The customer is the king and none better than the retail sector
understands this as it is driven by consumer attitudes trends and
economic vitality. Pre-technology era had provided the retailers the
benefit of fixing the price tags as per consumer status levels. However
with technology playing a major role in every aspect of the human life,
today’s consumers are more techno savvy and walk into a retail store
armed with the knowledge of where every product comes from and the
minimum and the maximum retail price that can be on the price tags. The
massive adoption of internet technology, the social media and networking
sites even on the move has re-shaped the consumer expectations.
Irrespective of the industry sector the understanding
the consumer journey and their expectations are vital for creating
applications and helping consumers navigate through their interactions
with the organizations. However the retail industry in particular needs
to come up with innovative customer experience solutions that will
create value and increase customer loyalty. With consumers today having
more shopping options from the large number of brands available in the
market, to online shopping portals which has now become highly trusted
and accepted one, competition is at an all-time high in the retail
industry thus the need for an effective retail customer experience.
The
consumers have an array of stores- from mass merchandisers with
one-stop discount style shopping to large retail chains and department
stores. Such increase in shopping options, lead to erosion of customer
loyalty. Enterprises thus need to work out options which would help them
provide excellent retail customer experience. Nevertheless, today’s
retailers are not competing on the price alone. In order to sustain in
the highly competitive environment they need to strengthen their
customer loyalty and increase their sales and differentiate themselves
from other stores.
Enterprises
need to deliver unique retail customer experience by providing them
innovative tools and services required which would increase customer
loyalty. Further, streamlining processes will facilitate maximizing
productivity and better control with enhanced customer interaction
services. With technological enhancements coming up every other day
leading service providers have been able to develop number of
applications for the retail industry.
Based on the predictive chat
sessions data and other methods of predicting customer interactions,
these providers have anticipated customer needs and worked out
applications for inventory check, product troubleshooting, returns and
exchanges and rewards programs which takes the enterprises smoothly
through their retail journey. Such retail customer experience solutions
help large retail enterprises increase sales and deliver superior
customer service for their customers, shoppers, and members.