Discover connected commerce

Connected commerce

More and more digital and technology tools are being deployed in shops to streamline the customer journey.  This can be a simple tablet for the seller or till staff or the digitalisation of displays. Among other things, the tools are used to:

• Provide complete information to customers about the products and services
• Enable them to compare prices, give or consult opinions
• Broadcast different types of content on displays mixing video, sound, animation, images and text
• Make visiting the shop more appealing, more interactive and more fun; transforming it into a real positive experiment by limiting their perception of pain points.

Use dynamic display screens to promote the entire scope of your services, facilities, coming events and specials: orient your customers by providing maps of the shop, the location of the toilets or facilities provided; inform them about the tourist spots nearby to lessen the workload of employees; display menus in a “livelier” and more attractive way to increase the order volume; instantly update prices, the drinks menu, or your opening hours; reduce perceived waiting time by communicating about your know-how, your news and your team.

The Swiss watchmaker Tissot enables people to try its watches virtually via its “Tissot Reality” application. The principle is simple: you print a paper strap which you adjust to your wrist, you show everything to your webcam and there you go!

 

Augmented reality

Augmented reality is a new milestone in digital sensory marketing since you can use this advanced technology to provide consumers with a real-time experience of your products.

This technology is very appealing for the sense of sight because consumers get the benefit of optimised visuals and a near real-life experience, influencing their purchasing decisions.

In this respect, the policy implemented by Décathlon over the past years is a text-book example. The northern French brand has developed connected fitting rooms where customers can scan the clothes before trying them on and request, from the mirror in the fitting room, the help of a salesperson to try on another size or another colour.  The brand is also using virtual reality to present tent models.

This is an ingenious way to offset a lack of space in the shop, while providing customers with a new experience! The king of sporting goods retailers has also worked on the scenography of its shops by offering a golf simulator in one of its points of sale. In a similar style, The North Face allows customers to try on winter clothes on site thanks to a virtual reality mask. All of these initiatives prove that shops must try to involve their customers’ emotions as much as possible and create unique and immersive experiences.

RFID

RFID (radio frequency identification) has been deployed for several years. It brings a number of new possibilities to retailers. It is an identification technology which uses radio frequency. RFID tags identify items when they are near a reader (terminal, smartphone, tablet, antenna, etc.). The use of RFID was confidential until the 1970s. It was primarily used by the army to control access to sensitive sites, such as nuclear areas. RFID technology is now being used in most industrial sectors (aeronautics, transport, agri-foods, health, etc.). It is also often used in our daily lives without our knowledge (transport passes, anti-theft labels, contactless keys, motorway tags, etc.)

Its use in retail introduces a win-win relationship for retailers and consumers. For the first, the technology avoids the need to scan every barcode since an RFID reader can read several hundreds of labels a minute.

This provides an expanded view for logistics, time savings when taking inventory and, of course, increased speed at the till. These benefits are translated concretely into a decrease in stock-outs of 40.6% and an increase in margins of 60.7% for the retailer. There is also a major benefit in terms of the customer relationship given that 73% of them give up on all or some of their purchases if they have to wait longer than five minutes and that 70% of customers will not come again if they have to wait too long in a queue.