Retail technologies that are relevant to business during covid are in high demand. Retailers are looking for relevant technologies to get ready for the “new normal” once the economy opens after covid lock down.
For the last few months business and life across has been effected with people forced to stay at home. There are concerns that the slowdown may last longer then expected and people needs to adjust to the new normal. Covid 19 virus have forced all of us to change whether we like or not.
Retail industry in particular have been severely affected. Some of my friends are stuck in a situation with huge inventory piled up without any cash flow.
Retail shops have not opened for months now with zero business except the likes of supermarkets who sales essentials. Even essentials have been affected by the disruption in the supply chain due to lock down.
I will share here few retail technologies I have worked on during the lock down period. I strongly believe when lock down ends adoption of these 4 retail technologies can help you adopt to the new normal quickly. Broadly speaker these are:
As per Retail Association of India estimates, apparel retail is expected to shrink by 20-30% from last year, food services by 20-25% and FMCG by 10% due to either direct impact on sales or due to bottleneck in the supply chain due to covid lock down.
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Retail technologies at the forefront
Changing environment also altered the way you work or do business. Work from home, social distancing, covid SOP stores, shopping by appointment are escalating the cost of operations. Some expects the cost to go up by 30-35% post covid. Business never faced such a situation in last 100 years.
Human race is a resilient one since time immortal. I have found retail entrepreneurs exhibiting the same characteristics during my interaction with them recently. Instead of losing hope I found them planning to use this as an opportunity rather then a threat. Most of them are looking towards adopting new retail technologies during covid. Digitally transforming the organization and building team skill sets to face the new normal.
#1 Omni-Channel Retailing
An Omni-channel retailer is one who have both online and offline presence. She provides a unified user experience to her customers at all the touch points be it mobile, tablet, browser or physical visit to the stores.
An article in Financial Express says that 44% Indians to buy packaged foods online which is the highest among peer countries like China, Brazil, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand.
Customers are searching on mobile, exploring on social media, buying in store. “Order online get home delivery. Order online pick up at store” services are finding acceptance now. The lexicon of digitally transformed retail environment are Window shopping, show-rooming now. In fact 88% of searches are happening on mobile as per Google.
You can go for omni-channel retail technologies available in the market that will help you create a presence on mobile, web, marketplaces. Connect these channels seamlessly with your offline POS stores to provide a cohesive digital shopping experience to your customers.
#2 Shopping by Appointment
You can go extra miles to provide “shopping by appointment” service to your customers. Keeping in mind the social distancing norm required to maintain while going out this one is going to be the most adopted retail technology in the coming days
There are retail technology platforms launched during covid that provides prior reservations for a visit to the store at a prescribed time. A wow shopping experience to customers will be like digitizing touch points like managing the customer queue, digitally attending their queries, and executing contact less delivery, maintaining all covid guidelines.
This has been a norm in restaurant, salon, doctor services for long now. With the changing market dynamics you can adopt this to ensure you create true value for your consumers. According to livemint large retailers like Blackberrys, Fabindia have already started exploring the possibilities of “Shopping by Appointment” at their stores.
#3 Try And Buy from Home
If you are an apparel retailer you can also go for a change of model. Instead of providing a trial rooms in your store you can initiate a “Try And Buy at Home” service.
You can allow customers to buy from the catalogs available on your omni-channel platform. Customer choose multiple products as per their liking. Store makes an invoice from the order received. You then send home service to attend the trial at home with the products selected. The customer keeps one of the selection and returns back the rest. Home delivery collections payment from the customer finally.
This particular retail technology service require multiple activities like online cataloging, order booking, advance collection, POS, delivery tracking, payment facility all working seamlessly to achieve the sales.
#4 Video Appointment
Many businesses in medicine and healthcare have been using video appointment with doctors and hospitals even before covid started. With hygiene and social distancing becoming a norm you can also adopt the same technologies that can help customers fix a video appointment with your retail store. For example if you are an apparel retailer, you can provide a video appointment number and fix a time for engagement online through video conferencing. Customer explores the catalog through live video stream and selects the products to ordered and get delivered later to them.
Adopting new retail technologies is the mantra for survival and growth
Covid have also accelerated the adoption of Cloud Solution. Read the blog on cloud solution benefits to know more about it. You can make your business agile with the adoption of technology across your processes, people and departments. Digital transformation of business rather then incremental change can help discover new models that can insulate you against disruption like covid in the future.
This blog has been contributed by Hopshop. Hopshop is an omni-channel retail application suitable for retailers who are looking for a solution for the changing business environment post covid pandemic. Be it Shopping by Appointment, Omni-channel engagement, Video Shopping and home trial, Hopshop have a solution that gives your business the tools to increase sales during covid times.
Contact at info@mitigoconsulting.com
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