There is no doubt about it: physical stores still play a most important role.
According to Forrester, in fact, at least till 2022, “brick and mortar” stores will represent a 72% in retail sales. Nowadays, brands and retailers must anyway, in the definition of their business strategy, work together on both channels, physical and digital, as the latter has a great influence on buying power and because consumers expect continuity.
This fact constitutes a decisively more complex sales cycle, with a significant data amount (the famous Big Data) to be managed. Questions like privacy safeguard and data protection are not to be disregarded, as the information which can be obtained from an attentive analysis represents a priceless treasure to get to know, anticipate and satisfy final consumer’s exigencies.
The very concept of check-out is revolutionized, obviously where retailers are more groundbreaking and want to focus attention on the customer’s User Experience, offering assisted sales on tablet/device/smartphone and a faster, smart and omnichannel shopping process.
This is what has come out at the Cegid Connections 2019, the annual Convention aimed at Partners from the Retail & Fashion world, held in Madrid from 15th to 19th May. Leitmotiv of this full-immersion in the Retail world? “Make More Possible”, that is, “everything beyond sales”, which by themselves do not suffice to reach target objectives in this new era of “how to do shopping”. Customers desire much more: shop on the web, register at a store and be recognized at the other side of the world, pay without realising they are paying.. In a nutshell: a unique and… unforgettable shopping experience.
It is not easy to meet such high expectations, and this is something shop-assistants know well, as they represent their brand/store in front of the customer. Unexpected events are always round the corner: line crash, check-out system unable to print receipts or calculate special discounts, etc.
In these cases, it is important to be responsive and timely in fixing criticalities. A specifically trained ServiceDesk, knowing the brand sales dynamics, the IT store infrastructure and the check-out software really makes the difference.
For further info read: Assistance Services for Check-out Systems in the Retail World and Moncler’s Experience
