Insights
Connecting Dots between IOT and Retail
While most of the business investors are looking at the largest revenue generating consumer market industry – ‘The Retail’ with expectation, the uncertainty that follows even the retail insiders is – What’s Next? While working with large retail giants across North America for addressing their challenges and pain areas, We can analyse that the retail industry is going through radical shifts of technology in response to expectations and demand for consumer, The combination of Digital Transformation, Social Media Selling and Mobility has created a world where consumer creates a high bar for expectations and want to buy whenever, wherever.
The question is WHAT NEXT FOR RETAIL STORS? With the revolution of mobility, digital, social the nature of retail shops and applications will become more innovative. Breaking the pathway for IoT technology in retail. The IoT is breaking down traditional industry boundaries. Your customers are individuals with interests that build interactions in almost major service line. Think of the cross section of industries that enable connected devices, smart homes, and smart selling at retail shops.
With increasingly sophisticated technology, these businesses, can now intersect to create a unified user experience across all the modes of selling and communication, creating value addition for the loyal customer and new pathways for establishing companies for business opportunities. The IoT is the core of this transformation. It is a bridge between device, people, and product/service to streamline the flow of information, enable real-time inputs and decisions and rise up the consumer experiences. Leading retail giants are already investing billions in the IoT. They started to transform their business technology and realized that, in time, the IoT will include every aspect of retail operations and customer engagement. How we can leverage best out of this technology transformation? This should be the utmost priority for successful IoT implementation.
The Era of Customer Engagement
To engage with young demographic who digital natives and customer loyalty program is just not limited to, email and bonus points on the cards. The young generation needs more personalized treatment catering to individual choice. To fulfil this demand IOT will play a big role by integrating their existing cloud POS system with seamless data integration. The big brands are desperately in need for machine-learning and analytics, to learn more about the individual customer buying pattern, choices, offering exciting offers depending upon customer loyalty towards one particular brand. This will create an automated system with minimum human intervention.
Retail Innovations for IoT
- Automated Merchandising and Operations – Digital signage, RFID-enabled sensors on products, Automated racks and temperature controllers for perishable food, Smart fulfilment centres, Perishable and cold chain quality and usability tracking, Automated store problem detection and Fleet operations management. CCTV data analysis and setting up preventive measures.
- Personalized Marketing – Seamless digital experience. Smart social connection through multiple platforms. Creating personal buying behaviour analysis for future product reference.
- Exceptional Customer Service – Automated checkouts options via smart devices – Vehicle assistance at the premises of Shop, Emergency and security assistance, Automated checkouts via smartphones, Automated vending machines suggesting with personalize choice, Connected homes with suggestions with loyalty programs and Wearable devices.
Components of IoT engagement
- Devices – Devices such as scanners, communication channles, inventory management, scanners, cameras, access control system, and point of sale, inventory management, and digital signage do play crucial role for assessing customer data.
- Analtyics – Even though huge data can be generated everyday through IoT service device, it is very important to create some meaningful information/insights/analytics out of it.Analytics plays an importance role for product launch, pricing strategy, inventory management, branding – promotion and create purpose and holistic approach about our store marketing and operation. Analytics to help to predict future trends upto some extent.Retailers need to invest heavily in the technology likes IoT, Cloud POS, Ecommerce real time analytics, Big data and predictive analytics this will boost the ROI drastically and will create the another wave of revolution in the retail industry.