Bringing Website-like Experience Inside the Stores

Transcription

1 Bringing Website-like Experience Inside the Stores Gaurav Mittal Head, CES (RCTG) - BAS

2 Table of Contents Abstract...3 Current State of Retailers... 4 Intelligent Store Associates Increasing Store Revenues... 4 Technology Platform to Enhance In-store Customer Experience... 5 Conclusion... 7 About The Author... 7 About Wipro Ltd... 7

3 Abstract Retailers have had a tough time in recent years with a multitude of challenges. The macro-economic issue of sluggish growth has adversely impacted buyer sentiments. As customers went low on discretionary spending, there was a direct impact on the topline of retailers. With the advent of social media and mobile applications, there is a change in the way customers buy with the demand for instant gratification, an increasing number of customers prefer online shopping when compared to in-store shopping. Customers rate the online buying experience much higher when compared to their experience in a store. The stores lack aspects of assisted selling, which a customer enjoys while shopping online, and therefore, the conversion of a store visitor into an online customer is on an all-time high. To overcome these challenges, retailers need to transform their in-store experience to enhance customer loyalty and to contribute to their topline. This implies creating a holistic view of the customer their buying habits and preferences, and practicing them during in-store interactions, to cater to them personally, and enhance their shopping experience. The key aim is to touch on the consumer experience with the characteristics of personalization and responsiveness, which are only present in an online world, and not in a brick and mortar store. All this is realized by educating and enabling the store associates so that they can provide the customer with real-time information on products, up-sell/cross-sell recommendations, cater to customer preferences and inferences on customer buying history, inventory availability and ability to close sales through mobile devices. Catering to these aspects will ensure that customers have all the information and conveniences during in-store shopping. In addition, it will also boost the point-of-sale (POS) transactions and customers will walk out with the products of their choice. 03

4 Current state of retailers Most of the business for traditional retailers still comes from retail stores. Therefore, in order to succeed in the current marketplace, retailers need to focus on improving in-store shopping experience for their customers and in turn increase store sales. Customers find the poor knowledge of store associates as the most undesirable experience inside the store. - Shopper experience study The biggest contribution to loss of sales inside the store comes from customers not getting the information they are looking for, which could be related to product features, and comparisons or availability of the product. When a shopper does not find information about the merchandise they have intended to purchase, they might switch to a competitor store, postpone the purchase, or decide not to buy at all. The challenge for the retailers is that most of their IT systems are not ready to create this experience inside the stores. For instance, stores only have view of in-store inventory and do not have real-time view into the inventory of nearby stores. Out-of-shelf problems dissatisfy shoppers while retailers lose out on an opportunity to sell. This is all the more relevant for apparel and footwear retailing, where the movement of goods is high and it is difficult to have all colors and sizes available in each store on a regular basis. Store associates do not have a view of customer profiles, thus, they cannot align their conversations based on customer preferences. This is very important for upscale retailers where the average order value (AOV) is high and customers expect the store associates to bring that personal touch in their shopping experience. Even though 360 views of customers are available on the corporate front and are used extensively to personalize online experience, they are not always accessible to the store associates in real-time. Another important aspect related to the in-store experience is related to check out. A good percentage of customers abandon shopping carts due to the long checkout queues. Even though mobile POS adoption is increasing, still majority of retailers do not have it available till date. Intelligent store associates increasing store revenues With new technologies like Mobile Applications, Complex Event Processing, and API Management becoming more mainstream, new possibilities are opening up for retailers to move the customers along the path to purchase. This involves relevant and value-added interactions with the customers and enables transition from first sales to repeat visits, and finally to continued loyalty. For example, when a high loyalty customer walks into a store, the store associate gets an alert, along with the customer profile details and preferences. This even includes information about his/her recent transactions and the items on their wish list. With this information, the store associate can approach the customer and inquire about a product he/she recently bought or update them on a merchandize newly available from their preferred brand. All customers would appreciate this personalized level of recognition and build an emotional connect with the brand, which in turn influences their buying decision. Associates can even share with customer-relevant offers and promotions on their wish list items or cross-sell accessories for products they bought in the recent past. This will facilitate the increase in the size of transaction. Another example could be when a customer calls the store associate to get information and availability about a product he browses using his smart phone. In situations when the product is out of stock, the store associate can recommend alternate items based on the features of the preferred product, or options of alternate locations from where the product can be picked or shipped. To take a holistic approach towards in-store customer experience, the following components have to be addressed and enabled for store associates: Every time a customer walks out of a store without the product they are looking for, retailers are sharing a part of their revenue with competition. The cross-sell/ up-sell recommendations made by the store associates are based on the product attributes and do not take into account the individual customer wish list, purchase history, and preferences. Again, these capabilities are available in the enterprise, but are not being leveraged for an in-store shopper. This reduces the possibility of additional sales by offering relevant coupons and promotions in real-time. Customer Insights Multi-channel, 360 view of customer Brand preferences and wish list Purchase history and order values Engagement history including installations, maintenance Social activity insights 04

5 Product Catalogues Technology platform to enhance in-store customer experience Real-time product details Images, videos Product reviews and ratings Substitution items Recommendations To bring in the required in-store experience, the need is to invest in base technology platforms like Store Mobility, API Management; Enterprise Services Layer and Rule-based Customer Context. Together, these will form the technology framework needed to help improve the in-store customer experience. These technology layers will synchronize with the existing enterprise systems for data and business functionality. The approach is to leverage the investments in existing systems and build a layer on top to make them accessible to the store associates in real-time, through smart devices like mobile phones and tablets. Cross-sell / Up-sell Top selling products in interest category Recommended products in unrelated category Real-time Inventory Real-time inventory availability Alternate pick up / shipment locations Reserve items in another store In-store Mobility Layer Since all the information and functionality discussed above has to be made available on mobile devices, in-store mobility becomes a key to the solution. It is very important to have good mobile store applications created for the interaction layer. These apps would provide the features or functionalities, which the retailers want to expose to their customers and store associates. The end user will have the flexibility to install these applications on their smart phones and access information around inventory availability, alternate product recommendations, and alternate shipment/pick up options at the click of a button. Mobile POS API Management Layer Integrated mobile POS Integrated payments, loyalty systems As retailers mature in these technologies, they can even practice these features directly to attend customers through mobile apps. This would also reduce the dependency on a store associate and will ensure that the customer has all the information at the press of a button on their smart phone. The above suggested approach will help the profitability of the retail stores by: Provide compelling and relevant product recommendations to customers reacting in real-time with coupons, commercials, and promotions. Saving sales by guiding customers to the nearest store with the availability of the chosen product and therefore, avoiding customer dissatisfaction. Repeat visits by increased customer loyalty owing to superior customer experience. A good API management solution/strategy is vital for a successful mobile channel. When the users use the store app, internally this leverages the enterprise business applications for the information. However, these mobile applications cannot directly hit the enterprise services layer. They go through a layer of APIs in between. This is important from the following aspects: API layer acts as a security gateway to control unauthorized / unwanted access to enterprise systems. This also controls the traffic and avoids system overloads. Enabling JSON/REST-based interactions with the mobile users while reusing the existing investments on SOA-based enterprise services layer. Opening up of these functionalities to enterprise mobile application developers and beyond. Retailers can even open up these to third-party developers to make it part of their applications. This is similar to what retailers like Walgreens have done to get extended customer reach, and can further increase the horizon for retailers. 05

6 Connected enterprises to make shopping at stores easier and more efficient for customers. Enterprise Services Layer The core business logic to support the desired functions will be built using Enterprise Services Layer. For instance, the API for inventory availability will internally call an Enterprise Business Service for inventory check. If the particular location is out of inventory, this service by itself would invoke the logic for exploring alternate inventory location and alternate product recommendation. This layer is typically present in most of the enterprises as a capability, and the same needs to be leveraged. Rule-based Customer Context The real differentiator for the above solution comes from the rule-based business intelligence which takes into consideration both the customer preferences and current context. For instance, if a product is not in stock in a particular store and the system shows the option for an alternate product, it takes into account the customer context and provides relevant recommendations. It builds customer context by acquiring data from different customer touch-points including social media, web/clickstream, mobile apps and kiosks, and pushes contextual offers to customers. INTERACTION CHANNELS Product Catalogue Customer- Context-based Recommendations Real-time Inventory View Alternate Shipment/ Pick Up Options Sales Transactions Edge Integration Connectivity Adapters Protocol Switch CHANNEL INTEGRATION LAYER EAPI Facade API Management Policy Enforcement Security Authentication Authorization ENTERPRISE BUSINESS SERVICES LAYER Cross-sell Recommendation Fulfillment Options Substitute Product Recommendation Customer Preferences Single View of Inventory Data Acquisition, Real-time Event Processing, Decision Framework, Customer Context Omni-channel User Data Store Inventory Warehouse Inventory Product Information Recommendations POS Enhancing In-Store Customer Experience 06

7 Conclusion With the pace at which the retail space is changing, enterprises cannot overlook the possibilities which come with new technologies. To remain competitive, they need to enhance the in-store experience for their customers. The need is to invest in these technologies to enhance customer experience and increase their own profitability. Enterprises should conduct a self-assessment drive to determine which aspects of in-store experience will be most important for their target customers. Based on the exercise, the technology and functional capability roadmap should be laid out. This will enable them to combat the threat of e-tailers by combining the touch and feel of physical stores with rich customer experience features, which were a privilege only for online customers, so far. About The Author Gaurav Mittal is the Head of Digital Technology business for Retail, Consumer Goods, Travel, Transportation, Hospitality, and Government verticals in Connected Enterprise Services at Wipro Technologies. He has 15+ years of IT experience in the areas of consulting, solution definition, and implementation of large-scale business transformation projects. Gaurav has extensive knowledge of digital solutions focused in the Retail domain and has partnered with key customers of Wipro to help them establish Omni-channel customer engagement capabilities. He can be reached at gaurav.sai@wipro.com About Wipro Ltd. Wipro Ltd. (NYSE:WIT) is a leading Information Technology, Consulting and Business Process Services company that delivers solutions to enable its clients do business better. Wipro delivers winning business outcomes through its deep industry experience and a 360 degree view of "Business through Technology" - helping clients create successful and adaptive businesses. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, a practitioner's approach to delivering innovation, and an organization wide commitment to sustainability, Wipro has a workforce of over 150,000, serving clients in 175+ cities across 6 continents. For more information, please visit 07

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