During the past Retail Forum, for the first time in a long time, speakers, attendees and participants really put the focus in the “customer “. During the wave of Omnichannel, people only spoke about “customers”, but the fact was that only “sales channels” were prioritized in order to be diversify. Whereas the “customer” was only the priority with hallow words.
As the General Manager of a company that promotes Omnichannel together with a model of commerce that contributes with high levels of services to the customer, we are aware that the consumer will increasingly buy more “brand” and more “service” against the single “product”.
Often, we launch recurring questions to our customers’ CEOs and CIOs like the following:
- Why does the online store or APPs connect to ERPs instead of being another Touch Point?
- Why do so many companies mix into the customer ERP file a private customer of 50 Euros with a professional customer of 100,000 Euros?
- Why do many companies with online store do not have loyalty programs?
- Why are there so many companies who have such programs on the online channel but not physical store?
In 2020, 85% of Non-Food sales will continue to be produced in the physical store, whereas in the case of Food over 95%.
It is in the “hub” (Backoffice, Hub, Unified Commerce Platform) of stores where we ALREADY HAVE and must concentrate the knowledge of the customer. In fact, most customers always interact with the same physical store within a geographical area, which allows the retailer to
Taking as a basis the points mentioned above, and unless you are a pure-player, we can conclude that, the most efficient way to approach an omnichannel program of is not thinking about channels, but starting a strategy and loyalty program that addresses all channels. Starting with the one you already have that has worked for years and generates the highest percentage of sales, your physical store. If you already have several channels, UNIFY THEM for real, and follow the business strategy of “the customer in the center” as your only guideline. A “unified commerce” vision is what you have always had, and will remain what you have when the Post-omnichannel age comes.
In our company, we work with robotic interfaces, algorithms and integration APIs with AI systems like Watson. Nevertheless, we believe that the future of the trade will continue being predominantly “Human to Human”.
“If we focus on the customer, the store will be the main connection point of their activity”.
The store will remain the main transaction channel where it will be necessary to know, inform and look after the customer as their desire by knowing their habits and preferences expressed in their shopping, additionally with their activity and concerns in social networks. It is only in the physical store where it can be put into value part of this information, and only where mobility makes, RFID, electronic labeling, beacons, the IoT and the omnipresent mobile of the customer. More and more, the store associate plays an important role in knowing and interacting with the store equipment, to be at the height of a hyper-connected and hyper-informed customer.
A Pure-Player like Amazon has not only gone down to the physical store, but also raised an expansion of more than 2,000 stores. This must make us think about on the competitive advantage that the traditional stores have, although the time of that exploitation is NOW and the way is not only the Internet but also the customer.
The customer wants services around the product we sell. They want the product to be taken home or returned to the store; however, it is not it a service provided for decades fix our clothes?Do not you coordinate with external or internal suppliers?A logistics not only inverse but back and forth?In the food sector, the pre-existing examples of the concept of “service” are counted by tens and in a short time they will be “presented” as new and innovative.
Modern Point of Sale software and Unified Commerce Platforms need to be able to manage, control, process and communicate with the customer the services they provide, and conceptually there is no difference between sending an order home to a customer and making a repair.
There are many new services that will be demanded by customers; therefore, all you need is to have this capability in the software. With the example of the repair, any retailer can understand that this capacity to serve and reorganize their processes already existed in their DNA. In this sense, technology must be flexible enough, if the process is complex or with high requirements, this technology fails.
Physical stores and physical and online touch-points with the customer, are mini-customer service centers and therefore, points of delivery, collection and resolution of incidents of these services.
The logistics to provide these services is going from being centralized to be decentralized. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the processes and procedures efficiently without “serious impacts” in the daily dynamic of the store to provide a fast service to the customer who “wants it this way” and “wants it now”.
| Article by Javier RubioPresident of comerzzia |  |
