How retail businesses can customise the shopping experience

You can’t deny that more people are beginning to complete their shopping online with some figures suggesting that by the end of 2018, digital spend will equal 2.842 billion. As more ecommerce websites continue to rise in numbers, spend is set to increase further to $4.878 billion by 2021.

Businesses on the high street are not in a great position, especially with the like of BHS, Toys R Us and more closing their doors. With more people venturing online to do their shopping, no business is safe.

What your customers want

You need to match the level of service you offer online with the one you give in your physical store. You need to fully optimise your service to make sure the reality lives up. If not, you could find yourself closing down stores and letting staff members go.

Customers are willing to wait 13 minutes before being served. Although this may seem like a high waiting time, businesses around the world are still trying to improve this area of their operations and make great changes to ensure that no customer is ever disappointed with their service.

As part of this plan, you could think about partnering with a reputable Self-Ordering Kiosk Manufacturer, for instance, as this can significantly reduce wait times by allowing customers to place orders directly, enhancing both speed and satisfaction. These kiosks not only streamline the ordering process but also help manage busy periods by minimizing the strain on staff.

Now, many businesses have not invested in making their customer-wait time lower which has resulted in them losing 75% of their customers because of it. Basically, customers that do not have an enjoyable experience with your business will not likely return.

This is why it’s important to think of innovative solutions, like integrating kiosks into your service model. In fact, this can be done in tandem with other technologies, like mobile ordering apps and real-time queue management systems, which can dramatically improve customer retention. Since 50% of people believe waiting in a queue is irritating, if you’re not already looking to introduce such systems in place, you could face bigger problems as a business.

The direction for your retail business

If you’re looking to make the most out of your sales process and enhance your retail performance, you must focus on customer personalization. You should aim to deliver an efficient customer experience from the moment someone arrives at a store up until when they leave. Enhancing the customer experience is all about adopting new technologies that can streamline all processes across an organization.

You likely already have a Point of Sale system in place, but how effective is it for your needs? It’s important to assess whether your current system truly meets the demands of your business and helps you achieve your goals. A well-chosen POS system should not only facilitate smooth and efficient transactions but also provide valuable insights into your business operations.

Thus, investing in a pos point of sale system that goes beyond basic functionality can positively impact your business’s performance. Make sure to look for a system that offers comprehensive features designed to drive results, such as advanced inventory management, detailed sales reporting, and customer relationship management. These features can help you gain a clearer and more accurate view of your inventory, track sales trends, and make informed decisions based on real-time data.

On top of this, you need to find out why your business is superior to others in the market. It all comes down to the in-store experience, so you should make it your mission to ensure that someone is always on hand to help with any queries someone may have about a product or service. Although customers do tend to wait a generous 13 minutes before leaving; that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try your best to serve them as quickly as possible.

Install systems that you know will help streamline your performance. This in turn will generate continuous results when implementing new solutions or upgrading current technologies – something which often takes time to adopt.

It’s important to deal with your store visitors in the most effective way possible to ensure customer satisfaction. From this, you’ll be able to create upsell opportunities and offer a more tailored experience to your customers if integrated across different areas of the business.

Through this, you’ll be able to monitor your inventory more closely to ensure operations continue to run smoothly. In effect, it removes the need to go back and forth manually to check the availability of products. As well as this, you’ll be alerted when it’s time to restock your inventory, which can remove the need of constant monitoring; allowing you to always be prepared for popular store times.

It’s crucial that you’re constantly looking at ways you can improve your retail business. This can be achieved through customer identification; knowing why they’re visiting your store and what they want from you. With this, a ripple effect is created and the flow of traffic across the store is improved.

 

Sources:

https://www.qminder.com/long-waiting-times-sales/

https://www.parcelhero.com/highstreet

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/pos-point-of-sale-retail-system-2890157

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