5 Retail Technologies You Aren't Using

These are the must have's you don't already have.?

Go ahead, figure out what your main problem is within your retail store(s). The reason being is we're going to attempt to solve those main problems through some of the retail technologies you're about to see here. These are technologies doing amazing things within the nature of retail, from sorting and packing to personalization and experience they all have a place. Despite such amazing times for retailers to implement and use technology, it's unlikely that even 5-10% have taken the steps to utilize it, but you can be sure the cost is coming down, and it's getting better. These technologies, when used correctly and in tune with each other, are the key to a long lasting retail presence. This is not the technology most mom and pops will be using, but they should. This is not typical technology for a 30 store off-price retailer to use, but they should, and the list goes on. The more you invest in your technology, as long as well managed, is how you will be able to compete, drive new customers and increase existing customers expenditure at your stores and website. Here are a few examples of why technology and the competitors already using it better than you, should consistently motivate you to invest in your technology while the opportunity is still there.?

This one is from the J.Crew CEO "Mickey Drexler"

Here's another one from Blockbuster CEO

And finally, those who have not yet met their fate, but with an attitude like this, they just might. It's Footlocker CEO on Amazon securing Nike and other brands who will go directly to consumers

So, with the reminder in check, let's get on with some technologies to update our last breakdown of?10 Superior Retail Technologies and Their Impact on You.?

One - Augment Brings Augmented Reality to the Retail Scene

The augmented reality world has yet to truly heat up. It's?part of the retail technologies helping to merge the physical and digital worlds together. The most famous example?to date is the use of augmented reality in the Pokemon Go app (read how to leverage the app for your business).?Within the retail landscape augmented reality is enabling manufacturers and retailers to digitally show how a product will look either in a physical space, on an object, or on a person. The use of this technology has far reaching effects besides showing digital items in a physical space with the phone's screen as a viewport. No, this technology as you can imagine could be used to showcase digital 3d deals outside of your stores. It can be used to announce a new product, or even to provide a digital navigational map overlaying the real world.?

Google has invested heavily in the augmented reality technology but not in a retail technology sense. Their?Magic Leap acquisition which raised $1.4 billion, is a total emersion head-mounted display which superimposes images on various objects in the real world. The SCIFI?really is becoming the reality here. There are countless other startups working on this technology, many of you use it already in the form of Snapchat, but only in very small scale. When you begin to apply the localized technology, products, images, and messaging,?your store will gain an advantage if done?with?the right solution. You can be sure Google will very soon place a digital signature of your store so people who are passing by will have all the information from Google hovering above the business that you could only see if you looked down the street with your phone, a headset, or other display. The ideas in the store, or for any digital object you could build with AR, could become a virtual shop. It's perhaps a bit far out there, but you can be sure we're always on the lookout. Some of the SKUSavvy engineers have done experiments with AR?if you'd like to chat,?reach out to me.

Of course, this technology also pairs well with virtual reality, but I'm thinking that'll be another write-up, so make sure you signup to the blog for our weekly retail tech update (signup form on our website).

Two - A Sensational Amount of On-Demand Delivery?

The on-demand economy is growing, fast. From the popular travel site Airbnb to Uber, Doordash, and Fiverr there are now marketplaces for almost anything you could possibly want out there. Where this comes particularly in handy for retailers is their ability to compete, via crowdsourced labor, with Amazon in the last mile delivery. For quite some time now we have had?EasyPost integrated directly within the Epic Commerce?system to enable a retailer's customers to automatically receive the best shipping rates from over 30+ carriers, including PostMates and Doordash. This now makes quick work of last mile delivery when you need it most. Now, admittedly this may not work in every circumstance, but imagine putting "Free Two Hour Delivery" on your website for certain territories, and at checkout, the customers who are within that area, are automatically presented with the option to receive their item right off. This is quite powerful and?more attainable than you might think, though there are so very few retailers doing this.?

That's not to say it isn't working. Taking a look at some of the stats, it's definitely working. There are now more than 22.4 million consumers using the various on-demand services, representing $57.6 billion in spending power. This comes from near $0 in 2008 (AirBnb founding year). It's fair to say this will more and more become the preferred method of delivery, despite tight pressure for the workers doing the delivery. The restaurant industry is far more supportive of this type of delivery with the major competing brands such as Delivery.com, Foodler, GubHub, and UberEats to name a few. With the pressure to lower prices, many of the delivery people themselves are being price gauged out of a livable side-hustle.?

Though the gig economy is just getting started, you should plan to work this into your strategy for commerce almost right away, as it can lower cost from store to customer in many urban destinations, or you may simply be able to start doing it yourself in-house. There is one caveat to this strategy, and I will refer you to the next point which will help explain more.?

Three - Complete Retail and Warehouse Automation

It won't be long before the machines will completely eradicate the need for human input within the warehouse. Much of the sorting and distribution, unpackaging, boxing, and loading can all be handled, with a little training, by robots. As long as the inventory has a spot on the shelf, the assigned robot would be able to grab it and place it on the shelf for when an order comes through. When that order does come through, this same robot has the information of where it is, grabs it, packages it, prints a label, and sends it out either to a conveyor, truck, or store floor. From here, to my point up above, it's likely that drones and droids will be delivering the packages before long. Drones will help to fly packages to nearby customers' homes, and droids will drive trucks and miniature delivery vehicles to customers' homes or distribution points around the area, country, or world.

Imagine the possibility of this happening. It is unlikely there are many true examples of this, except to say, oh, probably Amazon. Though this is above where they are at, it is something which will probably have more merit than you might think given it's a pretty straightforward task for much of the modern-day machines available. I do think it will be a while before we will see too many showrooms which are just a showcase for a giant vending machine warehouse, but it may be something to look out for.?

Four - Connected Stores?

Retail technology has truly enabled a?holistic view of the customer. The idea of the connected store is to utilize all data points relevant to an individual customer, so as to provide the most relevant and actionable potential products up front to this customer. This data hails from all parts of the customer's journey. From the social profiles they signed into your site from, to the aisle they are shopping in, and the items they take off the shelves. With the internet of things becoming more prevalent, it's now possible to have sensors for motion and sound, cameras for computer vision, beacons for Bluetooth communication, and visual displays for quick information. Combine the in-store and online data, and you've got a pretty good idea of this persons buying and shopping habits. Connected stores have technically been around for a while, though there again, not too many are fully putting all the pieces together. We have seen examples of beacons in play, a few frictionless checkouts, and even some?sensors for detecting pregnant women at Target, but nothing with a complete version of online to in-store, though it may be on the horizon with?Epic Commerce.

In the case of Farfetch, which?we wrote about back in April, they are working on the idea of a connected store. To do so they will incorporate all the information for a person's online account like purchases, items within their cart on their wishlist, etc. From here Farfetch relies on their own mobile app to detect when a customer walks into one of its stores.?Each item taken off the shelf, or tried on, is added to their virtual wish list, which can track customer events and later suggest new items, provide assistance, or simply keep track of what they liked and disliked. This kind of simplicity and personalization comes from artificial intelligence which finally combines all this data into one complete vision of your customer for?delivering exceptional experiences?all the way through.?

Five - Personalization of the Whole Customer Experience

Perhaps you've noticed a trend throughout the whole piece, which can be narrowed down to the customer's experience. It's not what you have, it's what a customer wants at the time they want it. Providing this, in a way each customer comes to expect is crucial to gaining the long-term trust of your audience. Most companies are not lacking the funds to make these enhancements to their customer experience, they are lacking the will to try something they think might fail. Each customer is out to achieve their one task of getting the item or service which they are hunting. The faster you can piece together the data in order to figure out who is shopping and what they might be shopping for, the faster you make the sale. This is why personalization, enabled in large part by machine learning and artificial intelligence combined with logic, is certainly the most effective way to organize the contents of your website for conversion optimization.?

Personalization from an online and in-store perspective can come in many forms. Perhaps for one customer, it might be a push notification while they are walking past your store. For others it might be they have an average order value of greater than $100, they are 1.8 miles from a store, they made a purchase within the last month, and have been a customer longer than 1 year. Highly segmented customers are happy because their experience throughout their whole journey with your brand is unique to them. It's what they like, so keep your customer's individual spirit in mind when providing them an experience with your brand.?

How to accomplish a truly personalized approach in your website, mobile app, storefronts, and beyond is a challenge for sure. Thankfully, for everyone reading this post there is a really great way to get introduced to the concept of personalization?right on the Orkiv website. Something dynamic enough for large environments in more complex retail or omnichannel businesses, yet nimble enough for small teams is helpful. Handling the automation of personalizing each visit comes down to?the right software?in this case. For this very reason,?we build stunning examples of personalization in action, all powered by?Epic Commerce. Allowing a retailer to combine all touchpoints for a customer into one automated interaction with the right product at the right time is crucial for the continued growth of the industry. All connected endpoints can be controlled through one area to deliver an experience unlike any other.?

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What do you think about the use of these technologies, any examples??

What else is missing, any additions that should make the list?