Furthermore, the report shows that 31% of consumers reported delivery
times being slower than
usual, with 28% saying delivery charges are more expensive.
Research from our distributed workforce report suggests that retail businesses are already making strides to invest in the hardware that in-store colleagues need to deliver better experiences for customers. Indeed, well over a third (35%) of retail businesses have said that the number of devices – including smartphones, SaaS apps, scanners, etc. – rolled out across their sites has increased in the last year. Integrating these devices, and ensuring better connectivity, however, could be hampered if the sector does not improve on the digitisation of its processes. Our research found that despite improved investment in new tech, nearly 60% of processes within retail businesses were still manual and paper-based, not only limiting the potential of channel integration but potentially also putting customer data at risk. Streamlining the supply chain Another aspect that is make or break when it comes to more integrated experiences is the supply chain. Businesses must ensure their supply chain is running smoothly for both their online and in-store shopping experiences to be performing at their best
and maximum capacity. In order to help issues relating to in-store shopping experiences, our findings show that consumers would like retailers to deploy more mobile device technology. This is for three key reasons: to speed up the shopping and checkout processes for customers, to give buyers a choice of how they want items fulfilled, even when buying in person, and to offer real-time availability information. A transparent experience The latter relates to transparency within the supply chain. Responses such as these highlight the need for businesses to be open with consumers throughout the shopping experience, whether this is in relation to deliveries or availability. By ensuring the customer remains fully up-to-date with the latest information throughout, businesses will significantly improve the all-important customer retention and those who do it best will remain ahead. Improving and then maintaining customer experience is now more important than ever for businesses and by ensuring transparency with both in-store and online shopping processes, they will be able to manage this.
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