As we start to see a "return to normal life", hybrid work, mixing face-to-face and distance learning, seems on the verge of imposing itself. Retailers must also reinvent themselves to meet the challenges of the “new normal”. Samuel Mueller's explanations, co-founder of Scandit, specialist in barcode reading solutions.
It’s not just our professional lives that have changed forever ; it is also the way we live and consume. Contactless becomes a normality. The past year has been a real challenge for many sectors of activity. The retail sector was no exception to the rule. It is essential that retailers leverage this experience to ensure they are well positioned to welcome larger numbers of customers into stores. In the emergency, many brands have focused on e-commerce and the online experience to compensate for the closures. However, now is the time to plan the return to the store to offer customers a reinvented experience, secure and smooth. Cleanliness and contactless will therefore remain at the center of concerns. Not only, customers are more concerned about their safety, but they have also become more accustomed to digital. Customer disdain for queues expected to be even more pronounced, just like their desire to be able to make quick and smooth purchases, similar to their online shopping experiences. Retailers who already offer solutions such as self-scanning or Scan & Go cite their ability to reduce contact with staff and other customers as one of the main benefits. Reducing touchpoints, which saves time in checkout lines and makes the shopping experience more convenient, is essential. Likewise, ces applications Scan & Go can be used to improve customer experience and drive sales conversion. So, the same application will allow the customer to make an online purchase, delivered to his home, to reserve items in click & collect or even scan in store. With a safe, contactless experience, businesses can inspire consumer confidence in-store. What's more, digital tools could also pave the way for creating a more complete purchasing journey for the customer.
Technology more essential than ever
The promise of a faster in-store purchase, easier and frictionless has prompted many retail chains to invest in Scan & Go in recent years. Thanks to powerful computer vision software, any smart device equipped with a camera can be turned into a powerful barcode scanner. Merchants are using this technology to allow customers to scan barcodes using their smartphones, then pay for their purchases at an automatic payment terminal or via the application. Retailers can also use the power of the smartphone to adapt to new customer demands : namely the ability to make in-store purchases while having access to a multitude of product information at your fingertips. Retail managers believe shoppers will now demand more product information during the in-store experience, 59,5% saying customers want more information about products to make conscious choices. This functionality can also be achieved through the customer's own smartphone with an augmented reality overlay (AR). If retailers do not adapt to these new requirements, they risk losing their loyal customers. But if retailers do it right, on the contrary, they could emerge winners from this situation. More than a third of retailers have seen an increase in basket size of customers using self-scanning.
Analytics at the heart of this reinvention
Self-scanning was – and is always – a powerful way to increase in-store customer engagement. An effective and efficient scanning experience can help save time and streamline interactions. It will optimize the customer experience and, in the end, will build trust and loyalty. In an increasingly data-driven industry, self-scanning is also a valuable source of customer behavior data for analysis purposes. Tracking application usage, alongside store KPIs, is a good way to evaluate performance in many areas. Store attendance, waiting times at checkouts, purchasing habits, the volume of the baskets, the recipes, costs or even customer satisfaction, all this data can be captured and measured. The end of numerous health restrictions gives us a glimpse of a promising new normal. Since the crisis, consumers will have become familiar with the broader world of self-scanning, you Click & Collect, or even home delivery. And this trend is expected to continue, this is why commerce must reinvent itself to combine in-store experience and digital experience and this will involve a controlled and efficient digital transformation..
