The evolution of digital technology and its unification with the physical world has made tremendous leaps in customer expectations. Today, customers are more demanding than ever before and they look for more options and preferences while engaging with a brand, or during exploring or shopping a product. Thus, as customers are always on the move and need everything at once, convenience, relevance and intimacy, this is where retail mobility comes in.
It assists in enhancing customer experience by streamlining logistics, minimizing long lines, offering multiple payment options, and creating clear signage and information, among others. With retail mobility, most retailers are providing a compelling mobile experience for tablet- and smartphone-based shopping.
Mobility is one of the key areas where the retail sector has taken over other industries. Most investments in mobility have been driven heavily by the rapidly increasing number of consumers equipped with smart devices and having access to high-speed Internet.
The space of mobility is now all-pervasive in retailing, where consumers are always on the move. Mobility means continuing to provide what was once a given in retailing, including high-quality customer service, anytime, anywhere, at a faster pace.
Mobility in Retail: Empowering Customers and Staffs
The wave of mobility in today’s digital-driven world put consumer-centric mobile devices at the center of customer interactions. The use of mobile-connected devices by customer-facing employees have a significant effect on the traditional in-store retail experience. It assists in bringing together the online and in-store practice.
Store associates can now retort to the all-too-common stuff by visiting the website with the consumer by their side, helping in developing clienteling efforts and improving the customer experience.
Mobility in retail also disrupts line-busting duties, the process of shortening checkout lines by eliminating customers from the main line and enabling them to pay at an area removed from the main checkout.
As the use of mobile devices continues to grow within retail, this trend has come with some challenges. Thus, to ease these potential challenges, most retailers are leveraging a mobility management platform, which is able to mimic the corporate structure of a retailer, unifying all data in one location to enhance visibility at all levels of an organization.
The MMP system also remains up-to-date with a business through integration with any existing corporate systems. This enables mobile devices to be allotted to stores with accurate cost allocations and defined cost centers and all activities concerning these devices are logged and tracked from the beginning.
Thus, retail mobility has the potential to deliver enhanced customer experience and enables retailers to track consumers’ purchasing behaviors, what they like, how and where they shop, where they spend lots of time, and more.
