3 Innovations to Streamline Your Storefront

For years, retailers struggled with the rise of digital. They reluctantly created websites and viewed their online presence as a completely separate and unknown sales opportunity from their brick-and-mortar stores. And while ecommerce seems to be king, it still makes up less than 10 percent of all retail sales in the US. *

In other words: you don’t need to put all your eggs in the eCommerce basket to stay competitive. Look at the digital revolution as a way to incrementally innovate your storefronts.  Digital offers consumer insights we’ve never known before —here are three ways (out of many) you can leverage these for your business:

1. Track Your Foot Traffic

Many people love to shop. Few people love to shop in painfully overcrowded stores. Enter Google (to no one’s surprise), which can now help Android users see when a store becomes crowded, using the same type of anonymous data it uses to determine road traffic for Google Maps.

If potential customers know your store traffic, it only makes sense that you should be on top of this data as well. Startups like Densify offer this information in real-time. The device uses infrared light to measure movement and claims “90 percent accuracy” in counting how many people are in your store at any given moment.

2. Manage Your Returns

Returns are often a nightmare for consumers and retailers alike, but stores can harness the power of data to streamline the entire process.

One way to mitigate returns is making sure customers find their fit the first time around. British fashion retailer M&Co. uses Fits.me— a virtual fitting room that customers can access from the comfort of their own home. Lesley McCormack, Senior Website Coordinator for M&Co., claims that shoppers who used Fits.me, on average, reduced their returns from 33 percent to 23 percent of total purchases.

Another method to avoid returns is by eliminating mistakes in shipping. NCR is able to match bar codes of items customers order with items shipped from its warehouses—that last-minute double-check keeps simple mistakes from becoming costly returns. Retail giant Stage saw their online return rate decline from 16 percent to 13 percent, according to Steven Hunter, Chief Information Officer at Stage. “For us it’s a benefit in the millions of dollars,” he says.

3. Transform Your Store Layout

There are many ways digital innovation can transform showroom behavior. For one, iBeacons can lead people into the store or offer discounts that lead to purchase.  Once customers are in the store, the sky is the limit. Whole Foods recently implemented a rewards program users can tap into by scanning produce. Birchbox leverages in-store tutorials via iPad to tailor the user experience.

To understand how digital can influence your store layout, consider your customer: how can you give them the most tailored experience without adding to the clutter?

 References:

* SmartInsights.com, The Digital Future for Retail, 2014. http://www.smartinsights.com/ecommerce/multichannel-retail-strategy/digital-future-retail/