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How technology can enhance the customer in-store experience

Rather than being a threat, technology can in fact significantly enhance the customer in-store experience.

November 18, 2016

By Guylain Roy MacHabée

Often technology is viewed as a threat to high-street stores, with more people than ever shopping online. However, as PwC's annual survey shows, many consumers still prefer to visit a retailer on the high-street — with 73 percent of the 19,000 consumers globally surveyed saying they browsed for products online but decided to purchase them in the store.

Rather than being a threat, technology can in fact significantly enhance the customer in-store experience.

Bluetooth beacons are a great example. If Bluetooth beacons are unfamiliar, they soon won't be, as this new technology is about to transform the retail experience. BLE beacons ('Bluetooth Low Energy) are small electronic devices that periodically broadcast a radio signal using Bluetooth signals similar to those used to pair your phone with a headset. Then, people with smartphones can interact with a beacon if the device is using a store's app or even via the phone's notifications feature.

Why do beacons matter? They enable retailers to leverage contextual and proximity awareness to surprise and delight customers with creative engagement based on their location as they travel throughout the store.

Here are three examples to help you imagine how this relatively inexpensive technology can help better serve your customers.

Personalization 

Already 90 per cent of shoppers use smartphones in stores when shopping, a study by SessionM revealed. Fifty four per cent use smartphones to compare prices, 48 per cent to look up product information and 42 per cent to check online reviews.

Retailers can tap into this existing consumer behavior to offer a truly personalized in-store experience. All they need to do is get customers to download their app and 'opt in' to receive notifications.

Beacons can be an innovative means of increasing mobile app penetration and usage rates. Innovative beacons can trigger a digital sign when it detects the presence of a Bluetooth-enabled device; when placed near the store entrance, this digital sign can encourage customers to download the app and opt in to receive content.

Content can then be shared as the customer travels around the store — as beacons send 'push' notifications to the app tailored to the customer's in-store location. For example, it could send recipe ideas based on food products or style recommendations based on the clothing section the shopper spends the most time in. Because the messages can be tailored to the customer's interests, they are seen in a favorable light.

Beacons can also be used to provide customers with product information as they're browsing the shelves. For example, shoppers could see an interactive video showcasing the product in action when they are standing in front of it.

Target is using Bluetooth beacons to offer a great personalized experience. Despite only testing Bluetooth beacon technology in 50 of its 1792 stores, Target already has 25 million customers using its app weekly. Target introduced beacons in 2015, and app adoption grew by 86 per cent during the year.

Rewarding loyalty

App adoption can also help build customer loyalty. Once a retailer's app is downloaded, it will automatically receive push notifications in any of the retail chain's locations so long as beacons have been installed in the store and the customer's app is turned on. This again allows for tailored promotions regardless of which store the customer is in.    

Also by measuring the frequency of visits, retailers can reward customers for their loyalty via the mobile app by sending extra loyalty points or 'thank you' promotions.  

Retail operations

Retailers have been using various methods to monitor foot traffic around the store for a long time. Innovative beacon management systems can be used to detect the presence of Bluetooth devices; they won't know who is there, but they will detect  someone is present.

For many customers, there is nothing more frustrating than getting caught in a long line-up at the till. If large numbers are showing up in one area, a digital sign could be triggered to encourage customers to visit another checkout location.

Alternatively store managers can respond in real-time by re-distributing staff to the busiest areas, or putting more employees at the point of sale to prevent line-ups.

Other valuable analytics can be sourced too. Retailers can gather information on dwell time in the store and the areas of the store that customers visit the most. Patterns that develop over time can help with scheduling employee rosters or even the redesign of floor planogram.  

Business Insider is predicting retail sales in the U.S. influenced by beacons alone will increase tenfold this year, up from its $4 billion prediction for 2015. Analyst firm ABI research is equally optimistic, forecasting that the BLE beacon market will double this year, and break 400 million shipments by 2021. 

Technology is a 'friend' not 'foe' to high-street retailers — so long as these innovations are used to transform the in-store experience for customers.

Over the next five years customers will come to expect a tailored experience via their phone, and the early-adopters and creative retailers will benefit most from this transformation. 

Guylain Roy MacHabée is the president and CEO of Rx Networks, a mobile positioning technology company.