The Covid-19 lockdowns that have closed physical stores have changed retail as we know it. Those brands who had invested in omnichannel and digital transformation were better able to cope, and many more are also now rethinking the role of their stores. The results – including a significant rise in retailers offering omnichannel services like Ship from Store and Buy Online Pick up In Store (Bopis) – will long outlast the crisis.
There is still a place for the store, but the days of having a separate channel specifically for web sales and another for the store are gone. Physical retail in the past was simply about direct sales, customer returns, receiving product deliveries and handling warehouse returns. Stores and the sales associates in them were ill-equipped to deliver on omnichannel service expectations and relatively ill-informed on customers and products, leading to lost sales and customer frustration.
With omnichannel, retailers can now offer more choices to the customer. The role of the store expands to cover sales, omnichannel customer returns, goods’ collection, endless aisle, receiving products, warehouse returns, distant selling, order preparation for ship from store and so on. Stores even become logistics hubs in their own right.
Mobile technologies allow sales assistants to more easily serve customers using the latest omnichannel technologies on the shop floor. Clienteling and loyalty apps can also deliver a far more personalised service. For instance, it’s possible to access information on individual customers’ previous shopping preferences, giving staff a better idea of what to offer on the day. At the heart of this, in physical stores, is the empowering of sales associates with practical tools to sell and serve better in-store, whether the products are available there or not.
Smart retailers of all sizes are using unified commerce and mobile tools to optimise sales and win customer loyalty. So, what’s stopping you from boosting your sales and increasing opportunities to sell and upsell? Deploying all or just some of these omnichannel services is a great place to start, and Viseo and Cegid are here to help.
Download our ebook today to discover more about new ways to sell and serve.
About Viseo
Viseso is a global IT consulting firm specialising in assisting its clients with their IT and digital transformation. Viseo uses technology as a powerful lever of transformation and innovation to help its clients take advantage of digital opportunities, address new usages and compete with new players who change the rules of the game. With more than 2200 employees across five continents, Viseo combines agility and complementarity of its areas of expertise – design of new products and services, digitisation of business processes, data valuation, digital assets development – making digital a real lever of competitiveness and performance. For more information, please visit https://www.viseo.com/en/apac
