When online shopping took off, physical retail spaces were  under pressure to adapt. Now the second wave of industry revolution is  underway, except this time it’s focused on how retail stores can become  connected spaces.

Let us explain what we mean by that. Right now, you go into a retail  store and the journey is not actually that different to the same one  we’ve had for decades, in that you choose your items, pick them up and  pay a staff member at a counter.

Pain points such as queue times, POS positioning and item inventory  largely still exist. If you’re lucky and a regular, perhaps the store  assistant knows your name. If you aren’t and it’s rush hour, you could  be in for a long, faceless wait. 

In terms of merchandise and product, store decisions are either made  on the manager's gut or on data from sales and CRM systems, which can be  painfully slow to trickle down. 

So what if retail IoT offered a better way? 

Imagine if company A makes its store decisions on a gut feel for  business, whereas company B makes decisions using IoT (the internet of  things) enabled data. Who would be more successful? Sure, a small  business could ask its customers what they want. But as soon as you want  to expand and grow into new audiences, the store would have to evolve  in order to succeed. 
  
 Not only that, but stores need to be continually evolving the experience  of the store space in order to get buy in from customers. In fact - some studies state experience as more important to consumers than products on sale.

If a customer can enter a store, see personalized digital signage,  read smart product tags which change and adapt to store deals and could  even scan, pay for and remove items without needing any assistance from  store staff how much more enjoyable would this experience be? Take Amazon Go,  where customers simply take what they want and get charged directly to  their Amazon account without having to queue up or even take out a  wallet. 

Store-side, you’d have the richest data available, that makes itself  known as soon as a shopper enters the store. Facial recognition may be a  way off, but sensors and beacons which recognize customers by their  smartphone, are feasible in today’s connected store.  Surveillance monitoring of queue times, fluctuations in customer number  and even staff tracking, could help stores adapt and react much more  quickly in peak periods. For example opening more queue banks, or  adapting break rotas automatically to account for additional footfall. 

In the connected space, the internet not only enhances the  experience, but it also removes pain points. Queues at checkout and  struggles to find a specific item or store staff member are reduced or  eradicated with self-service, self-scanning, robotics, digital wayfinding and smart products. 

In the smart store of the future, customers and experience, rather than products and process, become the focal point. 

The application of the physical connected store

Some of the adaptations of the smart connected retail store include:

Consumer triggers: mobile-led initiatives using  beacons, apps and smartphones that allow smart stores to pull customers  in through geo-fencing and highly targeted adverts and offer codes. 

Data and personalization: digital screens, sensors  and tracking networks which monitor a shopper, or multiple shoppers’  behavior around a store. This data feeds the personalization of  products, experiences, offers, store help and advertising placement,  based on previous behavior and shopper preferences.

Digital signage: smart screen displays which use  data to personalize content, based on shopper interests, time of day,  weather outside, season and more. Integrating the ‘internet experience’  in-store, with interactive displays, social media engagement,  wayfinding, directories and native advertising content. 

Store upkeep and merchandising: smart stores that  contain fridges or product banks that automatically replenish based on  product sales. Sales counters that renegotiate merchandise displays  based on time of day, product sales and customer behavior. RFID tracking  of inventory that allows stores to react more quickly, hold less stock,  and be in a far better position to supply product to customer.

Security: connectivity that allows stores to better  monitor security out of hours using sensors, facial recognition and  internet-enabled alarming. 

Robotics and AI: robotic store staff, checkout  systems and changing room assistants. Machine-led product placement,  stock inventory and product ordering systems. 

Failure to adapt to the connected store space

There may come a time when we long for the high street of the past,  one where our every move isn’t monitored and adapted to. Yet to achieve  growth and reach potential, the IoT-enabled smart store seems inevitable  and essential, if retail stores are to compete. 

Ten years ago, stores were being forced to adopt mass digitization of  their businesses, through ecommerce and social media. If all had  adhered, Blockbuster video would be where we watched our latest TV  series and Kodak would be where we took, edited and shared our images  online. In both cases, it’s easy to see how easily retail can flounder  when it doesn’t understand the technologies the rest of the world are  adopting.

Before long our homes will probably be smarter than most retail stores - heck, our cars already are. 

Which leads to the question; what will happen to retail stores that  fail to adapt to the connected space? It seems fair to say that we’ll  see the demise of a fair few more of our high street stores before the  IoT-enabled era is out. 

Discover ScreenCloud’s ability to help retail adopt digital signage displays with IoT-led solutions.

Businesses in the retail space face another industry revolution with IoT enabled, connected shop spaces that provide store, customer and revenue advantages.

Physical stores are changing (again) so why and how should the retail industry be trying to keep up?

What Will Happen to Retail Spaces that Fail to Adapt to IoT

What Will Happen to Retail Spaces that Fail to Adapt to IoT

What Will Happen to Retail Spaces that Fail to Adapt to IoT

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