Omnichannel

Redefining omnichannel capabilities to deliver the ultimate customer experience

The convenience of online channels has changed consumer demands for good as they want information and access to items at the click of a button.

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August 17, 2023 by Dean Frew — CTO & SVP RFID Solutions at SML Group, SML RFID

In the past few years, retailers have adapted to the preferences of customers. As a part of this transformation, they have focused on making the customer shopping experience as convenient as possible. By harnessing retail offerings, including buy-online-pick-up-in-store and buy-online-return-in-store, retailers have allowed customers to shop at their convenience.

The convenience of these online channels has changed consumer demands for good as they want information and access to items at the click of a button. Yet, brick-and-mortar stores still hold a significant amount of value from an experiential perspective as shoppers have a significant amount of appetite for walking into a store and interacting directly with products and sales staff. Moving forward, the in-store experience of customers will become critical to brand differentiation, while convenience remains preeminent online.

Striking the perfect blend

In this new era, the challenge for retailers is to understand how they can provide a balanced omnichannel approach combining in-store and online shopping to optimize the customer experience. It has never been more important to provide seamless and convenient online shopping, while also delivering top-quality customer service in-store. With a plethora of alternative retailers only a search away, customers are ready to shop elsewhere if they do not feel that they are receiving the level of personalized service they expect.

The question remains: how can retailers find this balance? For years now, many have answered that question with the implementation of an omnichannel approach, creating one seamless experience by utilizing all available sales channels. However, retailers are struggling to deploy this strategy effectively. According to SML's latest State of Retail Insight Report, 93% of retailers claim that technology is important in facilitating a seamless in-store customer experience. Retailers must deploy the latest RFID solutions that provide accurate inventory information in real-time, enabling them to provide a seamless shopping experience for their customers.

Omnichannel is clearly important. However, to execute the strategy effectively, a retailer's inventory management must be accurate. Only then can they expect to find the balance between in-store and online.

Supercharging logistics with RFID technology

By leveraging item-level RFID, retailers can create efficient inventory management that streamlines online shopping channels. The industry standard of inventory accuracy sits approximately at 65%. By deploying item-level RFID, retailers can increase this to 93%-99% in the space of days and that level of accuracy can be maintained consistently, unlike annual physical counts that continue to deteriorate throughout the year until a new count is completed.

Enhanced inventory accuracy provides several benefits as retailers have complete visibility over where their stock is. From warehouse to storefronts, each business has an accurate view of inventory location down to specific items, allowing for improved organization and improved supply chain throughput to maximize the use of all existing inventory. With item-level RFID in place, retailers can create the foundation of a seamless omnichannel experience. An accurate view of inventory enables them to deploy strategies such as BOPIS and BORIS effectively, providing customers with the options and flexibility they demand while optimizing costs.

Providing valuable experiences that customers crave

In addition to supply chain operations, RFID also allows in-store staff to better serve customers on the shop floor. According to SML's findings, 42% of retailers state they don't have enough staff on the shop floor, while 30% agree that staff spends too much time completing mundane tasks.

Item-level RFID allows staff to scan all in-store stock within minutes, significantly decreasing the amount of time spent trying to manually count inventory. This frees up the time of store associates to better serve customers on the shop floor and the use of dynamic Geiger search capabilities to quickly locate items further improves their overall experience as store staff can efficiently locate on-hand items for customers.

By leveraging the right technology, retailers can remain agile to rapidly-evolving customer needs. The retail industry continues to embrace digital. However, brick-and-mortar stores are experiencing a resurgence as shoppers seek to connect directly with store associates to feel products physically before buying and crave high-quality customer service. Retailers must remain agile through both channels to remain competitive while making sure they have the right technology for both.