eCommerce and Brick & Mortar: Two Worlds Colliding (Part 1 of 2)

As the dust settles on the COVID-19 pandemic, the retail industry has been left transformed, reinvigorated, and accelerated into areas no one could have prepared for. The modern consumer has a whole new set of demands and nothing short of excellent will hold their attention or their loyalty. Countless retailers were left scrambling to digitise their business or bust. Some of the technology borne from necessity has been a sight to behold.

As a result, the industry is left discovering what place brick-and-mortar (B&M) stores have in our world-building industry, and whether they’re destined to die out or uplift a new age of commerce.  We certainly believe that both online and offline stores will continue to have important places for business, but if the last 5 years are anything to go by, the next 5 will be difficult to predict.

The industry’s general consensus to this point is that an omnichannel approach is the surest path to success for the modern retailer, combining the tangible experience of in-person stores with the data-driven convenience of online shopping.

This blog will provide an insight into what that world looks like and how both forms of business can benefit the industry.

Technology Enabling Omnichannel Synergies

Let’s begin with the similarities between online and offline retail. Within a business, both mediums have the same goal and a relatively similar audience. That goal is to sell as much stock as possible to a portion of society with a need for a product. 

On this basic premise, these vastly different looking mediums should have plenty more room to complement each other’s success – and they do!

McKinsey & Company is adamant that digital adoption is imperative to retail success and its Digital Quotient Survey found that digital leaders saw 3.3 times the total return to shareholders than those lagging behind. One real-world example from McKinsey comes in the form of a Chinese retailer which reported customers being 1.5-2x more valuable across loyalty tiers if they were engaged with both online and offline touchpoints.

But how to encourage customers between these channels? To turn on the omnichannel, there must be something that’s worth leaving the couch or downloading an app for.

Shopify lists 6 technology trends that are making retail waves and could all play a part in omnichannel success. These trends are QR codes, RFID technology, augmented reality, NFTs, smart checkouts, and store management. Before we leave you to do some further research, we’ll recap a few that piqued our interest. 

QR Codes

These now familiar arrays of black squares may have been invented in 1994, but the new world of social distancing has allowed them to come back into style.  Far beyond being used to check-in at storefronts, retailers can now harness the raw power of the QR code to create “endless aisles” and encourage shoppers to continue their shop online. This function can be helpful for shoppers in a rush, on an in-store time limit, or for those waiting in line outside.

Smart Checkout

To please the 60% of shoppers who consider long lines a pain point (a majority of which are under 50 years old), there is an increasing pressure on B&M retailers to streamline the checkout process. If steps aren’t taken to get happy customers out the in-store door as quickly as possible, it’s another easy win to online stores where lines are largely non-existent.  Some example technologies are already commonplace in 2022 such as contactless payment, self-checkout, and digital receipts – the latter technology becoming increasingly popular with customers who prefer to shop with companies that actively reduce their environmental footprint. 

Augmented Reality (AR)

The concept of AR might sound scary, but apps like Snapchat have been doing it for years! Giving customers a guided tour through your store using the magic of technology is probably the most accurate representation of online and offline stores colliding. 

Encouraging customers to view your shelves via mobile satisfies their desire for a tangible in-store experience, within the perceived safety and security of online shopping. If you have the capacity to invest in AR for your store, it’s definitely worth considering.

Implementing Technology

So how can retailers get over the hump and join the omnichannel revolution? McKinsey & Company outlines several actions to accelerate the technological transformation:

Identify Relevant Customer Journeys

Your online presence will determine how difficult it is to understand your web of customer journeys. If you have multiple social media platforms, email marketing and paid ads all running in addition to any traditional advertising, there may be tens or hundreds of journeys to consider. This web of data, however, makes the analysis even more important.

By prioritizing each possible customer journey based on the customer’s lifetime value, you can then invest an appropriate amount of resources into funneling valuable customers towards your store.  If you find Facebook users are more likely to buy from your B&M, for example, make the most of that finding!

Invest with Purpose

Technological innovation is great; trial and error is great; and daring to reimagine your business processes is also great. But similar to the above, it’s important to spend time on endeavors you’re confident will yield results.

Once you’ve attempted to collate data to improve the customer journey, reflect on where your data wasn’t up to scratch and invest in technologies needed to fill these gaps. If there’s information missing you wish could generate more insights, enlist the expertise of some qualified IT leaders to develop the technology you think you deserve.

Know What Technology You’re Aiming For

It’s all well and good to enlist those leaders, but stick to some key pillars that will serve your business best. The technology should be cloud-based, highly automated, scalable and fast. Prioritizing these pillars in your business’ back-end will ensure you’re well prepared for at least the mid-term in this fast-paced retail industry.

There’s More To It

This in-depth topic leaves us with endless discussions. For more information, make sure to check out part 2 of this article to learn about the effects of the pandemic, streamlining your inventory, and digitally driving foot traffic. To harness the power of omnichannel retail marketing, these are all areas you’ll need to understand.