The continual transformation that retail has undergone in recent years has primarily been generated by our access to increased amounts of information and tools, enabling us to make highly informed purchasing decisions. The COVID pandemic also played a part in accelerating the transformation and consolidating omnichannel retail experiences.
Whether through social media, online platforms, or review and comparison apps, we as consumers are much more purchase savvy than in the past. Couple this with the quest for convenience and time-saving, and it becomes clear that what consumers seek poses great challenges for retailers, making engagement, competition, and brand loyalty difficult and more expensive.
The situation presents more challenges for retailers of physical brick-and-mortar stores. The rise of online shopping has made it more convenient for shoppers to avoid entering physical stores and not be tied to store hours or waiting in queues to make their purchases.
With that said, there is a lot that technology can and is doing to help these businesses achieve their desired customer engagement, loyalty, and time-saving convenience that competes with and often outplays online shopping.
The onus is on system integrators to keep up to date with the latest technology and create real value for their retail customers, connecting to intelligence and technology to make in-store shopping engaging and attractive to consumers again. Retailers must recognize the need for in-store digital elements, connectivity, and data collection in retail environments, whether AI, digital signage +, kiosks, computer vision self-checkout systems, cashless store technology, or VR experiences.
Helping retail customers by demonstrating the value of introducing specific technology to their shop floors is crucial. The return on investment, not just of the technology itself but the heightened shopper experience, is critical. The potential for retailers to boost revenue generation by targeting the customers at the point of purchase and driving deeper engagement in that moment is powerful. Digital signage + is one of the ways to do this. Retailers can capitalize on dwell time and leverage digital signage installations to send consensual push notifications to the shopper’s apps, including exclusive discounts. The power of a solution like this is that notifications go beyond simple visual communication by encompassing more through the culmination of connectivity, computer vision, sensor aggregation, and edge analytics. The role of the system integrator is to bring these smart processes and transformative technologies to retailers (minus the complexity) and drive better business outcomes for them.
Arrow Electronics works with a network of leading technology providers, including Intel®, to help system integrators deliver the technologies and capabilities to achieve these business outcomes. Together we support system integrators by providing pre-validated system solutions with proven performance to have the outcome of choice on their hardware, helping minimize deployment risk.
Arrow and Intel® also work together to provide system integrators and ISVs with market adoption training, sales enablement tools, and material to help transmit the value of these sophisticated, scalable technologies to their customers.
If you are a system integrator and would like to discover more about what is reshaping the retail landscape and how to unlock the full potential of cutting-edge retail technologies, contact Arrow to get started today: https://www.arrow.com/ais/contact
