Tag: custom retail application
Our digital era is a whirlwind of change, with technology driving transformation at breakneck speed. It’s not just about adopting new gadgets; it’s about recognizing technology’s influence on consumer interactions. Retailers are at a crossroads with fresh opportunities and challenges. However, there’s a bright side – smart retail technologies can enhance the consumer experience, adapting to modern shoppers’ evolving needs and expectations.
In this article, we’ll explore how technology is transforming the retail sector and how businesses can use these innovations to meet the ever-changing demands of modern consumers. Ready to elevate your retail game? Let’s dive in!
Revamping Retail: How Smart Technologies Elevate the Shopping Experience
To remain competitive, retailers are adopting smart retail displays. These technologies are rapidly growing, with a market value of USD 30.25 billion in 2022 and a projected CAGR of 29.1% from 2023 to 2030. The convergence of innovation and retail has given birth to a shopping experience like never before. The retail industry is undergoing a transformation that promises to delight and engage customers. Let us understand how they are making retail smarter and more efficient.
1. Augmented Shopping
Gartner’s 2020 prediction of 100 million AR users was spot-on, and during the same year, the conversion rate for AR users surged by an impressive 90%.
Augmented reality (AR) is no longer limited to entertainment. It’s transforming the way customers interact with your products. By overlaying digital information onto the physical world, AR allows customers to visualize products in their real-life settings. Imagine someone shopping for furniture, using their smartphone to see how that new couch would fit in their living room. It’s a powerful tool for enhancing decision-making and customer engagement.
Did you know? As per research conducted by Deloitte, utilizing virtual try-ons and Augmented Reality (AR) in shopping experiences results in a remarkable 94% increase in conversion rates.
2. Virtual Trial Rooms
The VR retail market is expected to see substantial growth, increasing from USD 3.18 billion in 2023 to USD 18.99 billion by 2032, with a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.00% over the forecast period.
One of the most thrilling advancements in VR and AR in retail is the emergence of virtual fitting rooms. For clothing retailers, virtual trial rooms are a godsend. These digital fitting rooms allow customers to try on clothing virtually, eliminating the need for physical changing rooms. Shoppers can see how garments look and fit without the hassle of undressing. This technology saves time and enhances the overall shopping experience.
3. 3D Web Configurations
Instead of static product images, customers can interact with 3D representations of your products. This technology bridges the gap between online and in-store experiences, making online shopping feel more tactile and immersive. A recent study revealed that 93% of Gen Z have shown keen interest in using AR and 3D configurators for their shopping experiences.
In today’s digital age, attracting customers to your physical store can be challenging. Here, 3D experiences play a crucial role. These immersive technologies enable customers to explore your products thoroughly without visiting the store, helping them make informed decisions. This not only boosts conversion rates but also enhances in-store interactions with your staff, who can better understand customer needs.
4. Staff and Cashier-Free Stores
Staff and cashier-free stores are becoming increasingly popular, thanks to technologies like RFID, computer vision, and automation. Retailers are now investing largely in automated checkout processes. This innovation not only eliminates the need for traditional checkout lines but also enhances security and reduces theft.
Shoppers can grab what they need and simply walk out of the store, with their accounts being charged automatically. This convenience and time-saving aspect of cashier-free stores greatly enhances the overall shopping experience.
5. Data Science-Based Personalization
Data science and artificial intelligence are at the heart of personalization in the retail industry. Retailers collect and analyze vast amounts of customer data to tailor shopping experiences. Machine learning algorithms analyze a customer’s browsing and purchasing history to provide personalized product recommendations, exclusive discounts, and content. This increases sales and makes customers feel valued and understood.
6. Machine Learning for Demand Forecasting
Machine learning is transforming the way retailers manage their inventory and predict customer demand. Traditional methods of demand forecasting often led to overstocking or understocking issues. Machine learning algorithms, however, can analyze real-time data and make more accurate predictions based on various factors like seasonality, customer behavior, and market trends.
This technology ensures that stores have the right products in the right quantities at the right time, reducing waste and ensuring that customers can find what they want when they visit the store. Accurate demand forecasting greatly enhances the shopping experience and minimizes disappointment.
7. Frictionless POS Systems
Frictionless Point of Sale (POS) systems streamline the checkout process. Contactless payments, mobile wallets, and self-checkout kiosks make payments faster and more convenient for customers. With the ability to complete transactions quickly and without hassle, shoppers can spend less time waiting in line and more time enjoying their shopping experience.
Frictionless POS systems also provide a more secure and hygienic way to make payments, which has become increasingly important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a survey of U.S. consumers, tap-to-pay mobile apps emerged as the top retail tech, with 66% giving it a positive rating for improving their shopping experience.
Watch now: How smart malls of the future would look like!
Transforming Retail Experiences: Fingent’s Expertise in Technology Solutions
At Fingent, we take pride in our role as a technology consulting and solutions provider, helping retailers navigate the modern landscape to discover unique opportunities and implement them swiftly with cutting-edge technology.
We believe in staying at the forefront of technological innovation, using data-driven insights to empower you to optimize operations, elevate customer experiences, and respond agilely to market changes. We employ agile development methodologies and support you through change management, ensuring that technology adoption is not just efficient but also seamless. We understand the importance of scalability, compliance, and security and work diligently to safeguard your interests.
By partnering with Fingent, retailers can confidently stay competitive, foster growth, and ensure long-term viability through innovative technology adoption. We are here to help you uncover the endless possibilities in the dynamic world of retail. Connect with our experts today!
The impact of the pandemic on consumers across the globe has dramatically changed their demands, needs, and behavior. Many of these changes have critical implications for businesses in most sectors. To succeed in the next normal, businesses must respond proactively.
COVID-19 jolted consumer demand in a way that sets it apart from past disruptions. As a result, customer loyalty took a hard hit. Executing the four Ps of marketing (optimization of product, price, place, and promotion) became more complex than ever. Businesses must redouble and broaden their efforts toward meeting ever-changing customer demands and behavior.
As with everything else, it is important for an organization to know and understand its customers. If your company is at crossroads with today’s Ecommerce customers’ needs, this article will help you understand how technology can help satisfy these uprising demands quickly and effectively. So then, let’s first understand how customer behavior, needs, and demands change.
Read more: What are 3D Web Configurators? How do they Boost Ecommerce Sales and Drive Customer Satisfaction?
Ecommerce Customers’ Behavior, Demands, and Needs
Customers are like the moving targets. The key to success is to understand their behavior trends and use technology to help satisfy these uprising needs and demands. Linnworks research pointed to five such trends:
- Convenience is the need of the hour: 76% of consumers feel that convenience is the top priority in choosing a retailer. 90% of shoppers focus on using a trouble-free online store.
- The frictionless shopping experience is most valued: It was noted that 58% of consumers abandoned an online store altogether because they were difficult to use.
- Omnichannel shopping is gaining traction: One in three consumers has purchased an item while on social media. 71% of consumers prefer to complete a purchase on a social site without having to exit to the retailer’s site.
- Consumers demand flexible payment options: Four in five shoppers expect the “buy now, pay later” payment option.
- Delivery convenience: 95% of consumers say that fast and reliable delivery methods play a crucial role in their decision-making.
How Can Technology Help Satisfy these Uprising Needs and Demands of Today’s Consumers?
1. Allow your consumers to experience products before they buy
The biggest roadblock facing Ecommerce businesses has been the inability of consumers to experience products before they buy. Everyone likes to try on clothes they like to buy or see how is their new couch looks in their living room.
This is where AR (Augmented Reality) can help your business. AR can help your consumers try on clothes or closely inspect the components of a mobile device. AR market is expected to reach 2.54 billion by 2023. Online retailers who fail to take full advantage of this technology may likely experience business disruption.
2. Bring your product to life with virtual shopping
Virtual reality shopping can bring your products to life. It helps your customers to have an in-store-like experience, without actually being there. VR technology allows you to tag products so your customers can purchase on the spot. It can instantly connect buyers with customer service executives.
VR can make product recommendations based on customer metrics. It can also cater to both desktop and mobile users. Thus, it provides a better customer experience attracting more customers to your online store.
3. Be omnichannel ready
Todays’ Ecommerce customers like to cross-channel research and purchase. So, they expect smooth interactions across these channels and devices. Technology can help you to provide your customers with what they want, when they want it, and where they want it to. Some of these technologies include video chat, screen sharing, document interaction, e-signature, and more.
Co-browsing is an effective visual engagement system. It can bring your sales executives and customers together on the same page, at the same time. This allows your executive to guide your customers through the complex procedures making their customer journey as smooth as it can be.
Read more: Custom Retail Software Solutions: Everything You Need to Know!
4. Enhance customer communication with chatbots and AI
Artificial Intelligence has a major impact on how we live and work. Voice shopping is expected to jump to $40 billion by 2022, rising from $2 billion today. And 45% of millennials have already been shopping using voice assistants.
Chatbots and AI improve customer experience and boost brand image. These chatbots can be personalized to order food, get recommendations for almost anything, receive details regarding payment or order status, and more.
5. Hassle-free checkout process
Inefficient checkout processes can raise the chances of cart abandonment. However, this problem can be avoided by embracing technology that provides quick and efficient checkout solutions.
Technology enables speedy mobile payment solutions, allows your customers to save card details for repeat purchases. Above all, it proves one-page hassle-free checkouts and offers a range of payment options. All these can alleviate any potential difficulties your customers may face at checkout.
6. Enable m-commerce to enhance Ecommerce
Today many shoppers shop on the go. Hence, mobile platforms have gained greater importance. So much so that m-commerce is emerging as a concept. Given that, providing a mobile-oriented shopping experience will certainly help you win potential customers, maximizing your chances of future success.
Ecommerce mobile apps offer continuous engagement with your brand. It can help them familiarize with new and relevant purchasing opportunities. These apps also allow you to market products relevant to the specific geographical location of your customers.
Read more: 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP
How Can Fingent Help Deploy These Evolving Technologies For Ecommerce Businesses?
It is one thing to understand your consumer behavior but another thing entirely to implement technology to satisfy their demands and needs. Fingent is here to help you implement these technologies efficiently. We can help you move the needle and dominate your niche in the Ecommerce industry.
Fingent top software development company, can help you implement those that make sense and put the rest on the back burner. We can aid in the success of your Ecommerce venture by implementing cutting-edge technologies. Our development experts will help you promote your products in new and innovative ways.
Choosing Fingent can help you save a lot of time and money and avoid unnecessary complexity as we can provide all the needed components. Our platforms are easy to manage yet robust enough to house thousands of products. We can handle unique order processes and payment terms for your Ecommerce sales. Let’s get talking.
How Retail Software Solutions Help You Gain A Competitive Advantage
The retail industry has witnessed a tremendous transformation over the past few years. Innovative retail technologies have made the sector fast-paced and highly competitive. The advent of cloud technology has also disrupted the retail industry from the ground up. These technology changes accelerate the need for advanced and bespoke retail software solutions that can effectively automate most routine store operations.
Why should you adopt custom retail software solutions?
Fingent helps you develop custom retail software solutions that help you:
- Automate everyday retail store operations,
- Switch to e-commerce quickly,
- Enhance inventory management,
- Streamline payments and invoices tracking,
- Improve order fulfillment, and
- Serve your customers better and faster.
Read more: Custom Software Development is the Ideal Way to Build Business Apps in 2021
As several countries continue with lockdown measures, the digital shopping trend and the shift in consumer behavior are here to stay. Retailers are forced to address the rising consumer expectations with limited resources like transport restrictions, shortage of labor, out-of-stock scenarios, and so on. Contactless shopping has found a better place in today’s business landscape, and retailers need to adopt personalized retail software solutions to stay relevant and competent in the market.
A few stats that underscore the significance of custom retail software solutions
The following figures suggest why brick-and-mortar stores must adopt retail software solutions and digital transformation to stay ahead of competitors and attract loyal clients.
- 30% of consumers do not wait for more than two minutes to determine if the product they want to buy is in stock.
- 78% of the customers would not use a retailer again after three late or incomplete deliveries.
- 87% of buyers leave the store if the product they are looking for is unavailable and there is no assistant nearby.
Read more: Digital Transformation in Retail: Why it Matters?
Our custom retail software solutions are perfect for companies of different sizes. We help you build and integrate software tailored to your retail business. We create personalized retail software solutions that are scalable and meet the growing needs of a single shop or even a vast retail chain consisting of several Points of Sale (POS).
Benefits of custom retail software solutions
The most significant features and capabilities of retail software solutions include:
- Managing orders, products, and inventory,
- Handling financial transactions,
- Streamlining the supply chain,
- Helping human resources and marketing campaigns, and
- Managing customer relations.
Here are the benefits of custom retail software solutions.
1. Offers real-time visibility
Retail software solutions allow you to control warehouses and shop floors in online mode and identify if certain products are in or out of stock. Also, it helps you send instant alerts if something is out of order and thus avoid lengthy downtimes.
2. Automates in-store processes
Retail software solutions help automate all major store tasks such as billing, price regulation, inventory auditing, reporting, payroll records, returns processing, and more.
3. Improves customer service
As retail software solutions help automate most store processes, your employees can spend more time engaging with the customers and promoting your new products and latest arrivals. Customer reps will have the historical data in hand while attending a customer service call. This helps them save time, effort, and money, reduce returns and refunds, and direct customers to the optimal solution. Embedded analytics in the software allows your marketing team to send personalized recommendations to your customers based on their shopping history and online behavior.
Read more: A Comprehensive Guide on Developing Custom Accounting Software for Business
Different types of retail software solutions
1. Point of Sales (POS) software
The software for shop management, implemented in brick-and-mortar stores, facilitates seamless transactions between customers and the store on the spot. The POS market is projected to grow at an annual rate of 14% from 2016 to 2024. Fingent helps you develop custom Point of Sales software that enables you to manage sales, inventory, and employees with ease. We build custom POS software for your single store or a retail network. It helps boost your customer engagement and revenue.
2. Inventory management software
We help you develop custom inventory management software for tracking, managing, and organizing product sales, material purchases, and other production processes. Typically, the inventory management software works with wireless tracking, barcodes, and radio-frequency identification to support inventory tracking and control.
3. Payment processing software
Payment processing software is a secure program that connects eCommerce sites via virtual terminals to other payment systems that acknowledge credit cards and other online payment methods. Payment processing software allows users to add their card or bank details and notifies financial institutions that approve or reject payments. We help integrate payment processing software into your retail software solutions.
4. Retail ERP systems
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems integrate modules for controlling all stages of business. An ERP system is a perfect software for shop management. ERPs are customizable and support integration with third-party systems. ERPs like Odoo and SAP allow developing specific modules to suit your business needs. For instance, SAP FICO (Finance and Cost controlling module in SAP) and SAP Ariba (sourcing, procurement, and financial supply chain solutions).
Read more: How SAP Solutions Allow Retailers to Stay Competitive in 2021
We are an Official Partner of Odoo as well as a Silver Partner of SAP. We are well placed to offer the best ERP consulting, implementation, and maintenance services for your business across these two platforms.
Read more: How Odoo ERP Enhances Retail Operations Management
5. e-Commerce software
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the adoption of eCommerce among retailers. That said, retail software platforms are a must today. The software enables online store owners to add and remove products, process payments, fulfill orders, etc. Fingent helps leverage numerous eCommerce development frameworks such as Magento, Odoo, etc., to build B2B and B2C e-commerce software for your business.
Read more: 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP
You can deploy retail software solutions either in the cloud or on-premise according to your specific requirements:
- On-premise retail software solutions: An on-premise retail application is installed on your local computers or local servers. However, you may need the expertise of an IT specialist like Fingent to maintain the system and handle updates or fix issues.
- Cloud-based retail software solutions: Cloud-based retail software solutions do not require to be installed on your hardware. If you have a stable and reliable internet connection, you can deploy the retail software as a SaaS solution, which is managed by the providers automatically.
Steps to create custom retail software for your business
1. Choose the right vendor
Selecting the right software provider is crucial as well as challenging. Your choice will determine how positively a future system will impact your business performance.
2. Plan and budget
Create a detailed plan and discuss the key features your system should include. Whether to have an omnichannel solution, what function it should perform, what third-party system it needs to be integrated with, and the software development budget must be considered. You can opt for custom software development. At Fingent, we provide you with out-of-the-box retail software solutions within your budget.
3. Development and implementation
Here are a few best practices to take advantage of custom software development:
- Include an internal team of specialists having the needed expertise and experience to participate in the implementation process.
- Provide your team with adequate training to get started and explain the benefits. Your offshore software development partner can help you with this. At Fingent, we help ease your transition to custom software. We offer training and support and provide post-release maintenance and support to our customers.
- Eliminate inactive accounts and other documents that have not been processed for years to simplify the migration.
4. Testing
The retail software system implementation requires continuous control and testing. Thus, most companies rely on continuous testing to ensure the process will happen simultaneously with the integration.
Additionally, you must be prepared to address several issues. The primary purpose of the final testing is to simulate the lifecycle of your business with go-live processes. Fingent has a dedicated Quality Assurance & Testing team that ensures your application is bug-free, high-performing, and responsive.
5. Maintenance
After successfully implementing the custom retail software system, it needs support and maintenance that must be provided either by your technical experts or the software provider. As said above, Fingent offers post-launch maintenance support and change enhancement services for the custom software we develop.
With extensive experience in retail software development and eCommerce systems, we can become your reliable partner and make your company a front-runner in the retail industry.
If you are looking for custom software for shop management or tailored retail software solutions, please drop us a message.
Being an Official Partner of Odoo, Fingent has always catered to the needs of various customers and streamlined their operations, thus saving their costs, time, and resources. In this post, you will see how Odoo ERP implementation helps retail management.
Odoo ERP: A Highly Customizable Cloud-based Platform for Retailers!
The retail industry is one of the primary beneficiaries of digital transformation. In 2010, eCommerce accounted for only 5-6% of the aggregate retail sales in the US. The industry has witnessed phenomenal growth over the past decade with the development and adoption of retail technology, ERPs, eCommerce applications, custom retail solutions, and stiff market competition. At present, online retail sales in the US account for 21% of the total retail purchases. Isn’t that mind-blowing?
The paradigm shift from the traditional operating landscape to a digital world presents both opportunities and challenges. Many people look for products online, make buying decisions based on social media reviews, and order products to be delivered home. They even use the internet to search local shops, order online and collect from nearby stores (click & collect) or find retailers that offer discounts in their area. The message is clear: physical/ in-store retailing also needs to pace up with the change.
To overcome the challenges in managing physical and digital selling, retailers need to adopt a modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
Read more: 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP
Today, ERP is extensively used to simplify and automate customer relationship management, project management, accounting, compliance, inventory, and supply chain operations. ERP is a reliable investment for business owners as they can control and monitor their operations, get reports, and gain insights on consumer behavior and market situations.
Odoo ERP for Retail Management
ERP software allows integrating the core processes to run a company in one place, such as finance, manufacturing, HR, supply chain, inventory, procurement, tracking, transactions, etc. It also integrates all the data and related business processes of an organization.
Odoo ERP is a popular, open-source, cloud-based business management software that helps manage various business needs such as manufacturing, finance, inventory, point of sale (POS), eCommerce, purchase, logistics, etc. Odoo is an intelligent ERP system that allows retailers to integrate their whole data and all the processes associated with the retail industry. For retailers, Odoo is a perfect choice that increases profit and enhances productivity as it provides comprehensive solutions that can seamlessly integrate with eCommerce.
Read more: 5 signs which imply that your business needs Odoo ERP
How Odoo ERP Benefits Retail Management
Following are the significant benefits of using Odoo ERP in retail:
1. One-step checkout
In online shopping apps, the checkout stage tends to have several processes spread across different web pages. This can put off some customers who don’t want to spend their time navigating through each. Odoo eliminates these multiple processes by offering a one-step checkout that is fast, convenient, and intuitive. It has the potential to reduce checkout abandonment and thereby increase sales.
2. Craft stunning product pages
For eCommerce websites, high-quality product pages are crucial to gain maximum traction. Long descriptions with dull-looking pages are outdated. Odoo ERP lets you build beautiful and stunning product pages with a simple drag and drop feature. You can also customize your online store’s look, layout, color, and theme with Odoo and make last-minute changes to meet the demands and expectations of your clients. You can also make changes and enhancements at regular intervals to add more features to your store. Make sure that your digital store is mobile responsive to be compatible with the changes and new features.
3. Payment module integration
Having different payment options can enhance the customer experience. With Odoo’s plugins and extensions, retailers can integrate and customize various modules like wallets, cryptocurrencies, credit and debit cards, and UPI. It also supports PayPal, PayUMoney, Buckaroo, Sips, Stripe, Ingenico, Adyen, and Authorize.net.
4. Sales, purchase, and finance management
Odoo offers non-retail and retail companies different sales management processes. Odoo has a Point of Sale (POS) module, which is integrated with the sales and inventory module. This module helps retailers track stock and commodities in real-time. The module also allows for the use of biometric devices to log in and out. It’s compatible with any hardware and doesn’t require installation. What’s more, the POS remains operational even when offline.
Read more: How Odoo ERP Simplifies Sales Management in Your Organization
5. Inventory management
It’s a known fact that inventory management in a volatile and dynamic consumer goods market is an arduous task for many retailers. With several issues such as excess inventory or out-of-stock scenarios, inefficient inventory management processes result in financial loss and lead many retailers to bankruptcy.
Odoo ERP offers inventory management as its integral feature, where it stores details of an organization’s entire inventory, including the individual product details. Odoo enables retail managers to keep track of crucial information such as:
- The present status of the inventory
- Items that will run out of stock
- Shelf life details of each product
- Notifications related to product expiry
- Ability to make demand forecasts based on past trends and customers’ online behavior and buying habits
Odoo ERP enables retailers to gain a competitive edge by modifying inventory to meet the fluctuating customer demands.
Read more: Fingent’s new plugin facilitates the scheduling of Zoom meetings from Odoo!
6. Manufacturing and production
Retailers who are also engaged in manufacturing and production can use Odoo’s module to help run functions. The Manufacturing module can assist in creating bills of materials (BoMs), managing semi-finished products, subcontracting manufacturing, etc. It can also help in configuring work centers and managing and configuring kits.
7. The Cloud Advantage
- Odoo solutions are cloud-based, allowing retailers to access their e-commerce stores from anywhere in the world.
- Odoo is flexible, customizable, and scalable, making it especially ideal for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
- Odoo is an affordable ERP solution with the maintenance fees included in the license fee.
In a nutshell, Odoo ERP serves as a high-performance retail management system where retailers can manage everything on a single system. It can bring tremendous benefits to the retailing industry. They can integrate Odoo’s various business apps such as Sales, Accounting, Customer relationship management (CRM), Inventory, etc., with Odoo e-commerce.
The Odoo App Store features nearly 10,000 apps that connect to the same database on Odoo’s own servers. A testament to Odoo’s popularity is in the numbers: it has more than 5 million users worldwide, from start-ups to large enterprises.
With a simple checkout process, robust customer portal (order tracking, advanced shipping rules, and return management), order review, and wish lists, Odoo ERP provides real-time information to users.
Read more: Why Choose Fingent as Your Odoo ERP Partner
Fingent has an ace team of Odoo developers that offers consulting, development, and implementation services. Whether you want to integrate Odoo ERP with your existing e-commerce store or build an online store from scratch powered by Odoo integration, give us a call right away.
Technology has helped retailers to reach people globally and provide services that were never possible through the traditional brick and mortar store operations. Such massive shifts in technology have engaged even the least encouraged shopping enthusiast into acquiring items of their interest. With the advent of smart technology, shopping is just going to get more fun, engaging, and exciting. Here are a few top technologies that will completely change the way you shop.
1. Smart Shelves
Stores can now embed sensors on their shelves and turn them into a smart shelf that detects the stock remaining, the pricing changes, and alerts the staff accordingly. Many times customers find their favorite product out-of-stock. Smart shelves offer a real-time update regarding the inventory of the product and detect if it is running low. It gives retailers the power to change the price of products in real time. Retailers can plan their stocks and discounts based on the customer’s interest.
2. Retailing Apps
Smartphones are a great way to reach your audience and retailers can create their custom apps to sell their goods easily. These apps provide information about stock, alert customers about offers and work to understand the customer behavior. With Big Data analytics on the rise, retailers can figure out what sells more and even personalize the app as per the customer interest to entice them for shopping. The apps are also a great way to test new products and check if they really generate interest from the customers. If yes, the products can be launched and if no, a survey will help to understand what changes would work better.
3. Interactive dressing rooms
Major retailers such as Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Rebecca Minkoff are driving an interactive technology in their flagship stores. An interactive mirror is set up in the trial rooms or fitting areas where shoppers get to analyze a 360-degree view of the outfit they are trying. It allows them to compare other outfits in similar design or color alongside. Customers can send the entire video to friends right away to get an opinion about it. Shoppers have the freedom to ask for a different size or color right from the dressing room. This saves time and increases customer satisfaction as well.
4. Smart stores
Customers who shy away from stores due to long lines at the billing counter can breathe a sigh of relief. Smart stores are not a thing of future anymore since Amazon is opening a Self-Checkout store soon. The customer simply has to walk into the store, pick what they want from the shelves, and walk out of the store. The items picked will be added to the app itself and charged on the mode of payment selected by the consumer. Another smart technology that stores can utilize is having a Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Walk Throughs to provide a personalized experience. Such a technology works best at places that sell furniture, paint, and home improvement items.
5. Mobile Payments
The use of Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology for making payments is available with all latest mobile phones. Such a payment method makes it easy for customers to purchase items without carrying their credit card or cash along. It is far more convenient and easier to manage not just for the customer but even for the retailers.
Technology is on the rise and retailers are not staying behind to use it. If you are a retailer, it is not too late to join the race and get ahead with smarter technology and solutions. And if you have set your mind on a certain technology, look no further than us to develop it.
Productivity is the mantra to success in today’s highly competitive world. Expanding the customer base and taking large margins are both tough in a highly competitive world. In such a state of affairs, improving productivity is the only sure shot way for enterprises to stay in the game, even as they painstakingly battle it out for the new customer.
Most enterprises understand the indispensability of software to drive sales and improve productivity in today’s tech-dominated world. However, many enterprises make the mistake of deploying generic software. Such software may come with far lesser hassles to procure and deploy but can sap the very vitality of the enterprise.
Custom Design Gels in with Entrenched Systems
A retail software never works in isolation. Unless it syncs with the enterprise systems it is supposed to serve, it causes a discordant note, and executives end up spending time trying to fix the software, rather than make sales.
The generic software offers a rigid structure, with limited flexibility, and expects business to follow such a structure and approach. Any enterprise is an ecosystem with a culture of its own, and processes which have evolved over time. While change is possible, and maybe even desirable, it requires great effort and energy. Trying to change the enterprise system for the sake of the software is foolhardy. Any change should ideally be for the better, and a thought-out decision, rather than being forced due to the exigency of implementing software.
Custom build retail applications gels in seamlessly with the entrenched enterprise systems. Of course, the caveat is a well-designed app, developed after a thorough study of how the enterprise works.
Reach Out to Target Customers Effectively
Custom retail apps make it easier for the enterprise to reach out to its customers the way they want to, through the channel of preference.
Today’s demanding customers prefer varying channels, such as email, SMS, social media, and more. Marketers require a seamless way to leverage the preferred medium while delivering the required content.
Grouping the brand’s content repository into an interactive management app makes it easy for sales executives to email or SMS customers directly, generate social media posts, post content on different websites, and do more. When all effort is through a single console, marketers are spared time and effort searching for information and taking it to the required channel manually. In fact, regular or routine messages may even be automated, to be dispatched at a predetermined time. Marketers may use the time saved on their core competency, and increase sales further.
Custom retail apps go beyond, enabling personalized shopping experience and support to customers. Brands would do well to connect customers with a salesperson proactively. The salesperson would, in turn, need to be equipped with all information regarding the customer, including their publicly available demographic information, purchase history, likes, preferences, online searches, and more.
Custom Apps Enable Seamless Communication
Seamless and prompt communication is the lifeblood of today’s enterprises. Today’s customers are highly fickle and demanding. They seek instant answers and move away if the business cannot satiate their quest fast enough. A custom retail app, inbuilt with collaboration tools, and configured to tap into information from all depositories, delivers not just faster responses, but also more user-friendly communication.
Marketers, sales executives, and other enterprise stakeholders, powered by an in-house app in their smartphones can remain in touch, respond to the customer, and collaborate seamlessly, from any location, at any time. Sales executives may look-up or access critical information when at meetings with clients. Managers, equipped with real-time insights, may enforce better control over the workflow.
Custom retail Apps Perfect Analytical Insights
While most generic software offers some analytic capabilities, any custom software worth its byte offer deeper and invaluable insights into customer behavior.
The obvious and most apparent need for analytics is to view sales data unhindered. Getting real time sales data, drilled down to store, unit, salesperson, and other minute levels enable taking timely action to boost sales and resolve any trouble spots hindering sales.
A comprehensive custom build sales management suite monitors sales activities on a real time basis, and measure the impact of various marketing and promotional campaigns. Linking sales to marketing campaigns make it possible to evaluate the success rate of specific campaigns, making explicit the ROI of marketing and other interventions.
A spin-off benefit is insights on how executives and other employees interact with the app, as in the time required for completion of specific tasks, whether the tasks are completed in one go, and more, paving the way for workflow improvements. Event tracking also becomes easier, and automatic reports save time and money.
It is poised to get better. More and more retailers are now integrating beacon technology to their apps, to track how customers behave in the store, how many times they visit a certain location, and gain other insights not easily available before. Marketers could use such insights to tailor custom offers and position their products better. Sending out relevant and timely messages to shoppers not only cater to the immediate increase the likelihood of purchases but also improve brand retention, beneficial in the long term. Needless to say, it improves the strike-rates of marketers manifold, sparing them wasted effort resultant from guesses and hunches.
Custom Apps Offer Solid Templates
All software gather data, but data is useless unless put into use for actionable information. Often, businesses fail to harness the data properly. Smart businesses opt for deep customization of their reports, with solid templates to ensure each manager or supervisor get insights that really matter to their task. The best reports are dynamic, populated with real time data. In today’s fast paced and highly fluid world, historical data is as useful as yesterday’s newspaper.
The humongous benefits of custom retail apps notwithstanding, success depends on such apps being easy to use, with little learning curve or training required. It requires a competent and talented team of developers who know their stuff, to leverage the power of simplicity and roll out intuitive custom software for the business.