RETAIL SOLUTIONS UK NEWS
9 September, 2024 | by Patrick Overall
The retail niche has been through a lot in the past few years.
With the brick-and-mortar revival after Covid and aftershocks of the 2020 mini-recession changing spending habits, retailers have reacted in a variety of ways that have changed the standards you need to meet to remain competitive.
With shopping technology developing as fast as ever, and a discerning Gen Z increasing in purchasing power by the day, retailers must take a forward-thinking approach to retail customer experience and keep a step ahead of their audience’s wants and needs.
Here’s five ways that the future of customer experience is set to change the retail landscape in the near future.
Brand Loyalty Still Counts, But Not as Much as Personalisation
Though brand loyalty remains an important consideration for all retailers, this is expected to become less of a decision-making factor for customers in the near future, as people become more concerned with finding brands and products that will align their CX with their unique needs.
In a Salesforce survey, 88% of respondents agreed with the statement “The experience a company provides is as important as its product or services”, whereas only 62% agreed with the statement “I feel an emotional connection to the brands I buy from the most”.
As sentiment shifts away from the brand identity and more towards the actual shopping experience, many retailers will need to stop holding on to the unique relationship they have with their customers with both hands and consider diluting their identity somewhat in the name of a better retail customer experience.
Partnering with buy-now-pay-later apps like Klarna, or ecommerce super apps like Rappi, can help brands that value loyalty to meet their customers where they are and meet their CX expectations.
Omnichannel Shopping Stays on Top
With modern consumers having so many different options for the way they buy products, modern retailers are in a never-before-seen position of having to choose which kind of channels to invest in when so many have demonstrable value.
With data collated by Wisernotify showing that omnichannel marketing campaigns can improve a retailer’s purchase rates by 287%, its influence on the retail customer experience now and in the future shouldn’t be underestimated.
To stay relevant and keep pleasing customers, retailers should approach all customer experience initiatives with a mindset that treats online, offline, and any other shopping channels as one cohesive retail machine.
This approach should aim to give customers a reliable, consistent experience, balanced with the flexibility of allowing them to interact with your brand no matter how they prefer to shop.
With the growing purchasing power of Gen Z consumers driving more traction in newer shopping channels like social commerce, an “omnichannel first” mindset is increasingly important for retailers who want to be in a comfortable position over the next few years.
This brings us to the next big change to look out for…
Gen Z Money Driving Adoption of New Shopping Tech
People in Gen Z (those born between 1996 and 2010) currently represent about a third of the global population and are steadily increasing as a proportion of the workforce.
As the first generation to grow up with internet access, it should be no surprise that Gen Z’s money is expected to take whole new shopping channels and tech out of obscurity and into the mainstream.
With 97% of Gen Zers citing social media as their main source of shopping inspiration, and 40% of TikTok users in the US estimated to have made purchases through the platform last year, the new purchasing power of this generation is expected to make social commerce a much more prevalent channel for retailers in the future.
When viewed as a more general trend of younger shoppers being early adopters, brands may also want to turn their attention towards more disruptive, “sci-fi” sounding retail channels, such as AR development firms that allow shoppers to preview new pieces of furniture in their homes when making a purchasing decision.
As this forward-thinking attitude to tech becomes a bigger driving force in retail trends, brands should endeavour to keep their finger on the pulse, and be bold enough to create the customer experiences that new shoppers will come to expect.
If you can beat your competitors to new channels, and develop a high-quality retail CX while they’re still deciding whether or not to adopt new tech, the rewards in your market share could be limitless.
Disruptive Tech Creating More Flexible Supply Chains
If there’s one thing the global turbulence of Covid taught retailers, it’s the importance of a flexible and adaptive supply chain.
Even though the pandemic feels like a distant memory now, its impact on logistics is still very present, with many retail brands striving to maintain supply chains that can rapidly adapt to changes in customer demands.
Many brands have been able to harness hyper-connectivity to create detailed “digital twins” of their supply chains, and quickly simulate the effects that changes to the supply chain will have on their wider operation.
A thorough analysis of product information management (PIM) systems can also help brands streamline their supply chain management processes. You can take advantage of free PIM audit tools to ensure your supply chain is optimised and flexible enough to meet future demands.
These capabilities, combined with sophisticated monitoring tools like virtual control towers have helped many large retailers to monitor every facet of their supply chain, and repair inefficiencies as soon as possible after they’re detected.
Though the earlier stages of your supply chain may feel a little far away from your brand’s shopping experience, knock-on effects on your product availability, speed of delivery, and order tracking experience are all major variables that will affect how your audience sees your brand, and certainly something to think about when you’re looking to optimise your CX.
AI-Powered Analysis Powering CX Optimisation
Though industry-wide trends are likely to affect all retailers in some way, it’s important to bear in mind that all audiences are unique, and yours will require its own approach to developing a great customer experience in retail.
Modern AI-powered analytics suites are highly sophisticated at interpreting large sets of data drawn from the way customers interact with your brand, including entry points, purchase history, cart abandonment, and more.
By harnessing AI to make sense of vast datasets, retailers can make better-informed decisions on how to tailor the shopping experience to the unique preferences of their audience, with optimisations such as:
- Re-designing the layout of brick-and-mortar stores to better display products that getting a lot of interest on online channels.
- Developing hyper-personalised marketing campaigns, ensuring that different segments of your audience see ads and notifications that are highly relevant to them.
- Streamlining inventory management based on buyer behaviour, and ensuring that your fastest-moving items are always available, and avoiding the risk of stockouts or overstocking.
Though the future role of AI in retail analytics is still taking shape, it’s clear that there’s huge potential in its ability to process large datasets and find patterns that human analysts may not even consider. For early adopters, the role of AI in retail CX analytics could be poised to offer a major competitive advantage.
The Future of Retail CX
New technologies, changing buying habits, and attitudes within the industry are all poised to create some exciting changes to retail CX in the following years.
By boldly adopting new tech before your competition, knowing what your customers want from your brand, and staying flexible in all aspects of your business, you’ll be well-placed to create a CX that’s great for your audience and your bottom line.
