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Customer Experience is Still King

Omnichannel, loss prevention, the introduction of AI and everything else demonstrated at NRF had one thing in common: the vast majority of it is designed to improve the customer experience, whether in-store or online.

Consumers continue to dictate the movements of the retail sector. Ultimately, they are the defining factor in any retail technology deployment and businesses are recognizing this. In 2024, following a couple of tough economic years for businesses and consumers alike, retailers must continue to cater to their customers in every way possible. If they don’t, they risk alienating consumers and losing out on their business to competitors.

A Big Year Ahead

2023 was a complex year for the retail industry. However, one of the biggest takeaways from NRF 2024 will be the renewed optimism and enthusiasm for the coming 12 months.

With a flurry of new technologies breaking through and a keen focus on delivering value in every deployment, retailers and their technology partners are looking to push innovation at every opportunity this year. We cannot wait to see how it all unfolds…

Want to transform your retail operations in 2024? Book a demo with the team today.

Originally published on: TotalRetail

Competition plays a huge factor in the retail industry. Operating in a highly saturated market, retailers must constantly work towards meeting their customers’ expectations quickly while providing a high-quality experience. With price and convenience being the two biggest factors affecting consumer purchase decisions, retailers must find ways to keep costs down while continuing to streamline their operations to create convenience at every touchpoint.

From handling customer inquiries and conducting transactions to processing online orders, streamlining retail operations not only generates a competitive edge but also empowers staff to deliver high-quality customer service. This leads to satisfied customers, increased sales, and stress-free employees.

Retailers can transform their business by streamlining practices across three key areas of their organization: supply chain, shop floor, and omnichannel operations. By creating efficient workflows that benefit both customers and staff, retailers can generate a significant advantage over their competitors.

Dealing With Demanding Shop Floors

Busy stores, demanding customers and staff shortages can quickly create difficult situations for retailers. Making sure customer demands are met quickly and efficiently should be a top priority. Not only does this reduce the risk of a chaotic shop floor, but it also plays an integral role in driving sales and retaining long-term customers.

Mobile point of sale helps tackle these challenges, enabling retailers to provide exceptional customer service even with a limited number of in-store associates on the shop floor. Compatible with mobile devices, even in offline mode, staff can conduct transactions from anywhere in-store, helping minimize queuing while increasing productivity. Importantly, customers can receive a high-quality service, receiving fast assistance for transactions and minimizing the amount of time spent waiting on the shop floor.

The Role of Inventory Management in Stock Visibility and Supply Chain Efficiency

Several retail challenges are rooted within the supply chain itself. One particular issue for many retailers is that they’re stuck with a poor view of stock, resulting from inaccurate inventory management. This leads to a range of issues, including waste, unfulfilled orders, and increased costs from transport and storage.

In order to drive operational efficiency, retailers must find ways to organize their stock management. With the right technology deployed, retailers can take control of their inventory and alleviate these ongoing challenges. Managing every unit on hand, retailers can create real-time visibility of stock that optimizes a retailer’s supply chain operations. It enables retailers to make better replenishment decisions, faster, while minimizing waste and minimizing transport and storage costs — improving sales opportunities and growing profits.

The Benefits of Effective Order Management Systems in Fulfilling Online Orders

An additional benefit of a streamlined supply chain and inventory management operation is that it sets a foundation that enables omnichannel fulfillment. However, there are few that do so effectively. The right order management system (OMS) can help retailers achieve that.

Investing in an OMS, which can support sales from any channel and create a seamless purchase workflow, can be directly connected to a retailer’s e-commerce platform, providing an automated solution to generate shipments. Orders can be placed from multiple locations and fulfilled from anywhere. Deploying an omnichannel offering allows customers to shop however they please. Equipped with a range of fulfillment options, such as buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), ship from store, and even buy online, return in-store (BORIS), customers are provided with a number of options that creates convenient experiences.

With a seamless transition between several channels, retailers can deliver high-quality customer service that nurtures relationships and creates loyalty.

The Retail Trifecta

Mobile POS, inventory management, and OMS are three key pieces of retail technology that, when deployed together, help deliver efficient retail operations and optimized practices across shop floor, supply chain and omnichannel operations. With these three technologies operating together in an all-encompassing approach to retail technology, retailers can also provide unparalleled customer experiences, creating strong customer loyalty and long-term business sustainability.

With the New Year comes new beginnings, resolutions and importantly, January sales. Following a hard-on-the-pocket December, consumers typically enter the January sales period on the lookout for great deals that won’t break the bank. A fun and exciting time for consumers, retailers must prepare – ready to overcome the challenges of busy shop floors, and leverage interest to generate long-term success.

During big bargain sales, this can often be a big ask for retailers, who must keep track of inventory while serving customers in a timely and personalized manner to deliver high-quality experiences. Technology can play a prominent role in meeting these demands. 

With the right solutions in place, retailers can optimize sales and provides a great shopping experience for customers, benefiting both short and long-term results.

Keeping on Top of Inventory

Successful shop floor operations don’t start and end in-store. Effective inventory management provides retailers with visibility of all inventory from manufacture to shelf. An important aspect of any retail operation, inventory management comes under the spotlight during peak shopping seasons – including January sales.

Retailers need to ensure shelves remain stocked in order to maximize sales opportunities, and the right solution can help retailers achieve this seamlessly. With Teamwork Commerce’s inventory management solution, retailers can automate their replenishment process, ensuring that stock levels remain high during peak periods without in-store associates needing to manually track on-shelf availability. Instead, they can better spend their time delivering high-quality experiences to in-store customers.

Making the Most of Christmas Gift Cards with Mobile POS

January sales present the first opportunity for consumers to spend the money and gift cards they might have received over Christmas, and consumers typically look to cash in on these opportunities early. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that January 20th is national ‘Use Your Gift Card Day’.

With this in mind, retailers must be prepared to conduct transactions in a range of ways throughout January. From cash payments, to contactless, gift cards and even returns – meeting consumer expectations during January can be tricky in the post-Christmas period.

Teamwork Commerce’s Mobile Point of Sale technology can help retailers to achieve this all in one device, but it can do it anywhere in-store, allowing in-store associates to conduct transactions in seconds, providing speed and convenience to customers.

Creating Value Through Promotions 

The biggest pull factor of January retail is the sales. For retailers, January is an opportunity to revert back to square one; selling older stock – and quickly – to make space for the new year’s inventory. A discount paradise for customers. 

What could be better? Tailored promotions for customers based on their history with a retailer, ensuring in-store visitors receive maximum value in their exchanges with brands.

Adding a personal touch can go a long way, especially in retail. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems enable retailers to personalize shopping experiences without any additional effort – including the discounts offered to customers. Our secure CRM system collects customer data based on their purchase history and behavior. Securely and compliantly leveraging customer information, retailers can create a holistic view of all customer data and accurately tailor services to each of their customers hassle free.

Enhancing customer experiences during busy periods, such as January sales, puts retailers above the competition. Integrating these promotions with loyalty schemes not only provides exceptional short term experiences, but it provides long-term value for consumers, who become retained and loyal customers.

Here’s to 2024!

While January sales might provide an opportunity for retailers to sell-off old stock, it also creates an opportunity to retain loyal customers, gain new ones and increase revenue beyond January sales.

Our retail technology has the power to provide retailers with a smooth and stress free transition into the new year. January sales become streamlined with easy to operate deployments that make the life of a retailer easier. 

To find out more about how Teamwork Commerce can help your retail business thrive throughout January, get in touch today.

As the year draws to a close, retailers cast their eyes onto 2024. The past couple of months have been incredibly busy, with ongoing festive chaos and wider preparations for the new year. While the beginning of the holiday season showed significant consumer resilience, customers’ shopping behaviors continue to evolve.

In our latest Retail in Review blog, we take a look at some retail news, and how November and December have impacted the retail industry…

Solid Start to the Holidays

In our last Retail in Review blog, we discussed how retailers were busy preparing for the festive hype with the holiday season being a hot topic in the build-up to winter. The festive shopping season began in strong form.

Black Friday generated a record $9.8 billion in U.S. online sales, showing clear signs that shoppers are willing to spend. In fact, overall retail sales in November unexpectedly picked up with lower gas prices allowing consumers to ease their pursestrings and spend more, according to Bloomberg. The rise in sales has clearly boosted the morale of retailers who have been making significant efforts to capitalize on the shopping peak. 

Amidst this festive chaos, brands continue experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the customer experience. Mastercard has rolled out a generative AI tool that acts as a personal assistant for shoppers and makes personalized recommendations. 

Evolving Consumer Preferences

The ability to try products physically remains significantly valuable. According to McKinsey, 85% of customers expect to purchase at least one item in-store in the 2023 holiday season. However, over the past couple of months, shoppers have started to lean on online sales channels, with convenience being the key driver. In fact, consumers have a high intent to purchase online in 2024. Gearing up for the anticipated online boom, Google Pay has teamed up with Affirm to make buy now, pay later (BNPL) options available for online and mobile payments in the U.S. next year. 

Moreover, retailers who want to attract customers in-store, need to offer them something they can’t get online. To deliver an exclusive shopping experience, Zalando has launched invite-only shopping for limited products. This provides a great opportunity for customers to enjoy exclusive shopping experiences.

In order to drive in-store footfall, retailers can also offer exciting and personalized offers that customers can’t resist. Better prices and promotions are more important to customers this holiday season, according to McKinsey. In fact, customers purchase and pay more attention to ads for products that are on sale. Retailers who use real-time customer data to personalize their promotions based on individual customer needs can set themselves apart from the competition. 

Preparations for 2024 Begin

As we approach the hectic end of the festive season and 2023 alike, retailers are eyeing their 2024 strategies. From teaming up with reliable technology providers to investing significantly in upgradation and growth, brands are levelling up to live up to evolving consumer expectations in the next year.

Walmart has invested over $500 million to upgrade 117 stores and will devote more than $9 billion over two years to modernize over 1,400 stores across the U.S. These upgrades will include better layouts, products and technological improvements to enhance the shopping experience for customers. Meanwhile, sporting goods retailer, Innovasport, has announced its partnership with Teamwork Commerce, deploying over 2,000 POS terminals over 250 locations across Mexico. These technological advancements only indicate the increasing adaptability of brands that are keen to attract customers in-store.

In spite of a challenging year for the retail industry, retailers seem to have a positive outlook for 2024, with a number of brands announcing growth plans. Uniqlo is set to drive growth with plans to double its current store openings in the US and Canada, with more than 20 new locations set to open in 2024. Ahead of stepping into 2024, Shein has confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US and could begin trading on public markets as early as 2024.

As the curtains fall on 2023, the retail landscape of 2024 awaits exciting transformations. Those who can constantly evolve themselves leveraging the latest technological innovations will thrive in the market.

Looking to revamp your technology stack to grow in 2024? Get in touch today!