Retail predicted 1% growth in 2020 here’s the top digital technology

According to a new report by the KPMG/ Ipsos Retail Think Tank the retail sector is predicted to grow at least 1% this year. They stated that retailers can be cautiously optimistic about the year ahead, however inefficient and irrelevant legacy retailers will continue to struggle.

Retail has suffered a tough few years and it’s only going to get harder if they can’t keep up with the digital changes and trends. According to research by PwC and the Local Data Company, retailers shut 2,870 stores in the first half of 2019. There is simply no room for complacency in retail and if you can’t stand out from your competitors you will soon enough see your performance levels decline.

Many successful retailers are discovering that the purpose of their store is to create a more interactive experience. This is where customers don’t just buy products, they discover new things, try new experiences and get personalised offers and deals. They are also starting to recognise the value of technology for employees to speed up operations not just fancy customer facing solutions.

Below we have compiled a list of digital solution companies in retail who can help you stay ahead of the curve:

Immersive Studios

Immersive studios are a production studio who create VR, AR and 360 video experiences. They have worked with well known retailers such as Mazda, Ikea and Harrods to create fully immersive experiences for their customers. VR and AR in retail is so popular because it transforms the shopping experience making interactive experiences informative and entertaining. It has the ability to overcome the usual hassle and annoyances that come with shopping in store.

A project from them that we love:

The Kingdom of Christmas AR for Harrods

This project was designed to enhance shopping for families during the Christmas period. They included an AR trail that sent visitors to look for hidden AR animations throughout the store. Once users had found all of the different animals they could unlock a secret surprise experience. The animations were matched to the environments in store creating a seamless blend between the digital and the physical world.

We love this project because it is a great way of gamifying the shopping experience for families, it keeps people in their store for longer and attracts more customers through word of mouth. It turns their store into more of an experience rather than just a place to shop for Christmas gifts.

Prestop

With flexibility and instant gratification being top factors in the new digital retail space. It makes sense that digital window displays are starting to take centre stage. Not only do they add a great aesthetic element to your window. But they allow your store to be open 24/7, even when your retail staff have gone home. Prestop are a company who specialise in digital window displays. Their clients include: Boots, BMW and Heineken.

Their work with Boots:

Boots opted for one of Prestop’s digital window displays as they wanted to ensure that their pharmacy was visible at night time. It allowed them to present their brand and offerings to their customers at any time of the day in a professional manner. They state on their case study that some of the screens also serve as a presentation screen meaning they can use them for training or events.

TroniTAG

TroniTAG are an electronic pricing tag company. Digital shelf labels are an essential solution for retail companies because they allow them to easily build an omnichannel experience for their customers. The digital age leaves no room for mistakes or errors. Digital price tags mean you can align your promotion prices, online prices and fix pricing errors with the click of a button. They allow retailers to instantly update brick and mortar prices to match the speed of price changes that happen online.

Benefits of their shelf labels:

All labels are managed centrally and can be controlled nationwide across all branches.
They have up to 5 years of battery life.
They have seven different label sizes available for all areas in your business.

SenseMi

With customers becoming increasingly time-poor they don’t want to waste minutes trying on clothes in the changing room. SenseMi are a company who specialise in virtual dressing mirrors. These mirrors allow customers to try clothes on and swap garments with a simple swipe hand gesture. Digital transformation in retail is essential to make transactions and experiences that bit more enjoyable and easier. Virtual mirrors are a crucial part of this. They take the hassle out of trying on clothes and allow the retailer to cross-sale their items through suggestions which customers can try on in seconds.

What makes their virtual dressing mirrors so good?

They feature precise body mapping with realistic 3D models.

They have live fitting meaning users can try on clothes instantly without any delay.
Data analysis means you can look at user behaviour and analyse any trends or patterns.

Syte

Research has shown that 62% of millenials want the ability to use visual search over any other technology. Visual search works by allowing customers to upload or take an image of a product, they will then be able to see similar looking products available on a particular retailer’s website. Syte are a company who specialise in this area, empowering users to search for products on your site with a simple camera on their smartphone.

Boohoo used visual search from Syte:

Online fashion retailer Boohoo used visual search to allow customers to find the product that inspired them in a simple way. They saw an 85% increase in conversion rates for customers that used the camera search and a 125% increase in page visits per session for camera search users.

Ocasta

Tablet and phone POS systems are not new and many retailers enjoy the freedom of being able to serve their customers wherever they are. What’s emerging and becoming more widely used are ibeacons for POS systems. With so many companies now using pop-up stores to sell in unusual areas or trial new products they are essential to ensure your sales are properly tracked and measured. Ocasta are a company who work with large retailers such as Virgin Media and Next to improve internal operations. This includes, Tablet POS systems and ibeacons.

Work they have done with Virgin Media:

Ocasta deployed a tablet POS system with ibeacons for Virgin Media. This has meant they have removed their bulky sales counters and now carry out sales transactions wherever the customers are.

This has reduced wait times for customers and transformed the look and layout of their stores, they’ve seen a 20% increase in floor space. An iBeacon was tied to each store, so if staff wanted to go out and sell they could take the ibeacon with them. This meant the app would realise it was out of store so they could make sales but they would still know which store they should be attributed to.

Package Concierge

Retailers such as Nike have started using ‘buy online pick up in store lockers’ to make the online and in-store shopping experience even more seamless. These mean that customers can browse and buy products online, go straight to the store where their purchase will be waiting for them in a locker.

This eliminates the need to have to wait for help - customers can go in and out without even having to talk to anyone. Package Concierge are a company that offer self-serve automated lockers for retail. They are passionate about the efficiency that the lockers deliver. They state that “Retail employees are spending up to 50% of their time managing BOPIS orders instead of other customer enhancing activities.”

Their latest findings

Their recent study has found that most Gen Z shoppers will select a retailer based on BOPIS availability. Package Concierge locker systems improves both employee efficiency and customer satisfaction. This sounds good to us.

Oplift

As mentioned in the introduction those companies that are inefficient will fall behind their competition. This includes processes for hiring new starters. Preboarding and onboarding solutions are becoming increasingly important to ensure companies hire and retain the top talent. Oplift offers digital apps which engage and train your new hires from the moment they say yes, not just once they have started.

Their work with a leading fashion and home retailer

This well known fashion retailer uses Oplift’s preboarding app to reduce first day no-shows. The retailer was having trouble retaining people after they had accepted the job offer. This was down to a number of reasons including, too much space between the acceptance offer and the start date, feeling overwhelmed, anxious or unsure of what was expected of them and not knowing where to go on their first day. This retailer now gets staff ready for their future career with them by nurturing their relationship with them from the moment they say yes. The preboarding app gets them ready and excited to hit the ground running!

Display Mapper

Display Mapper are a leading company who offer projection mapping. Projection Mapping is a technological solution which is rapidly growing and even more so in the retail industry. It has the ability to transform our experiences in shops keeping displays exciting and relevant in a quick and easy way. With retail becoming a place where people are more interested in experiences, it is a huge contender for retail innovation technology. It helps draw customers in through the door which gives you a better chance to convince them to make a purchase.

How Quality Street bought their products to life in Asda:

To keep their confectionary engaging and relevant, Quality Street used seasonal projections - Bonfire Night, Halloween and Christmas. They had projection maps on the top of the shelves to entice customers and ensure their products stood out above the rest.

Skip

Ecommerce has risen to the top as consumer’s number one preferred method of shopping. Experts say this is down to being able to purchase items at the click of a button. So what if you could get rid of queues in your store forever by letting customers pay on their phone? Skip is a mobile checkout which allows your customers to pick up their items and then leave and pay whenever they want on their own mobile device. No more waiting for a sales assistant to process their transaction, they can do it all on their own.

Benefits of using Skip’s mobile self-checkout:

Customers have the flexibility to pay wherever and whenever they like in your store.
You can scan as you shop, this means the app will add up the cost of your items as you go.
You can locate items with the app meaning customers save time by not having to search the store to look for items.
Customers can use the same app to shop and pay at lots of different stores.

To summarise

We all know that online shopping is on the rise which is why the fight to keep brick and mortar stores relevant is becoming harder and harder. Retailers need to continue driving innovation and speeding up operations to ensure they are keeping up with their online competition. Physical stores still have the advantage that customers can see their products and services in person. They need to capitalise on this and ensure they are offering the best experiences possible.

According to the Centre for Retail Research these are just some of the companies who have gone bust in 2019:

Steamer Trading, the kitchen and accessories stores, went into administration early in January. Twenty-seven of its 38 stores were bought by Pro Cook.
Patisserie Valerie, a much-loved chain of French-themed cafés, went into administration in January.
Wine Direct and associate company JustInCases, both online wine suppliers, have suspended trade following the administration of their owner, Fermentation Ltd.
Bennetts Department Store, Derby, originally opened in 1734, went into administration in 2019, although the Derby store has been saved.
Debenhams, one of the largest and best-known department stores on the high street, went into pre-pack administration on 9 April 2019, with 165 department stores, more than 25,000 employees and thousands of concession staff.
Bathstore, the bathroom specialist with 168 stores and almost 700 staff, appointed administrators, having failed to find a new buyer.
Thomas Cook, travel agent and airline company, collapsed into liquidation in September. It is not a retailer, but 560 high-street stores and 9,000 staff are a big part of every high street.
Mothercare, troubled mother-baby-youngster retailer, went into administration early in November 2019.
Clintons, the struggling greeting-cards business with 332 stores and 2,500 staff, went through a pre-pack administration early in December 2019 that ‘saved’ the business but wiped out many suppliers of goods and services to the chain.

How can we help?

Ocasta can transform the way your people work in retail through behavioural changing technology and apps. We can work with you to bring issues to the surface that could be holding back your speed and quality of work. We can then address your organisation’s unique challenges with custom apps, interfaces and systems – our team can deliver everything from complex integrations with your existing infrastructure to big data APIs and dashboards.