5 insights to come out on top in the evolving retail market
Omnichannel isn’t enough. Digital transformation won’t minimize the store. Customers will, in fact, spend.
The past two years have stress-tested and shuffled every assumption the retail industry made about its future. But more than anything, the period reinforced a simple human truth: people will always want to congregate in public places, preferably ones that cater to them. Stores are here to stay, and they’re as important as they ever have been.
With one wrinkle.
From curbside pickup and BOPIS to same-day delivery and contactless payments, pandemic adaptations have become customer expectations. And with more of our professional and personal lives moving online, we’ve grown to expect the same out of our in-store experiences as our online ones.
But with the right approach, you can not only capitalize on the state of the retail industry today, but you can also set your business up for sustained success in the future. That’s why we partnered with Adyen to publish this eBook, a roadmap for rebounding from the retail market’s volatility the right way.
Here are five top takeaways from our guide.
# 1: Unified customer experiences start with your systems
The modern customer won’t settle for a fragmented experience.
In fact, any and every disruption to the customer experience poses the risk of loss. And with ample distribution channels, fulfillment methods and steps in the product lifecycle, there are countless chances to fall short of customer expectations.
Supply chain problems and other major retail challenges affect the market indiscriminately. But the retailers that have yet to align to the unified commerce model are less equipped to respond.
Why? Unified commerce organizations integrate operations and systems, gaining them the agility and flexibility required to delight the modern customer.
# 2: Payment data is a reliable source of information in the push for privacy
How can retailers provide the “hyper-personalization” customers want when privacy clampdowns limit your access to customer data?
The solution is in your sales. As we share in our guide, “payment data is one of the most reliable and useful forms of customer data retailers can collect. And it shows what customers are actually willing to spend their hard-earned money on.”
Payment data gives you exact insights into your customers’ behavior and preferences, without the added friction of data tracking opt-ins or loyalty program pitches. And with the right unified commerce system in place, data from each transaction becomes attributable and actionable, and is automatically collected.
# 3: Point of sale is essential to enabling unified experiences
How customers pay is as important as what they pay for.
Point of sale (POS) doesn’t just play a key role in collecting payment data. A POS solution with comprehensive payments capabilities can enrich your unified commerce goals too.
Your biggest benefit: improved agility.
How? By centralizing payments and accepting more payment types, POS can help retailers:
- Securely store customer credit card information, allowing customers to pay for future purchases, shop across channels and handle different transaction types
- Expand into new sales channels without disrupting your customers’ purchasing experiences
- Accept a wide range of payments, including new and emerging methods and — for retailers operating internationally — region-specific payments
# 4: Empowering associates can stem The Great Resignation
Heightened customer expectations, pandemic pivots and omnichannel capabilities have come at the cost of store associates. And while The Great Resignation is a virtually universal issue, its impact has been disproportionately large on retail.
We ask our store associates to run the register, serve customers, manage inventory, prepare curbside and pick-up-in-store orders, handle ship-from-store orders, and much, much more. All with significantly less support around them.
Associates are instrumental in crafting the customer experience, and an overworked or underserved associate will undermine the image of your most important channel: the store.
Unified commerce is a holistic approach. Its core goal is to align and streamline as much of the retail experience as possible, including functions that directly affect your frontline staff, like store fulfillment and POS capabilities.
# 5: Transitioning to unified commerce from legacy tech can be done with minimal disruption
To stay competitive in a marketplace characterized by uncertainty and persistent challenges, retailers must be agile and aligned. Unified commerce platforms are increasingly indispensable.
Retailers working with legacy tech are already at a disadvantage to their competitors, particularly those utilizing unified commerce platforms. And as customers become more conditioned to expect unified experiences, the gap will only widen.
The definition of legacy technology has expanded. It no longer just applies to software created for the state of retail 20 years ago. It now applies to any technology that holds your customers back from seamless cross-channel experiences, limits your ability to adapt at your customers’ pace or prioritizes single channels at the expense of others.
Conclusion
Retail has radically evolved in the past two years. And as retailers try to bounce back from the effects of the pandemic, supply chain disruptions and labor shortages, the market becomes harder to navigate every day.
The need for a clear path forward will only become more urgent as the lines between physical and digital retail experiences continue to blur, more sales channels and fulfillment methods enter the fray, and obstacles arise.
Our eBook with Adyen, Staying ahead in retail payments - A roadmap of customer trends and fintech solutions that are shaping the future of retail, can show you the right way forward. In it, you’ll:
- Learn four major trends shaping the retail landscape
- Gain deeper insight and up-to-date data from trusted research firms
- Receive five actionable solutions outlining exactly which steps you can take to meet and exceed your customers’ expectations, adapt and differentiate in today’s retail environment, and gain a sustainable, growing edge over your competition
