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The Future of Physical Retail: Connected Devices and Connected Shoppers

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rasika joshi
The Future of Physical Retail: Connected Devices and Connected Shoppers

Retailers across the universe are now connecting their stores with data-collecting sensors and devices to bring segments of the online experience to their physical stores. Not only that, but store managers can personalize layout, sales and provide a custom experience to each shopper.

There is an enhancing number of technologies available to retailers and service providers that have the capacity to improve both their operations and the experience they can give to the customers. U.S. consumers are assumed to expend more than $1 trillion this holiday season, as per eMarketer. 

In this strong competitive world of retail, traditional bricks-and-mortar stores require to find ways of appealing online purchasers back. These cutting-edge IoT technologies are interpreting the stores of the future.

Electronic shelf labels (ESL) are now well known in many supermarkets. These digital displays were first established by Scandinavian company Pricer in 1995. Today, retailers all over the globe are acquiring the technology, which now reports QR codes, discount codes and other product information on LCD or e-paper displays.

It makes much easier for store managers to keep footstep with online sales, price matching and other campaigns. Pricer still utilizes Optical communications for their tags, but the market has rapidly evolved and accepted 2.4GHz wireless technologies using protocols ranging from exclusive to Bluetooth Low Energy. This change enables ESL to become a part of a more composite and generous wireless network inside each store.

By linking sensors to a Bluetooth mesh network in the lighting system, lighting can be automatically managed to depend on the number of people in the various parts of the store.

Movement of people can be tracked which assisting stores to optimize the layout. But there are also benefits to the customers too, as the lighting system becomes a foundation for data and Smartphone utilization in the store.

By adding the direction-finding abilities of Bluetooth 5.1 into lighting or a distributed network of low-cost gateways, retailers can easily construct heat maps of their stores to learn more about customer behavior.

This also helps shoppers to find products more quickly with targeted pricing. This is possible by simply taking small trackers which can be the loyalty card itself with embedded Bluetooth SoC and battery, or by using the retailer’s mobile app.

Making payments mobile and secure

Consumers expect that the in-store checkout experience to be as coherent and efficient as shopping online. Identifying this, many retailers are locating IoT payment devices such as tablets, smartphones and smart carts to accelerate the checkout process for consumers.

Automated checkout can minimize cashier staff necessities by up to 75%, resulting in savings of $150 billion to $380 billion per year in 2025, as per McKinsey.

One important concern of the successful execution of a mobile payment strategy is security. 90% of consumers have inadequate confidence in IoT device security, including point-of-sale (POS) devices, as per Gemalto.

As the utilization of mobile-based payments and connected devices develops, so too does the attack surface. IT managers must assure their in-store network involves a mix of threat detection, protection and supervision to prevent the exposure of confidential consumer and business data.

Enhance Customer In-store Experience:

WLANs and hotspots go a little step further, providing coverage throughout the whole physical store. This enables enhanced communications, the launch of new in-store services and more effective logistics.

Free surfing increases consumer satisfaction and interest and supplies them with targeted information and promotions – all in all, wireless connectivity creates it easier and simpler to introduce customer interaction.

Expanding the life of physical retail stores

The way to succeed is to accept a radical change and to utilize new technologies in order to increase the customer experience and to provide something compatible to what offered online.

Whether the innovation is in the supply chain, the in-store experience or on pricing, it is up to the retailers to determine what will work perfect for them. But whatever the solution is wireless technologies will be there.

Visibility into business-critical metrics: with retail data analytics

 

If retailers are to adapt advertising and offerings to personal desires, they must first fully understand what exactly their customers want. This can be attained with smart retail data analytics.

These applications capture and control key customer metrics and assemble them available to all employees within the organization. Out-of-store retail analytics analyzes people flow in the locality of the retail outlet, specifying where potential customers are going, where they came from and when and in what numbers.

In-store retail analytics calculates traffic within the physical environment and discloses what interest’s potential purchasers most. All this information, in concurrence with individual value-added services for customers, is made available to all retail staff.

A dashboard shows the statistics in a user-friendly format, generating a powerful, comprehensive resource that makes the smart retail vision a beneficial reality.

Retailers can relate analytics to the data coming over in-store wireless networks to interpret customers’ preferences and give offers to them that are highly contextual and served to their particular requirements.

Analytics can also be utilized to notify location-based services, RFID and electronic shelf labeling to minimize friction in a shopping journey and generate impactful experiences.

IoT Course includes a complete thorough view of all IoT devices and its IoT applications in various industries.

 

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