Cutting Through the Retail Competition with Exceptional Customer Service

The retail sector appears to be getting more competitive by the day, and the cost of living crisis is only exacerbating the issue for retailers. In fact, according to a Deloitte report for the 2023 US retail outlook, only one-third of retail CEOs had a high degree of confidence in their ability to sustain or increase profit margins throughout the current economic climate.

With the cost of living increasing and consumers only becoming more demanding, retailers need to find effective ways to stay ahead of the curve – and exceptional customer service is one of them. Fortunately, the latest technological innovations can help retailers to create unique, personalized and overall customer experiences, and stand out from their competitors to generate sustainable long-term business success. Whether selling online, in-store, or leveraging the best of both channels, retailers need to provide not only and excellent customer service, but meaningful and memorable experiences to succeed throughout the cost of living crisis.

Delivering a High-Quality In-store Experience

Today, customers expect a top-tier in-store shopping experience. While the definition of a ‘high-quality’ experience may vary between customers, convenience and personalization are two of the key factors that remain at the core of each shopper’s expectations. If a retailer isn’t able to deliver these two components, customers will quickly turn to another retailer who can. With multiple touchpoints within the in-store customer journey, retailers have a number of opportunities to provide personalization and convenience to customers. One highly effective opportunity comes at the point of sale (POS).

To live up to customer expectations and enable staff to provide the ultimate customer service, retailers can utilize the latest mobile POS systems to create unique and streamlined experiences.

With Teamwork Commerce’s mobile (POS) solution, retailers can integrate the system with their wider technology stack and provide associates with real-time information at just a tap of a button. Combined with an inbuilt customer relationship management (CRM) tool, staff have a plethora of information that can be used to personalize each customer interaction.

Whether viewing unique customer profiles and understanding their purchasing history, preferences and buying habits, or tapping into inventory management tools to help locate items for customers, associates can provide shoppers with everything they need in seconds. Once customers have their items, the mobile POS solution can also complete transactions from anywhere in-store, removing the need for shoppers to queue, and further streamlining their overall experience.

For larger stores with consistently heavy traffic, retailers can still ensure a seamless and faster checkout experience for their customers through the power of the RFID-Powered Self-Checkout solution. Automatically scanning all basket or cart items within seconds, the technology significantly reduces both checkout and queuing time for customers.

Ensuring Frictionless Online Offerings

In today’s competitive retail environment, success hinges on having efficient and effective processes in place to manage orders, inventory, and fulfillment across all sales channels. In 2022, US consumers were estimated to have returned over $816 billion in retail goods. To mitigate issues such as returns, many retailers are turning to retail solutions that enhance their fulfilment capabilities. Teamwork Commerce’s Order Management System (OMS) enables retailers to simplify complex retail processes, providing an automated solution to generate shipments. This comprehensive platform integrates with retailers’ eCommerce platforms, enabling them to quickly and easily manage orders, inventory, and customers. OMS provides a streamlined experience that ensures accuracy and reduces overhead costs while improving customer satisfaction.

To take their online and wider retail offerings to the next level, retailers need to leverage data to its full potential. Teamwork Commerce’s Reporting and Analytics solution has grown to be a vital tool for retailers, giving them timely information that aids in forecasting and better decision-making. This information enables retailers to make more informed choices and efficiently optimize their operations. What’s more, the solution also provides retailers with automated reports that enable them to make more effective decisions and take action quickly in order to increase their bottom line.

Building Unified Commerce

Today’s state-of-the-art innovations help retailers match evolving customer expectations. However, it can get difficult for retailers to manage several customer-facing and back-end solutions. To ease that challenge and to help improve efficiency, retailers can utilize an all-encompassing approach, connecting their entire retail stack from back-end to front-end, to communicate and share information in real time. All managed on one interface, retailers can gather data from all areas of their operation to make smarter decisions. Utilizing the Teamwork Commerce Application Programming Interface, retailers can streamline workflows, reduce costs and save time. With this approach, retailers can quickly deploy new features and updates without hassle.

With convenience becoming increasingly sought-after by customers, retailers need a unified view of customer interactions, products, and management systems to identify gaps and improve the customer experience at every retail touchpoint. Implementing intrinsic data-driven technologies can help create an omnichannel journey that is tailored to the needs of each customer.

The retail industry is changing as a result of advancements in data-driven processing solutions. These technologies allow retailers to create a comprehensive strategy that enables them to streamline operations, enhance customer satisfaction, outperform competitors, and adopt an all-encompassing perspective of their entire technology stack. Leveraging the latest solutions, retailers can deliver an improved customer experience by identifying areas for growth while boosting efficiency and profitability.

To understand how your retail business can leverage the latest solutions to help you elevate the shopping experience of your customers, get in touch here.