IoT And The Omnichannel Retail Experience – 4 Reasons To Step Up Your IoT Game In 2022 And Beyond.
Omnichannel is a retail experience that combines brick-and-mortar stores, app options, and online platforms like e-commerce to give customers a smooth and easy shopping experience. This method of retailing is a way for retailers to connect with their existing or potential customers through several channels.
IoT has been innovating in-store experiences for some time now. It uses data received from shoppers to provide a quick and smooth experience that caters to the personalized needs of shoppers. This helps increase customer loyalty and overall satisfaction.
4 Reasons To Step Up Your IoT Game In 2022 And Beyond
IoT is quickly becoming an essential part of the retail process and a winning combination for retailers. The advantages of being present offline and online are undeniable. It provides numerous opportunities to reach customers, improves customer loyalty, and offers a personalized shopping experience. With omnichannel and IoT, retailers can:
- Achieve a consistent and recognizable brand identity
- Help in-store customers who are looking for specific items
- Provide unique, personalized messages and discounts based on received data
- Improve customer loyalty.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at four of the many reasons why you should step up your IoT game.
1. Improvement in Customer Satisfaction
Thanks to the advancement of IoT, retailers now have access to personalized data, such as customer search history. This gives the retailers more insight into customers’ interests. With information about previous purchases, retailers can understand customer preferences and use that to offer specific deals or coupons.
Retailers can leverage the provided information to offer each customer a unique shopping experience. For example, a potential customer looks at your product online; and before walking into your store they can be retargeted and receive a special discount on that same product, a discount voucher for in-store shopping, or free delivery.
Information such as customer habits and product preferences can be obtained through online and in-store surveys, social media, and Google analytics. Retailers can use this information to offer a more personalized experience for customers.
For example, information about product preference can be used to offer specific deals and help shoppers locate products in stores. Product preference information can also be used to optimize websites. Customers are shown products and deals based on previous searches and survey answers – this makes websites more responsive, which improves customer satisfaction.
In addition, IoT makes the checkout process a lot faster for customers because it offers automated shopping processes. Retailers can use Radio Frequency Identification tags, or RFID tags as they are commonly referred to, to eliminate the drag of lengthy checkout lines. RFID is a new technology that involves radio frequency to identify, track, and account for items. Small signal-producing tags are attached to the items to track them. Undoubtedly, customers would be inclined to return to a store that makes the checkout process easy for them.
2. Smarter Inventory Management
Accurate and up-to-date inventory management is a frequent challenge amongst retailers. With IoT, retailers know exactly what is in their inventory without physically checking it themselves. This allows businesses to run smoothly. Shelves fitted with IoT sensors and Radio Frequency Identification tags are considered smart shelves. Retailers can use them to receive data about the goods in their warehouses or stores.
Some of the ways smart shelves can improve your retail business include:
- Save money and time by using IoT for inventory checks. Get rid of expensive and time-consuming human errors
- Receive relevant notifications concerning the state of perishable goods in your inventory
- Ensure you never go out of stock. Smart shelves keep retailers informed about what is in or about to go out of stock. Retailers can use this data to restock their best sellers
IoT can also help achieve efficient inventory management with the use of smart shipping pallets. These shipping pallets reduce the risk of loss by providing retailers with real-time tracking information; this helps retailers receive prompt information on the location of their goods in the supply chain.
Another advantage of IoT in physical stores is improved employee management with the use of retail scheduling software. This software allows employers to assign tasks and exchange information with several employees at once. An advanced scheduling platform provides the opportunity to see schedule changes in real-time, but also empowers employees to communicate directly, jump in for absent co-workers, and choose their shifts. Having the communication and the shift data in one place streamlines staff management and removes tedious spreadsheets from the equation.
3. Keep Customers Informed with IoT Beacons
An IoT beacon is a small Bluetooth device that conveys information to other devices such as smartphones. Beacon technology can detect that the customer has arrived and is using loT, it can send a welcome message or a coupon.
Retailers can use IoT beacons to inform customers of upcoming sales, offers, promotions, and special discounts whenever the customer is close to the store’s location.
Beacons also provide customer analysis about customers. With the data provided, such as buyer journey and location, retailers can basically create a customized shopping experience for each customer. They are also a great way to direct customers to a part of your store you want them to visit.
4. Reduces Energy Consumption
During the course of a year, grocery stores can lose a lot of money due to spoiled or wasted food. Retailers can avoid this loss with the use of IoT. Smart refrigerators keep retailers updated on the state of their perishable goods. This way, they can avoid selling expired goods to customers and losing money. Energy consumption is one of the main concerns for anyone in the retail industry. Poor and ineffective energy management systems have caused retailers to suffer a great loss of revenue.
Another example is the use of IoT sensors. These sensors monitor the conditions of the store. They provide real-time information and help keep track of electricity consumption, temperature level, heating, lighting, and even gas leakage. With this information, retail store owners can identify which parts of the store consume the most energy and determine how to manage those parts more efficiently.
Conclusion
IoT is drastically changing the shopping experience for retailers and customers alike. The Internet of things has been used to improve several sectors of retail management, both in brick-and-mortar stores and online stores. Using IoT in retail leads to improved customer satisfaction, increased productivity, increased sales, proper inventory management, and reduced energy consumption.
Author
Rob PressRob is a content marketing manager at Deputy, a robust scheduling software that can be used to manage your workforce in a wide variety of different industries. Aside from helping businesses reach operational efficiency, he keeps up to date with the latest trends in SaaS, B2B, and technology in general.
