Why IoT is necessary for retailers
Have you ever come to the store and get a special offer on your smartphone with a coupon to buy goods that you buy regularly? No? Then, perhaps, you used a mobile application that shows where the good you need is currently, and also informs about its amount and availability?
What are the most important for the customers:
- -Most of the online buyers are not interested in the philosophy of the retailer and its brand – they want a discount here and now
- Promo codes have extremely consumer active audiences that are sensitive to discounts and promotions;
- Distribution of promotional codes reduces the number of abandoned baskets;
- Skillful setting up promotional codes at Promocodius USA will help increase the average bill;
- The provision of discounts has a positive psychological effect on users.
Even if nothing similar has ever happened to you, you can almost certainly expect such convenient opportunities in the nearest future. Increasingly, retail stores use the Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities of connection with the customer in this way.
This technology revolutionizes the shopping process and customers’ expectations associated with their favorite stores.
In other words, the experience (or expectations) of customers is the very driving force that helps retail companies use IoT to interact with the “connected” consumer through various channels.
Today, customers do not want to search for another store on the Internet from a computer or phone. They want at any time to be able to come to the same store, which guarantees a consistently high quality of service and offers great deals, promotions and sales at https://promocodius.com/us/shops/cratejoy stimulating purchases.
Retail management data
So, how do retailers use IoT for multi-channel communications with “connected” consumers? Two main ways are there. Both involve working with data.
Armed with the tools of collecting and analyzing IoT data from serious vendors, retailers bring together analytics across all channels and determine exactly how customers use this or that platform – mobile applications, social networks, and so on. Such an approach allows obtaining useful operational information both at the macro and micro level.
What is this information and what does it give?
You can immediately learn that a “connected” client is looking for an item from a competitor and immediately send him a message with a profitable offer.
You know that right now customers are passing by your shop, and you can give them a coupon for the purchase of goods that they recently searched on the Internet.
You are always aware of the true demand for specific products due to the fact that you have the possibility to combine and compare sales data in specific Internet and physical stores, and their attendance.
Ability to Combine Data
Having such data which can ensure the coordinated operation of all platforms at your disposal is a very useful advantage. This data helps to increase sales and get ahead of competitors.
As a matter of fact, 78% of retailers admit that integrating tools that provide quality interaction with “connected” consumers across all possible channels (both in the virtual and in the physical store) is an important or even critical business task.
Analyzing this data helps companies optimize their inventory, minimize losses, and increase the satisfaction of “connected” consumers.
Analytics helps to evaluate the success of promotions up to the moment when the client became interested in the promotional offer or made some real actions in connection with it. In other words, analytics allows you to add objectivity to the work of retail stores, using all available data from different channels.
Technologies that Change Everything
Companies that today can access the benefits of IoT can receive and study information about the customers and find much more efficient ways of multi-channel interaction with them.
In theory, everything is just awesome. But how to implement these intelligent tools in practice to stimulate sales, automated systems of interaction and personalization plans?
The following technologies will help you with this:
Wi-Fi, radio beacons and RFID technology. It is said that almost 80% of retailers are going to successfully implement a fully individual approach to each of the customers visiting their stores by 2021. How? RFID chips and radio beacons will inform you exactly where the “connected” customer is in the shop and how to find the right product. All that the buyer needs is- what size of clothes is available, and how much time it takes to get information about new items and special offers at the time they cross the threshold of your store. You do not have to hire additional staff for this.
Analytics almost in real time. All retail companies dream of strengthening their position in the market. This was only possible if they were guided only by quarterly sales reports. Smart price tags can change that. Now we have the opportunity to evaluate prices that are attractive to customers, and automatically adjust them in the direction of increasing or decreasing sales in order to achieve maximum sales. This is a real revolution! You will always have the possibility to correct and improve your offers in order to succeed in sales.
Technology that provides transparent trade stock. Clients are really annoyed by the lack of prompt updating of stock data. You have everything you need to buy it, and find out on the spot that it is not there anyway. New assortment management technologies (for example, smart shelves) notify employees in real time that the quantity of a product is coming to an end. This is a way to create your “connected” customers.
Today, we have many innovative solutions and tools available which will help ensure the maximum level of satisfaction for “connected” consumers, regardless of which channels and on the platform, they interact with your company. Companies consider this will help increase sales.
All that is needed is what they use for their own purposes. In the end, we are people, and therefore we will be more attentive to us.
