Frictionless Shopping
The constantly shifting landscape of the retail world means that retailers must be on their toes, the latest customer trend, frictionless shopping, is here to stay. Today’s consumers no longer have the patience for a disruptive service, they now expect the experience to be frictionless. In 2017, the Baymard Institute looked at 37 cart abandonment studies and found that the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 69%[1]. it is essential that today’s retailers make the shopping process, a smooth experience. For retail businesses to thrive down the path of a frictionless shopping environment, they must embrace technology and data throughout the process, from product innovation to the in-store consumer experience. Whether, you are dealing with consumers in store, online, or over the phone, it is crucial that the customer receives a smooth shopping experience. To remain competitive, now more so than ever it is essential retailers understand the customer’s desire for frictionless shopping. Customers want to and will shop at retailers who understand the value of their time.
Interesting trend
The most notable example of frictionless shopping has been in the headlines lately is Amazon Go, the first completely checkout-free shop. Despite a line forming outside the shop on the first day of opening, the Amazon Go store is a flagship for the frictionless shop. Customers can enter the store with their Amazon Go app open on their phone, and once inside they can fill up their shopping bag and simply leave the store once they can shop no more. The store uses cameras and sensors to know what has been taken off the shelf, so it can be charged to the customer’s account. No cashiers, no long lines, no paper receipts. Is this the future of all in-store shopping?
What does the future look like?
The future of retail is not black and white, retail constantly evolves and many industry analysts have suggested that ‘in-store shopping’ is on the road towards extinction. However, PWC see’s the trend slightly differently. In PWCs Top Ten Categories for Online Purchases in 2017, you can see a trend for online ‘commodity’ purchases. But actual in-store purchases from 2013 to 2017 have not declined[2].
The roll of Brick and Mortar stores is forever adapting and evolving to keep up with the current consumer trends, many customers visit stores to get more information, advice or even as simple as just seeing the product in person aides purchasing.
There are many options to counteract causing a disruptive experience for the customer. The creation of mobile point of sales touch points can be a bonus, the ability for your sales associates to assist customers and complete the sale on the spot, making for a stress free and most importantly seamless shopping experience, serving customers more quickly and efficiently directly from the shop floor. Essentially, it is vital to reduce friction through technology to make it easy for customers to find what they want and of course to offer them more things they may like. The key to achieving success with the modern shopper is to create an experience that assists, not angers, the customer journey
What does Island Pacific have to offer?
Island Pacific SmartChannel
Island Pacific SmartChannel is a software solution that streamlines order management by bringing all your sales channels together, in one integrated system
- Covert sales by offering paths to purchase that suit your customers’ needs
- Create a holistic picture of your sales and customers with data from multiple channels
Island Pacific SmartOmni
True Omni-Channel retail is a seamless path to purchase: a consistent consumer shopping experience in-store, online, via mail order and over the phone. Your customers shop in the moment – from their smart phone in a taxi, their tablet in the living room, their desktop PC during a break or when they pass through your store. The moment they decide to buy is fleeting. If they can’t buy it now? If you’re out of stock? If the delivery choice doesn’t suit their lifestyle? You may have just lost a customer and a potential sale.
- Capture lost sales
- Minimise out-of-stocks
- Improve inventory turns
- Maintain margins via fewer markdowns
- Decrease deliver time to customers
- Optimise store assets and labour
Island Pacific SmartStore
Island Pacific SmartStore grows as your business grows. Choose to combine fixed counter and mobile point of sales touch points so that your sales associates can assist customers and complete the sale on the spot, making for a stress free, memorable and enjoyable shopping experience.
- Serve customers more quickly and efficiently directly from the shop floor
- Increase sales via real-time shop floor inventory checking and on-the-spot store transfer requests
- Manage special orders, click and collect and reserve and collect orders all from one device.
- Interact seamlessly with other stores, head office and customers in real time! Now that’s what we call Frictionless!
[1] https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
[2] https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/consumer-markets/consumer-insights-survey.html