For those of you who know me, you know I love a great pair of shoes! Great fashion is about not only functionality but about expressing yourself. Rarely do we buy “one size fits all” clothing, so why should the traditional retail shopping experience be that way? Consumers have spoken and now walking into a store with the “one shopping experience fits all” just isn’t going to make the cut. We want not only our clothing to be personalized to us and our lifestyles, but every piece of the shopping experience as well; including the technology.
Because of this, the experience of shopping is drastically changing for both consumers and retailers. The recent news of the enormous returns of 49000% (Source: WSJ) to steadfast investors in Amazon is a good measure of the disruptive impact one company alone has had on retailing. The broader impacts can be perceived not only in the transformation of customer buying habits (Amazon Prime) but also in the digitization of supply chains and logistics. As I ponder the evolution of my own shopping habits over the last decade, it is clear to me that the retail landscape is primed to be the next battle field for competing technologies and many new innovations. Last December, I tweeted that it was the first Christmas I had done 100% of my shopping online. And in March when I visited one of my favorite shops, they “e-shamed” me for not coming in more frequently and buying all my products online. Companies are racing to cope with and cater to the ever-dynamic changes in consumer behavior by utilizing a few key underlying technologies.
So, let’s look at the technologies at play. First, voice recognition is changing the way prospective and current customers interact and interface with stores and products. Chatbots are the first versions of what will be a new era of artificial customer service agents. Chatbots are becoming the first line customer agents to direct online visitors to the right experiences. Siri, Amazon Echo, Cortana are all precursors to a new engagement medium between companies and their customers. Japan’s robot hotel and recent experiment at Lowes hardware stores may seem to be at the fringe currently, but it is only matter of time before these use cases become mainstream and more sophisticated.
Second, is the increasing utility of virtual reality in creating novel online experiences for customers. From virtual mirrors to immersion simulations, new ways to experience products will afford customers convenience and pre-sales interactions. Companies like BMW have already implemented sophisticated configurators that make purchasing even a high value item like a car very amenable to customers of varying taste and need. If traditional “brick and mortar” stores are going to compete, in-store experiences will need to evolve to give customers all information about products by combining virtual experiences with real interactions. Instant reviews, immediate modifications to suit tastes, customization of all details and variants to match any need are all on the cards for every conceivable product offering regardless of application.
Third and not the least, is the transformation underway in payment and order fulfillment technology. Ever since PayPal revolutionized payment technologies, Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung and many others have already made their forays into the payment industry. Transacting with ease has become standardized with Near Field Communications (NFC). Shopping in any major city today includes touchless payments. These modes will make the shopping experience even more friendly by eliminating the need for a checkout counter and waits associated. Several stores including Amazon Go are already trialing checkout less experiences. For this to become a true reality, products must be embedded with smart tags to allow for easy accounting and theft prevention. This technology in particular could be key in the re-emergence of the brick and mortar experience, IMHO.
And I would be remiss to not mention the “holy grail” of technologies which is embedding itself into all retail experiences which is AI (Artificial Intelligence). AI is enabling retail companies to provide a seamless, customized buying experience and build customer loyalty.
Arrow has been focused on building a portfolio of capabilities that aid retail customers implementing these new technologies without upheaval, excessive cost or a scarcity of options. Bringing together various suppliers in all layers of the retail technology stack – hardware, connectivity, cloud infrastructure, software, and services – has enabled us to be the one stop shop for many retail related deployments, sensor to sunset.
The world of retailing will continue to evolve in dramatic ways as stores compete for a share of our wallets. The fusion of hardware technologies, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and payment innovations will make our shopping lives smooth and maybe, I can finally find that perfect pair of shoes just a bit more easily…
