The recently concluded World Retail Congress saw the who’s who of the tech and retail worlds gathering at Dubai, to discuss the changing retail landscape. This year’s theme was reflective of the current mood of the market – Re-imagining the customer experience in retail.
The modern customer has multiple options to choose from and if they don’t like the experience, they don’t mind shifting elsewhere, even if it means paying more. The days of deep discounting are done, and the era of experience has taken over. In fact, it is predicted that customer experience will overtake price and product as a differentiator by 2020.
Now who really is this modern-day customer?
This segment consists of the Gen Y and Gen Z (those born after 1995) who do an online analysis and peer-group discussion even before entering the retail outlet. These mobile-savvy, social media enthusiasts expect stores to present ‘one voice’ across communication channels – outlets, web stores, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
By 2020, Gen Z will be the largest group of customers worldwide, making up 40% of the US, Europe and BRIC countries, as per Fitch. Gen Z will be big on using technology to achieve their shopping goals, goals that are both tangible (product) and intangible (experience).
We can safely conclude that the modern customer poses an interesting challenge to retailers. And the battle cry to tackle this is – #GoPhygital.
Imagine a world of:
- Ordering groceries online during lunch from work and picking up the order from a convenient location, while driving home?
- Or entering a mall, and having all the promo offers information come right into your phone via proximity engagement technology?
- Or in-store shopping assistance via endless aisle? Order today, get it delivered at home/place of convenience when product is back in stock.
The possibilities are endless. And retailers are transcending channels, riding on the technological capabilities.
Who are the customer experience trendsetters in retail?
Amazon has conceived the futuristic Amazon Go store, where checkout has been eliminated. It’s just walk in, grab stuff and walk out! Watch this.
Now’s that some amazing customer experience made possible by digital technology!
Another biggie that is literally turning heads is Alibaba’s ‘pay with a nod‘. Alibaba is building the VR Pay technology for people who use virtual reality devices to shop on virtual reality shopping malls.
Going by these developments, it seems for sure that retail will be encountering marked transformations in days to come.
Reimagine and actualize exceptional customer experience in retail, with AgilizTech’s innovative digital solutions.
