6 Retail Trends To Shape 2019
The world we know is changing and retail is changing with it. Customers today are tech-savvy, demanding and are driving change.
Which retail trends will shape 2019?
Once, not so very long ago, a retail shop was a physical store. Shoppers wandered in, browsed the shelves, and selected the products they most needed or wanted. The name of the game was wider variety and lower pricing, both achieved through economy of scale. Massive shopping malls rose and displaced the mom and pop stores where people came to chat and gossip as well as get their daily needs.
Today we see more and more online purchases driving the massive shopping malls and retail giants to close their doors.
Does that mean the end of brick & mortar retail? Is online shopping the sole future of retail? As the trends show -NO!
Omni-channel approach with combination of online and offline customer experience is the formula millennials want.
Below are 6 retail trends that will shape retail business in 2019
1.Experience-based marketing and sales
Once, retail focused strictly on selling products. But millennials want experiences, not just things. Stores are increasingly focused on selling these experiences. How?
The key to get the attention of your customers is offering an interactive experience. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam claim that “participants who visited Heineken theme store or designed a label online had a more positive attitude towards the brand and had a stronger brand relation than participants in the control condition.”
The limit is only your imagination of what can be achieved.
What are you selling? What do you want your customer to feel that will convince them to purchase?
If you are selling bathing suits or surfing equipment, a small “beach” installation in
You can try the bathing suit in the fitting room or you can step outside and sit in a beach chair next to a fake palm tree in front of an ocean picture and take a photo. If your clients want, they can type in their email address and receive the photo to keep. A real selfie opportunity!
Now that they have had some fun in your store and they have a nice photo to share on social media, which will advertise your store’s name, and have even given you their email address. This in-store experience also has a tangible impact.
Use securely displayed tablets to take the selfies, or maybe as a mirror with augmented reality to try on different items at once.
Here are some ways to securely place tablets.
2.Tech based shopping upsurge
2018 witnessed a staggering 45% of purchases completed via smartphones and alternate payment systems becoming accepted by some of the icons of retail. For the millennial shopper, convenience is a high priority. Millennials see no reason to compromise in order to accommodate “the way things have always been done”.
As we mentioned before, customers today are driving the retail trends by demand and change of preferences. They are tech savvy and are getting used to ease of use, on the go, always in reach of a finger etc.
It’s not surprising that on the major retail trends in 2019 is the demand of more tech in retail, feels more like a natural evolution of commerce.
How to implement?
Here are just some examples what you can do in order to incorporate technology into your business.
- Smartphone scannable codes on products, like Hema’s QR codes providing the customer with more information on the products.
- Online reservation of products to try one in a clothing/footwear shop such as Nike’s speed shop.
- Automated checkout services such as those in Amazon Go.
It goes without saying that a fast loading and easy to use mobile website is a must…
3.E-commerce becomes just another distribution channel
E-commerce today is just one of many components in a multichannel approach to retail and a vital part of retail trends in 2019. Consider for example Walmart, whose digital sales have risen to 39.4% of the total in 2018 – not bad for an iconic chain with thousands of physical walk-in stores.
How to implement?
First of all, take a deep breath and consider whether E-commerce is what your business really needs. Consult with your CPA about the taxation implications of implementing this model for your business.
Still interested? Good. Now familiarize yourself with the basic nuts and bolts of how E-commerce works. Now it’s time to go shopping for an
Choose your platform, design, payment system and drive the traffic. E-commerce is another point in the customer journey you should try.
4.Multi-Channel Is The New Normal
Brick-and-mortar stores remain a key component the sales process. However, rather than being the primary point of sales it has become part of a broader retail strategy aiming to capture the attention, and wallets of wider audiences.
Consider that nearly 25% of Baby Boomers shop on Facebook, in contrast to 11.8% of Gen-Z shops.
Millenials? They have already moved on and prefer to buy products they discover on Instagram and Snapchat. You need to be able to reach them all and the best way to do that is through multichannel integration, online and offline -and, of course, using the channels in an interlinked manner.
So…if several years ago multi-channel approach was revolutionary, we can see that now is a major part of retail trends.
How to implement – here are some example
- Mirror the consumer path to purchase throughout your multichannel setup.
- Select the online marketplace that is right for your product and experiential brand.
- Build up your infrastructure, either by upscaling your team or adopting automation tools, to handle the added demands of multichannel retailing.
- Adapt and integrate your product information system for all marketing and sales channels.
- Use augmented reality to help your online customers enjoy the benefits and experience of your brick and mortar establishment.
- Provide, even prompt, access to online product information and pricing in the brick and mortar store, in order to augment your customers’ experience. Most shoppers do it anyway – but you can make yourself part of the process and channel it to your ends.
- Provide the online access even to those shoppers who don’t surf their own smartphones through secured iPad stands.
We at Compulocks can help you provide secure display solutions which can help you not only with branding and great in-store experience, but also provide product information, easy online access and more.
The 21st retail environment is multidimensional as well as multi-channel.
5. The Internet of Things
One of the more interesting retail trends in 2019 is The Internet of Things or in short IoT.
IoT connects over 11 billion everyday products, such as home speakers, TVs, and cars, to the internet. That’s a lot of data, and it provides retailers with an incredible amount of useful information about product placement and usage.
You can use this data to send relevant, even individualized, marketing messages to customers on every distribution channel the costumer may encounter your business- and on every stage of your potential costumers journey in any of these channels, be it a brick and mortar store with iPad stands in specific aisles or a social media based ecommerce venue.
Internet of things can help your business save money and time, get you amazing insights to use in marketing and many more exciting possibilities.
Examples
- Predictive equipment maintenance – When your products are instrumented with sensors, you can offer your customers preemptive maintenance before a problem occurs.
- Smart transportation – know when your merchandise is arriving at your store
- Demand aware warehouse inventory management – this is about more than tracking missed sales and warehousing your merchandise conveniently. The warehouse of the future will be open space where automated pallets self-organize based on real-time demand
- Smart online marketing – Instead of bombarding customers with non-stop promotions, data about the context of their lives and purchases can enable you to target them with promotions of the target / services they need, when they need them, and at the best market price.
- Seek out new marketing and distribution channels. A smart refrigerator can text your smart phone about the best deals for the products you are short on, and your car can direct you to the nearest and cheapest gas station.
6.Mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) will sharply reduce waiting time in line
Cash registers are increasingly viewed as outdated by customers. Still, while restaurants have been using mobile POS for a while, retailers have been taking their time in implementing this innovation, leading to many a frustrated customer standing in line. If you are about to take the plunge and get ahead of this trend you are entering exciting, and hopefully profitable era.
Mobility and fast checkout as part of great in store customer experience is one of the major retail trends and you need to adjust as soon as possible.
How to implement?
The #1 concern for both merchants and customers is, of course, security. Given the prevalence of data breaches, protecting your customers and your business is crucial. Moreover, mPOS terminals need to meet even more rigorous standards than traditional POS terminals since smartphone technology is constantly active and connected through 3G and 4G and is therefore vulnerable to malware attacks. Make sure your solution provider to ensure your selected solution is certifiably secure.
Choose your mPOS software provider carefully.
Any software needs the hardware ?
Here is just a simple example of hardware secured mPOS that we offer at Compulocks for boosting your checkout times. Please contact us to learn more about mPOS solutions used by retailers and many other industries worldwide.