Commentary

How digital queuing can save brick-and-mortar retailers

Alex Bäcker, CEO, Qless, says retail success isn't about trying to out-Amazon Amazon, but providing what Amazon and its peers cannot — face-to-face customer service in a comfortable, welcoming space.

Photo by iStock.com

September 20, 2018

By Alex Bäcker, CEO, Qless

Many brick-and-mortar retailers are in trouble, and in no small part because they are failing to take advantage of the internet's potential. The web facilitated the rise of giants like Amazon, but it also offers plenty of options to help traditional entrepreneurs compete — and succeed. The key is not to try and out-Amazon Amazon, but to provide what Amazon and its peers cannot — face-to-face customer service in a comfortable, welcoming space.

Rather than being the downfall of physical retail locations, the internet can supercharge this unique advantage. That's why more and more retail stores are embracing digital queuing, fusing the organizational and streamlining power of the internet with the ambiance and experience of going shopping.

Retail can do better

Online shopping has taken a toll on physical retail stores. 2017 alone saw nine retail bankruptcies, and chains like Lululemon, Ralph Lauren and Urban Outfitters have hit new multi-year stock lows — even as GDP is on the rise. All across America, once-bustling shopping centers are going out of business to the extent that popular YouTube channels feature people exploring abandoned malls like post-apocalyptic scavengers.

Despite the dire straits facing our neighborhood stores, retail spending overall is actually on the rise. So what gives? What's changed is how people spend money. Understanding this change is the key to leveraging new technology and hopefully reversing the trends that gutted our malls and kicked Lululemon in the yoga pants.

What Amazon hath wrought

Amazon's mere existence does not mean doom for physical retailers, but the impact that digital storefronts have had on the shopping culture is undeniable — and retail entrepreneurs hoping to thrive in this new culture must understand that this impact is about experience, not some magical power inherent to cyberspace. Online shopping has trained consumers to shop when they're in the mood and expect instant gratification when they do. No one wants to wait for anything. Yet, even in the digital age, most people prefer to do their shopping in person, as only 9% of sales actually happen online, and that means there's hope for walk-in retail.

The convenience of a "buy now" button and fast delivery means people no longer plan their days around shopping, but also miss out on the social experience thereof. This puts brick-and-mortar retailers on the defensive because lines and stock shortages mean customers have to deal with wasting time standing in a queue only to find out the store is out of the desired item, when they could just open an app, click a single button, and receive their order in a day or two.

The truth before our eyes

An online storefront offers a stripped-down version of what good retail is all about: customer experience. For pure efficiency, you can't beat a button and free delivery. But for a satisfying customer experience, nothing Zappos or Alibaba can do will compare to going to the neighborhood store.

Humans are social animals. We like getting out and about, and we crave interaction. We enjoy making impulse purchases and discovering new products on the shelf. Many retailers have downsized their staffs and gutted their storefronts into showrooms for products that are available online, when the real solution is to lean into the tactile and social satisfaction of the retail space and eliminate the misery of being stuck in line.

No lines, no waiting

The internet is great at two things (three, if you count funny cat videos): efficiency and communication. But imagine having the ambiance and interaction of a shopping trip without the footsore boredom of waiting in line or the anxiety of worrying they may not even have what you want.

Digital queuing allows customers to sign up for whatever products or services they want in advance, receive regular updates, and even be directed to nearby stores that have the right items in stock. A digital appointment means the user is told exactly when to arrive to be seen by a person — which is the primary benefit of an in-store visit in the first place — and skip the wait entirely.

This creates benefits for both consumer and retailer. The retailer can spread customers out among its locations for load-balancing, keeping any one store from becoming overcrowded and overloaded. Stores can also collect invaluable data on customer habits, discovering the ideal headcount to service their customers. And while visitors don't have to stand in line to be helped, they are free to browse the store and grab any other items they might like.

Best of both worlds

Store owners see the dominance of online shopping and think the only way to leverage new technology is to try and ape Amazon's techniques, but online merchants succeed because they marry the web's advantages to their own. Brick-and-mortar retailers need to use the internet to highlight their own strengths: face-to-face interaction, tactile exposure to a product, and the experience of shopping. Digital queuing marries convenience to experience, doing for physical stores what online storefronts did for digital and offering a renaissance of going out to the store.