Reimagining the Customer Experience for New Breed of Shoppers

Retailers across the APAC region have had to quickly adapt to changing operating conditions over the previous two years, leading to many adopting new technologies and solutions to better serve customers across whichever touchpoints or platforms they prefer.

As learned pandemic behaviours become the default setting for millions of consumers across the region, brands will continue to serve customers via click & collect and kerbside pickup, while simultaneously processing online returns in-store too.

For many retailers, this agile, innovation-heavy fusion of online and physical demand is becoming more commonplace, placing the role of modern, dynamic Point-of-Sale (POS) technology squarely at the centre of a redefined connected commerce era.

For brands today, a reimagined customer experience can be broken down into three key stages, with modern POS playing an important linchpin function at each of the three phases:

• Pre-purchase: Retailers need to have full visibility of not just customer data such as purchase history, but also their own inventory too.
• Purchase: Out-of-stock is no longer an option for retailers today. With modern POS, endless aisle capabilities mean shoppers can purchase goods from across an entire network, rather than being restricted by the availability of inventory at a single location.
• Post-purchase: Stores have a critical role to play in the returns process, but without smart, joined-up store systems, returned goods can often fall into an inventory ‘black hole’.

From retail industry’s first conception of a Point-of-Sale system, invented back in 1879, the retail landscape has come a very long way, and for those who want to meet the needs of the 21st century shopper, they need to be across all aspects of the omnichannel.

But, as we observe an acceleration towards a true convergence point between physical and digital retail (fuelled by the effects of the pandemic), it’s important for retailers to continue to innovate and remove any remaining points of friction from this reimagined shopping experience.

For example, if we go back to the perennial problem of out-of-stock predicaments, it’s hard to believe that even in this day and age, only a small minority of retailers are capable of offering in-store purchasing from another store’s inventory, or indeed from the warehouse.  From a customer experience perspective, this tends to feel like an outdated process, causing not only the risk of losing a sale but also brand loyalty.

To truly reimagine the customer experience journey at a deeper level in 2022, we must recognise that the role of the store is no longer limited to selling, rather brick-and-mortar retail must be repositioned as a hub for fulfilment too.

The benefits of this approach have been played out over the last two years and continue to do so today – with retailers with store fulfilment options seeing higher revenue growth – a 114% increase when click and collect is implemented and a 60% increase when ship from store is implemented.

The future of the customer experience journey is closely linked to eCommerce, and the future of eCommerce is intrinsically linked to the evolving capabilities offered by stores.

In order to meet supercharged customer expectations, retailers need to adopt a ‘sell/fulfil/engage’ mentality. However, when it comes to future-ready POS implementation, brands often make three common mistakes: adopting a store-only plan which could limit future agility, underinvestment in change management leading to uncertainty or failure to thrive, and selecting a “proven” vendor with old technology without consideration for new innovations.

All too often, brands are still thinking in silos. Instead, they need to develop a unified commerce roadmap – encompassing a POS + clientele management + store fulfilment + customer engagement strategy. Likewise, retailers need to make a clear plan for organisational change and select the right vendor capable of delivering against long-term, aspirational, and often moving targets.

As the evolution of POS continues amidst the backdrop of a pandemic-effected economy, one thing that has become increasingly clear is that customers are in the driving seat when it comes to how, when and where they want to shop.

Today, it’s now up to retailers to take the reins of this new customer experience journey and drive the narrative forward, but they can only do this by having sophisticated, modern POS and order management systems in place that support their customers varied shopping journeys. Whether customers are shopping in-store, online, or via a smartphone or on social media, retailers need to ensure that they are capable of delivering a seamless customer experience journey across all the places their brand is represented, both online and physically.

For more information on how your retailer business can enhance the customer experience in 2022, please visit: www.manh.com/en-sg