The explosion in retail experience, thanks to technology, has been changing the rules of the retail world. With the advent of online shopping, customers increasingly show a preference towards digital platforms for a unique shopping experience.

Retailers, small and big, are leveraging technology to reach out to an audience that is no longer limited by physical boundaries. New entrants are giving tough competition to stalwart retailers, by adopting innovative digital tactics and solutions to enhance their business and increase sales.

What it means for retailers

Retailers need to streamline themselves with the dynamically changing technology if they want to sustain. The sudden onrush of retail solutions in the virtual space is a clear indicator of this. The e-commerce boom that came in a few years back has got its mobile counterpart, m-commerce, the latter growing at unprecedented rates, even faster than the high exponential growth that e-commerce witnessed in the recent past.

Exponential rise of personal gadgets — and apps

A report reveals that global internet penetration has increased by 753 per cent in 2000-15 with around 40 per cent of the world’s population having access. With the advent of smartphones and other personal devices, every retailer has the potential power to reach out to every possible consumer. No wonder then that mobile app development seems to be heading upwards in a tizzy, with everyone who has something to sell trying to create a ‘unique’ dedicated app that can enhance the personalised user experience and generate more sales.

Smart knowledge

Giving company to core apps and e-commerce platforms is a parallel technological arena that is emerging in the retail scenario. These solutions are not involved in direct selling, but rather work behind the scenes to support actual sales.

Data and analytics help retailers to study the behaviour and expectations of their customers. The massive volumes of data need to be collected, collated and analysed in real-time, using better intelligence and sophisticated tools.

Social media advantage

There is a need to integrate the online and in-store customer experiences to give a homogenous service across the two formats. Retailers can then hope to build personal relationships with their customers. Social media monitoring is now as big a factor as is social media marketing, in helping to promote business.

With the use of social media for targeted marketing — data and information gathering, real-time analysis of what the customers have to say about the retailer and what they expect from the retailer’s products/services — retailers can respond intelligently. This helps them identify future business goals and growth plans.

In fact, it can help them snoop digitally on their competition’s social media presence and judge how they are perceived in the market, thereby positioning themselves better.

Physical stores need to buck up

The traditional brick-and-mortar retailers and offline players have been keen to adopt and adapt to the technological thrust. Virtual reality and better in-store experiences are being utilized to attract and retain customers. Customer interface technology and future retail solutions can help physical stores include intelligent apps that make shopping at a store very convenient.

Suppose your personal gadget could tell you where to find a vacant parking lot as you drive towards the store. Or as you steer your cart between the alleys of stocked up products, it lets you know about the best deals and most preferred products, keeping in mind your last shopping preferences.

A simple feature that keeps displaying your total as you move through the aisles, augmented by automatic payment via the online methods when you have to check out. No more waiting in long queues at the cash register. This would result in time-efficient, target-based trips to the physical shops, with the unbeatably distinct advantage of personally touching and checking out a product before buying it.

Stores can also use technology to enhance the in-store experience with offers such as 3D printing and in-store kiosks which can help the retailers leverage the advantage of the physical space and difficult for online competitors to match.

Keeping the digital customer happy is no easy task. The stores that are quick to address their needs, have unified multi-channel services and give them increasingly personalised service will be able to make successful sales.

Re-inventing and re-strategising periodically using newer technological trends is the only way to make sure your retail business does not get into a rut, and catches the fancy of customers, again and again. There is no doubt technology is the single most powerful force carving out the future of the retail industry.

— The writer is Executive Director at Thought Leaders Middle East.