offerings can combine a GPS solution with a beacon geolocation technology.

GPS is used to determine location, and when real-time data is unneeded. It’s more of a geo-targeting solution, and a good fit for when a retailer is interested in marketing toward a group of potential customers in a certain area, rather than at a specific time.

Offering promotions via beacon or geo-location can help enhance customer satisfaction.

For instances in which up-to-the-minute information is required, geofencing provides real-time information, and is done with GPS or beacons. Beacons may be preferred over GPS for three reasons: (1) accuracy, (2) battery life, (3) privacy.

Privacy is the most important. For retailers using GPS, customers must agree to a “contract” that stipulates the brand can track the user at all times. That can be a tough sell. With beacons, the contract is less intrusive: “We will know if you visit our stores to provide you a better service, but we won’t track you beyond the confines of the store.”

For example, a customer living in a certain ZIP code might receive promotions for merchandise featuring a local high school football team using geo-location, but a shopper walking by the store would be offered a promotion using beacon technology.

And those two “types” really ought to receive different messaging, even though it may be for the same retailer. For instance, through beacons a restaurant learns that Roberta always visits the same location of a chain restaurant while Jeff visits 10 branches of the same restaurant in the span of a month, we can message Roberta with “your local restaurant now serves _____” while Jeff might receive “On the road again? Treat yourself to a free ______”

Of course, such precise messaging requires careful analytics: Only the combination of beacon information and the customer profile, which is created over time, should trigger engagements. And those messages can be both informational (“New Tom’s arriving in shoe department this afternoon!”) and cost-conscious (“20% off Laura Ashley sheet sets in Housewares now!”). Either way, the communications must make people feel as though their business is valued. Over time, retailers will learn which customer needs what amount of “encouragement” to win their business.

This entry was posted by Jennifer Bosavage on Thursday, July 30th, 2015 at 6:15 am .

The challenge for retailers successfully implementing Internet of Things technology is in offering contextually relevant information to the consumer. Otherwise, the connectivity becomes noise and the merchant risks annoying the customer.

Internet of Things may shape future of ecommerce

Push technology, which often uses beacons to alert shoppers to sale or exclusive merchandise, is often misapplied or overused. But there are other connected technologies that don’t involve sending push notifications to the consumer. For example, “magic mirrors” in fitting rooms at retail stores can “track” the piece of clothing being tried on and provide information to the consumer about where that item is available, in what sizes, etc. Neiman-Marcus currently uses the technology, but other higher-end stores are also in the mix. Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s vendors last Fall began using RFID tagging for fashion items, such as social dresses and men’s jackets, for all of the retailer’s stores.

Other examples include tracking the amount of time the consumer actually spends in a particular aisle looking at specific items on the shelf before the app sends any notifications. Of course, push notifications are a part of the IoT plan, but there is more careful planning going on surrounding their implementations: For example, Macy’s is building out its deployment of Shopkick Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons, to include multiple departments in all stores. That will let shoppers who “opt in” to receive discount coupons and rewards within a store, based on their locations.

Nordstrom, renowned for its customer service well before the age of the Internet, uses beacon technology  to locate customers in or near stores through the geolocation technology in mobile devices. It then targets customers based on consumer preferences and behavior. Nordstrom is one of the retailers using data analytics to help customers move seamlessly between digital and physical worlds, providing the desired information and service while reducing friction.

Data from Forrester Research underscores just how much shoppers want a more streamlined shopping experience. In a recent study of nearly 200 consumers, 71% expect to view in-store inventory online, 69% expect associates to be “armed with a mobile device” and 50% expect to buy online and pick up in-store. Retailers have some work to do to get to that level, but the journey has begun.

“This is going to be a 5- to 10-year journey,” Peter Zaballos, vice president of marketing at SPS Commerce told me recently. “Macy’s and Nordstrom are at the front end of this, but the use of IoT in stores is less about the technology and more about changing consumer behavior and enabling compelling apps that make use of the technology. Think of how long it took mobile commerce to take off. This will not be a fast burn.”

This entry was posted by Jennifer Bosavage on Wednesday, July 29th, 2015 at 7:32 am .

Mobile technology is igniting a renaissance with brick-and-mortars.

Brands are using mobile technology to engage customers in and outside the store as well as at multiple levels: national, regional, all the way down to the local level.

Neighborhood managers, for example, can publish their own promotions and engage their customers with local themes.

Mobile helps bridge the gap between incorporating what corporate wants, and allowing the retailer to put a spin or flair on it, which helps build the customer base.

To compete with huge e-commerce players such as Amazon, retailers need to leverage their “embeddedness” in their communities.

For example: when the local high school football team wins a game, the town’s store manager can publish a sales special to celebrate.

Or, when a heat wave hits a region, the regional marketing director can promote a related product (air conditioners or slushies, anyone?)

Store apps help national chains provide very local interactions to its customers.

That also helps customers feel like they are part of a community within their own community.

While people often think about couponing and discounts for promoting local engagement, much more than that is involved.

Rather than simply sending a coupon, a retailer might invite app users for an event promoting a new collection, giving them a VIP experience when they get to see the new collection before the general public.

While using coupons from a mailer might seem too old-school these days — and forget about clipping them from a newspaper — mobile coupons are perceived as “cool.”

Shoppers who would never think of clipping and presenting paper coupons are happy to show a discount on their smartphone at check out. Segmentation and targeting are critical.

The best retailers are providing an experience that makes their customers feel special and understood by the retailer.

That can best happen when customers share relevant information with the merchant. The value exchange must be very clear.

For example, before asking to enable location services, a best practice is to explain to the customer what’s in it for them: By using their location, the retailer will provide them a better service, reward them for their loyalty, etc.

Customers need to be satisfied with the perceived value of the relationship.

Once the value exchange is explained and understood, there is often very little pushback.

This entry was posted by Jennifer Bosavage on Monday, July 27th, 2015 at 12:19 pm .

What’s new at the zoo? Data breaches. A credit card processing service last week acknowledged that a pattern of fraud had been identified on cards that had all been traced back to use at zoo gift shops. The malware was removed and the zoo is now taking steps to ensure the security of their data, but with EMV deadlines fast approaching, this is a timely lesson for retailers across the board.

Target’s infamous data breach exposed consumer information on an unprecedented scale.shops.

Because what have retailers learned since the huge Target breach in 2013, which was also caused by POS malware? In some ways, it seems, not enough. Although the investigation into this attack continues — and the malware that caused the breach was identified and removed — the number and severity of these incidents has become so frequent it threatens to desensitize people to their severity.

Retailers must ensure they have protected the data they collect from their POS systems. In October, the liability shift happens; retailers will be required to accept the more secure “chip and pin” or EMV cards. The chips in the newer cards encode account information when transferring it to the merchant and are harder to duplicate than the magnetic stripes of yesteryear. They aren’t infallible, but they are a major step forward.

The new rules mandate that merchants that have not upgraded to EMV must be liable for any fraudulent charges. Currently, the banks are responsible. The very threat of liability should scare most into compliance. However, while paymentsource.com expects that by the deadline 70% of U.S. cards will have EMV chips, a substantial number of retailers will not accept chip and pin cards, believing the costs to upgrade would be higher than any liability they would suffer. That is a misconception that must change. Although upgrade costs may be perceived by some merchants as large, they are inconsequential compared with the cost of a breach, both in terms of reputation damage and of monetary reparations.

Retailers do not have to risk insolvency as the result of being responsible after a data breach. Take the liability shift seriously. Installing POS systems that accept chip and pin technology is the first, critical step in a long journey toward safer retailing.

This entry was posted by Jennifer Bosavage on Tuesday, July 14th, 2015 at 6:30 am .

The original intent of the mobile POS systems, mPOS, was to increase customers’ overall basket size. Because sales associates would be alarmed with tablets that could not only complete the checkout process but also make recommendations associated with the current purchase, customers would spend more money. Anecdotally, when tablets are used in that manner, that hypothesis proved correct. However, some retailers have chosen to use the technology in other ways. Those ways often do not take a long view of the business, but rather focus on short-term gain.

Merchants are implementing innovative retail technology, such as mobile point of sale systems, to improve their marketing strategies and enhance the customer experience.

Retailers that have chosen to replace standard, standalone cash registers with mPOS, and not equip salespeople with the devices as well, are missing out on a huge opportunity to increase sales.

Retailers that make the move to mPOS simply as a replacement for cash registers are looking at the immediate savings, which can be significant. A tablet POS with software can be purchased for less than $100 a month, whereas a traditional POS can cost $3,000 to $7,000. That’s appealing to an established merchant trying to reduce costs, or to a startup that needs cash for other investments. However, that type of implementation often falls short when it comes to inventory tracking, returns data and other ERP-type functions.

Making the move to mPOS makes sense when the immediate cost savings is combined with a system that will enhance sales. Linebusting, for example, is one way the mPOS can be used to process more orders in less time. But the bigger, more lucrative means of employing mPOS is by allowing a sales associate use it to engage with customers, looking up complementary items base on current and past purchases. That engagement can significantly boost basket size.

Having the proper software becomes critical; the purely mobile, modular retail management platform, Retail Pro Prism, is equipped to replace old POS systems. Prism can record what inventory is purchased, and document it with professional, branded receipts that are either printed or emailed. That helps retailers determine what product is in demand — and what is not.

Two years ago, PayPal’s then-president David Marcus wrote in a blog posting that point-of-sale terminals would become increasingly mobile in 2013, with the traditional cash wrap starting to disappear. It hasn’t happened yet, but slowly the savviest are realizing that mPOS goes far beyond line-busting, helping to improve the customer shopping experience and — by losing the cash wrap/checkout counter — add floor space for product promotions.

This entry was posted by Jennifer Bosavage on Thursday, July 9th, 2015 at 10:40 am .

Firmly established in fashion-conscious cities in the UK, Kids Cavern, the high-end children’s wear retailer, has not just one set of customers to please, but two: the grown-up ones with wallet power and the little ones who will wear their stylish apparel. So Kids Cavern is taking their customer experience to new heights of simplicity with the help of Retail Pro retail management software.

Streamlining Together: Retail Pro Support for Your Every Retail Need

Retail Pro is the foundational technology for the streamlined multi-channel experience Kids Cavern seeks to build, and their Retail Pro Business Partner, Pioneer Solutions, has played a vital role in helping them implement and customize the solution.

“To be honest with you, we are not techies,” said Kids Cavern director, Danny Shelvey. “We’re retail; we’re sales people, so we didn’t quite know what to do with Retail Pro to achieve what we wanted.”

Retail Pro understands that specialty retail comes in all flavors and sizes, some with and some without in-house IT groups. That is why we live by a channel philosophy, allowing us to offer retailers continuous technical support through the Retail Pro Business Partners.

Some software companies follow a “thank you and goodbye” approach in which resellers will hand over the software and leave retailers to tame the beast on their own. We, on the other hand, are all about enabling success. Retail Pro Business Partner support is available worldwide and has the local expertise that retailers need for location-specific compliance and requirements.

Kids Cavern has been working closely with Pioneer Solutions to tailor their Retail Pro to the exact business needs, with special focus on e-commerce and custom reports. Currently, Kids Cavern is working on implementing loyalty cards as an upgrade to the program they already have in place. This is just one facet of the holistic retail experience Kids Cavern is building.

Shop Simply Whenever, Wherever, However

A customer since 1997, Kids Cavern has enjoyed the benefits of the continuously evolving retail software, having upgraded to successive versions of the solution, and are currently operating on the robust Retail Pro 9 with an integrated e-commerce solution.

E-commerce is another part of the streamlined customer experience they seek to offer for parents in the busy city. It allows customers the freedom to shop from whatever channel is most convenient for them. As part of their simplification makeover, Kids Cavern is entering the first stages of a site revamp to trim the checkout path from 5 pages until the sale is finalized to just one.

The retailer also uses the Sales Order capabilities in Retail Pro to offer their customers a more convenient way to pay for their purchase – over time instead of all at once. Customers who open an account with Kids Cavern can enjoy the benefits of paying just a deposit on the spot and paying the balance in installments.

Simply Engaging

Streamlining the shopping experience allows Danny and the Kids Cavern staff to focus more on customer engagement. “We give them an informal shopping experience. We have families who come here with babies and their little children. We want to make sure it’s a pleasant experience for all of them,” Danny explained.

Last winter, they ran a campaign to find the young Face of Kids Cavern. The contest got many families from across the country even more excited about the company. As a result of their engagement efforts, Kids Cavern saw an uptick both in sales and in parent engagement with the company’s social media. It’s a fun way to build loyalty among their customers and Kids Cavern hopes to host more of these Mini Style Icon contests in the future.

Simplifying Retail

Having recently celebrated their 25 year anniversary with the third generation of customers, Kids Cavern has many exciting plans for the future. Their evolving store concept mirrors the evolution inherent in the retail industry, and everyone is benefitting. Retail Pro is proud to be a part of this retail story as they simplify retail for a more streamlined customer experience across channels.

This entry was posted by Ulyana Avetisov on Tuesday, July 7th, 2015 at 6:19 pm .

In a competitive marketplace, retailers must provide a seamless shopping experience online, whether mobile or at home, and in stores – or risk losing sales

By: Hazel Davis of Raconteur

It’s one of the most popular retail buzzwords, yet only 29 per cent of UK retailers consider themselves to be omni-channel, providing a seamless shopping experience across different channels. Research from software company JDA andPwC also found that for 64 per cent of UK retail chief executives the top priority to enable growth is improving omni-channel and fulfilment capabilities.

Digital performance firm Dynatrace works with 17 of the top 20 global retailers, helping them to improve the performance of their web and mobile storefronts. Their research shows that nearly a third of UK consumers shop through a combination of online, mobile and in-store channels. More than half (56 per cent) use their smartphone to compare prices online or download discount vouchers while shopping in-store.

This means, says Michael Allen, Dynatrace’s solutions vice president, retailers must ensure their customers receive a consistent experience regardless of which channel they shop through. “Every customer journey is unique in today’s digital business economy,” he says. “The rise of online and mobile commerce has fundamentally changed the way we shop, but it’s not as clear-cut for retailers as just identifying whether their customers shop online or instore.”

Mr Allen says the multitude of touchpoints in the modern consumer journey puts pressure on retailers to ensure their customers enjoy a consistent experience across every channel. “Whether they’re visiting the website from home to research a product, using the mobile app to ‘click and collect’ the item on their way into work or walking into their local high street branch to pick something up in person, the journey has to run smoothly, or retailers risk causing disillusionment that pushes their customers
away,” he says.

Of course, as they become progressively digitalised, retail operations are at increased risk of technical failure. “Many critical processes and online storefronts are interdependent or rely on third-party services such as web hosting or cloud-computing providers,” Mr Allen points out.

“Unfortunately, when one of those third parties has a problem, it can prevent staff from putting through a sale at the checkout or pull down an entire website, rendering them slow or even completely unusable. “This creates a major challenge for retailers in creating a consistent customer experience across all channels, as their performance can easily be impacted by factors outside of their direct control.”

He says that retailers need complete, real-time visibility into the entire application and service-delivery chain for every customer interaction and every business process on the back-end to see where and why issues might be occurring.

It’s also worth noting that an over-reliance on a particular third-party service is a recipe for disaster for any retailer, says Mr Allen. “If a website-hosting provider goes down, there should be a failsafe built in that switches the service over to an alternative provider instantly, so customers don’t suddenly find themselves unable to access the site or proceed to the checkout halfway through a shop,” he says.

It still happens more than it should. A common error, says Mr Allen, is when a web page has a single point of failure, where one faulty component can delay the entire page from loading. “From the customer’s perspective, they’re stuck in a situation where their browser is just left hanging for 20 seconds or more before anything appears, during which time most will have given up and clicked off,” he says.

Another error is building too many marketing analytics tools into a single page. Many of them do the same thing and merely create another component adding to the page-load time. Having too many images that load separately on a single page can also have a negative impact on the customer experience; everything will load much faster for the user if images are grouped into a single file using sprites, but this is often neglected during web-page design, adds Mr Allen.

There are a number of technologies transforming the omni-channel landscape. PowaTag, used by the likes of Universal Music and Carrefour, aims to turn every point of contact into a sale, converting impulse into purchase and eliminating the wait that causes incomplete transactions. The technology turns offline environments and printed materials into online shopping environments, and printed materials and posters into accountable sales vehicles. PowaTag audio even embeds audio water-marks into any live or recorded broadcasts, letting consumers purchase spontaneously and immediately.

Dan Wagner, chief executive of Powa Technologies, says: “Real value is what defines consumer patterns. Consumers are looking to make informed purchases that can be completed via their smartphones easily and securely. Being constantly bombarded by individual mobile commerce and payments applications has only complicated further an already saturated market.

Users experience the same frustrations looking at their smartphones being overcrowded with apps of limited scope and reach as looking at their wallets or pockets being full of credit and loyalty cards that can only be used in certain stores. “Users do not want one more app – they need the right tool that provides real solutions
to their needs.”

But chief executive of retail software company Retail Pro International Kerry Lemos warns against simply jumping on the latest bandwagon. “The high expectation for omni-channel already exists in the consumer world,” he says. “Whether retailers should choose to go through the operational upheaval to conform to that expectation is still to be determined.”

In fact, the most important question they must ask is whether omni-channel is worth it for their business. As Mr Lemos says: “Consumers want omni-channel because it is convenient for them. There is a lot of customer-centric hype and it fails to consider business operations realities and the sizeable investment a retailer will have to make to implement an omni-channel strategy.”

In order for the omni-channel experience truly to work, the whole company has to be engaged in the idea. “The retailer must set their own definition and standard for omni-channel – not the customer, not the media, not other businesses. It is important not to get carried away with the hype, but instead determine what is best for their business,”
he says.

“Every retailer’s business model, goals and offerings are different, and that will be reflected in how they structure their omni-channel efforts. The entire company, from the chief executive to the weekends-only shop assistant, must be implementing the omni-channel vision in every decision and interaction.”

So, what does the future of omni-channel look like? Rob Shaw is global vice president, general business and systems, applications and products customer engagement and commerce at hybris, which provides omni-channel solutions to companies such as P&O Ferries and Monsoon. He says we’ll start to see more “listening in” in real time to the signals a specific consumer generates while browsing across different channels, then acting in a timely fashion, rather than basing next steps on customer history.

“Let’s say a customer is browsing a retailer website a month or so after buying a new pair of shoes,” he says. “Typically this might result in the brand’s marketing technology generating adverts for shoes that then follow the customer around the web. By applying context, the retailer would realise faster that the customer is probably more interested in shoe accessories than another pair of shoes, leading to more appropriate recommendations or advertisements for products such as laces, shoe polish or protective sprays.”

Implementing omni-channel retail strategies is the only way that this context can be derived as, in the age of the channel-hopping consumer, it provides all the data required to build the all-important single view of the customer. Historically, too many retailers have been guilty of employing a siloed approach when it comes to the organisation of their business, a situation that makes accurately tracking customer activity all but impossible.

But this is changing, says Mr Shaw: “Many brands are implementing more holistic approaches to their operations and more effective, contextually-aware customer engagement will be the key benefit.”

See the original and the related infographic here.

This entry was posted by Ulyana Avetisov on Tuesday, July 7th, 2015 at 5:53 pm .