Omnichannel

Disconnects are key barriers to boosting customer experience

Photo: Adobe Stock

November 14, 2023

Significant disconnects between physical and digital commerce and store and corporate leadership are key barriers to improving the retail customer experience. Retails must address significant data and tech disconnects to empower in-store teams and unlock store potential.

Those are two top findings from a study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions.

The study, which polled 346 high-volume store leaders and corporate-level customer experience decision-makers revealed a "pressing need" for retailers to create more effective ways to generate customer data and insight from in-store shopping and to align their physical and digital commerce strategies and deployments, according to a press release.

Respondents cited several issues as contributing barriers to improving the in-store shopping experience:

• 54% say systems are outdated and not connected.
• 60% report too many disparate systems and tools hinder a cohesive view of their customers and operations.
• 79% believe that corporate management does not prioritize unifying stores with digital commerce.

The study also revealed a crucial consensus among the participants: leveraging a new generation of A.I.-driven tools to synchronize physical and digital commerce has the potential to significantly empower store teams and lead to improving and evolving the customer experience.

• 94% of respondents reported incorporating customer data into the store is very or extremely impactful to the customer experience.
• 91% said their leadership currently sees those experiences as separate.