- Contest Factory
- October 12, 2022
Retail Self-service solutions are proving valuable.
Self-service solutions became a necessity during the pandemic, but now they are a customer preference and indispensable. If you did not add self-service to your retail tech stack, you are missing the boat. Self-service solutions are not limited to self-checkout. There are a myriad of solutions that shoppers have fallen in love with. A staggering 73% of shoppers reported preferring self-service checkout at retail over engaging with employees. Remember we are now dealing with children of the future, they grew up with phone in hand and less face to face engagement than any other generation in history – and they have disposable income now. It’s time to level up your retail self-service technology, if you have not already.
Retail Self-service Solution Types
Self-checkout: This is the easiest to fathom and the lowest hanging fruit to increase customer satisfaction in your retail store, increase cross-sells, and up-sells, as well as increase loyalty and market share. Imagine being able to free up your cashiers to support other store needs while customers take care of the repetitive check out process all on their own. This leverages your talent to do what you need humans for, including checking in inventory and getting it on the floor faster or merchandising your racks or ensuring the store is spick and span beautifully clean.
Now re-imagine the customer checkout process and everything you want your self-service POS to do to support the best experience possible. Be sure to offer additional products and services at the checkout as this is a likely time with card in hand that customers may more easily say yes to a complimentary item. For example, customers that buy this often also buy this – this item will be delivered to their door within days. In addition, you can offer extended service plans and options. Finally, be sure to have your loyalty program sign up and login first and foremost as folks in loyalty programs shop much more often with you than those that do not. Also include smart wallet payment solutions enabling your customer to skip the credit card process altogether and enabling them to use PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Checkout with Amazon. This is a life saver for the customer that finds they left their wallet at home.
Price checker: These have become popular in large chains like Target, where price checking becomes laborious and time consuming for their staff. You’ll find convenient price checkers on almost every other aisle in Target -they may know something. These same price checkers also have a touchscreen that may be used for advertising or promotions. Customer are more likely to put something in their shopping cart if they know the price. Imagine them not picking it up, not knowing the price, when in fact, if they did, they would purchase it – this is a bigger issue than most retailers understand. Enable your customers to do the jobs you’d rather not pay your employees to. Consumer’s report preferring to solve their own customer service issues than having to ask for help. This is a major conversion aider. Don’t miss out on this one.
Endless aisle: The endless aisle enables you to have touchscreens in store showing your entire selection, as most stores cannot merchandise 100% of their inventory due to store size limitations. In addition to enabling more product to be seen, you are also able to find items that are out of stock in the size you want. The customer now can simply buy online and have the item shipped direct to their home. Add free shipping to make this even more appealing.
Digital dressing room: We’ve all been there half dressed in the dressing room when the sales associate asks, “how’s everything working out?” And the immediate reaction is to flinch and grab your clothes quickly. This uncomfortable situation is completely eliminated with digital dressing rooms. In the digital dressing room, you have a touchscreen with the ability to scan the item you need in another size; and before you know it, it’s been placed over the door for your convenience. Plenty of shoppers leave altogether as they don’t want to engage with the sales associate and after getting fully dresses, they don’t want to go find the right size and return to the same shenanigans. Retailers can even take this one step further enabling new size look up at other stores as well as buy in the dressing room and have it shipped to your home.
The future is here and innovation is peaking with retail self-service solutions that make customers happy and increase operational efficiency for the retailer. Now consider all these devices talking to each other to create the perfect customer journey. There’s so much marketing opportunity here, it feels like Christmas. Best wishes in leveling up your self-service solutions in your retail store.
