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Future of Retail — Payments Innovation
issue 02
payment acceptance strategy and an omnichannel strategy must be cohesive and established concurrently. Omnipresent retailing is universal,
borderless, frictionless, and pervasive. Retailers want to achieve a unified customer experience.
In the future the sales channel
will be irrelevant and shoppers will not care about the channel or even realise the difference because there will be no difference. Omnipresent retailing is the future. Shoppers will shop where they want to shop and they will not be obligated to spend within the four walls of a store or only via a website.
It will happen where they are
at any point in time and it will be simple and secure. Shopping will be omnipresent and retailers must be agile in order to respond to the evolving customer behaviours. Making a purchase could take place on the way to work, in your car, on your smartphone, in the store or at home with a voice-enabled command via Amazon Echo. Omnipresent retailing means providing a consistent brand experience across all points of interaction with the customer, with the goal of delighting today’s demanding, tech-savvy shoppers.
IN STORE STAFF WILL BE MOBILE POINTS OF SALE A very important piece of any omnipresent retailing strategy is a mobile point of sale (mPOS) solution. More and more general retailers, including the food and beverage segment, are deploying mPOS or IOS/ Android tablets that are payment-enabled inside and outside stores. Retailers want to be able to engage with their customers in a conversation about the product or service for sale. There is a goal to move staff from being stuck behind a traditional cash register or point of sale desk. By removing this barrier and advocating greater mobility of staff it will enable them to interact and engage with customers anywhere within the store. This is an important step towards providing an omnipresent customer experience. In general retail and particularly in the fashion sector, mobile point of sale devices
must be integrated to the store’s real-time inventory systems to enable staff to assist the consumer to find the right garment size or an alternative colour or style. Staff must be able to deal with customer exceptions, such as returns or refunds. During these face to face conversations staff are able to contribute to retailers’ CRM (Customer Relationship Management) strategy, by making sure the customer’s email address is captured or up to date. This is seen in the luxury retailers who have significantly increased their CRM to deepen customer relationships by enabling staff to use mobile device applications in-store. Retail brands that implement a mobile strategy for their staff have the ability to cater directly to each customer’s needs, increase customer retention and encourage the acceptance of future communications. Mobile is the best way for luxury brands to deliver superior customer experiences, especially because affluent consumers usually have higher expectations. Brands such as Burberry, Nordstrom, Clusier Habilleur (the Canadian up-market men’s fashion store) offer shoppers tablet based application solutions. Luxury hotels, such as Mandarin Oriental and St. Regis (part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts) are offering their guests a virtual concierge, effectively an “e-butler” that uses a tablet. Designing an omnipresent retailing
experience must integrate the various channels and incorporate the needs and desires of the customer. From browsing through to checkout and aftersales service – agility will differentiate the customer experience. This is a unified customer experience that gives customers the ability to act and transact how they prefer, where they prefer and when they prefer. A customer tries on a pair of shoes in the store, for example, then purchases them on a mobile device. They will receive a request from the merchant asking for feedback on the purchase and that feedback is then used to create a more seamless experience moving forward. Merchants will use customer data (browsing data, transactional data and social
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