The Future of Retail: Know Your Shoppers

Understanding the customer’s shopping journey is an important part of a retailer’s strategy. Whether it’s through a positive, memorable in-store experience or through personalized digital advertising, you must anticipate customers’ needs and approach the shopping experience with fluidity and innovation. It’s this approach that will help you establish a meaningful relationship with shoppers and compete against industry giants like Amazon and Walmart.

But how, exactly, can a brick-and-mortar retailer predict customer needs and tailor ads in a way that improves the shopping journey—while boosting revenue in the process? Let’s dig in.

Providing exclusive in-store perks

Despite what people might think, especially with the unsurprising rise of e-commerce, in-store shopping is as popular as ever. In fact, 61% of shoppers prefer to purchase from brands that provide physical store locationsversus those that have only an online presence. And they have good reasons to still stick to what they’re familiar with: saving on delivery costs, receiving products immediately after checkout, having access to direct customer service, and benefiting from in-store discounts. There’s no denying that in-store shopping provides a different type of convenience than digital shopping.

That’s why it’s crucial for retailers to take advantage of their in-store presence and offer perks to match customer preferences. Even for brick-and-mortar, you can create an excellent in-store shopping experience by utilizing digital tools. With a Swiftly Retail Platform , you can connect with customers as they’re completing their in-person shopping and offer exclusive personalized discounts, user-friendly in-store navigation, and a painlessly quick checkout on their mobile devices.

Implementing omnichannel shopping

There’s no denying that omnichannel shopping is the future. Retailers can leverage the advantages of having a physical brick-and-mortar store and a digital presence by providing their customers with a heightened, seamless shopping experience through multiple channels. A Harvard Business Review study found that out of 46,000 customers, 7% were online shoppers, 20% were store shoppers, and a whopping 73% relied on multiple shopping channels to make a purchase. The study also revealed that omnichannel shoppers generally spend more money both in-store and online; customers who used more than four channels to browse for products spent at least 9% more than those who rely on one channel.

Because omnichannel shoppers use multiple channels to make a decisive purchase, they have more opportunities to interact with their favorite brick-and-mortar stores and build a special, long-lasting connection. It’s clear that when you fuse digital and physical together, you can create a whole new shopping experience for customers to enjoy. A Retail Platform by Swiftly makes this possible.

Offering flexible payment options

No one particularly appreciates long lines after a day of shopping. When customers see that checkout lanes are excessively slow and crowded, they may either drop a few of their items and opt for self-checkout—or decide to abandon their carts altogether. In 2018, long lines cost U.S. retailers $37.7 billion dollars.

Flexible payment options, such as a digital self-checkout, eliminate the stress of waiting and give the shopper their time back. With Swiftly’s technology, customers can use the SwiftLane® Checkout feature to skip the neverending lines and scan products themselves.

A Swiftly retail platform is just what you need to keep your present and future shoppers satisfied. Using only first party data to protect customer privacy, Swiftly is able to accommodate each and every unique shopper. Our digital features improve the shopping experience through the pre-purchasing, purchasing, and post-purchasing stages by forging strong digital relationships, providing personalized deals, and establishing a seamless and efficient checkout process.

Every shopper is different—but all of them benefit from a positive, quick, and modern shopping experience. Are you ready to maximize your retail presence with a powerful, robust retail platform powered by Swiftly? Contact us today.

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