Technology is continually changing the way we interact with businesses in store and online. The retail sector has seen significant changes with new technology trends. Customers are reacting to these emerging technologies and retailers need to keep up in order to retain customers and continue to create a welcoming experience.
Customer-Facing
A majority of retail shopping now happens on online stores. Implementing new technologies to your online store can prove to be wildly profitable and helpful for you and your customers. Artificial Intelligence has been developed to help your customers find what they are looking for with ease. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the ability to track a user’s search history on the retail store’s website. AI can then give the user suggestions for what to look at next on the site based on their search history. This could make online shopping experience much quicker and easier for the customer. Similarly, AI can be used as a chatbot online to help answer basic customer concerns. This feature in AI helps customers and employees alike. Chatbots can be programmed to answer FAQ questions or suggest measures to take if there is a question they cannot answer.
Augmented Reality (AR) is a quickly moving technology making its way into businesses. AR can offer a unique experience to customers and allow them to virtually try on clothes or other products. AR is being used in many different aspects such as viewing what haircuts would look like on you before paying for it! Makeup products and eyeglasses can be tested before purchasing streamlining the process for customer and retailers.
Business-Facing
Organizational technologies have begun to help retail professionals stay organized and save a mass amount of time performing tedious tasks. Technology can now take the hassle out of inventory management. New tech can track inventory from its arrival at the store to customer purchase and give real time updates on inventory. This ability to track can offer essential information about purchasing trends and what is in demand at that time. Professionals can then order items that are flying off the shelves and stock up on items that have shown to be trendy at that time of the year.
Eventually, many of these tech advancements will become the norm in every brick and mortar store and online. Keep up with emerging tech trends and see how they can apply to your business model!