In today’s day and age, technology is present all around us. We rely on digital devices for almost anything and everything on a daily basis, and automation and technology have moved into multiple aspects of our lifestyles. But one of the biggest changes we are seeing, especially during the last year, is technology transforming the retail space in and out.
With a different retail landscape throughout and post pandemic, companies must be more innovative, and quickly! In order to improve how customer needs are met and to transform the way information is relayed, retailers have been turning to in-store digitization.
According to an article from Retail Insider titled Canadian Retail and Technology: A Perfect Pair or Doomed to Fail?…”creating a high-tech element as part of the customer experience has become the norm.”
Many retailers seem to be following this incentive in order to stay competitive and relevant. So, what are the top tech trends in retail at the moment? Let’s take a look!
Today’s retail technology trends
Unfortunately, this past year has brought upon an economic drawback for many retailers. As a result, those same retailers have had to think about implementing digital tools in order to encourage consumer spending. To beat this decline, stores have increased the speed at which they have adapted digital transformations within their business and operations.
An article from Retail Insider titled How Smart Security and Automation are Helping Retailers Uncover Insights to Enhance Operations highlights, “The retail industry is constantly evolving. Changing and shifting amid ever-transforming consumer behaviour and the emergence of market trends, merchants everywhere are perpetually challenged with the task of consistently meeting this evolution with innovation and creativity and a continuous improvement of the service and offering they provide to their customers.”
Digital Smart Labels™
One of the latest tech trends to help retailers modernize their business is none other than Digital Smart Labels™. Remember the days when prices were manually adjusted and/or changed? With the application of Digital Smart Labels™, those days are gone! With this tool retailers are able to update prices in real time with just a click of a button.
Automating labelling, price updates, promotions, and product information eliminates the tedious task of changing paper price tags, cutting down both the time and costs associated with manual labour. What’s great about the micro e-paper displays is that they integrate with any existing POS system in an easy and efficient way, ultimately reducing operational costs while minimizing our environmental impact.
Finally, one of the main reasons behind this technology tool becoming a trend at the moment is their consistency and reliability. Digital Smart Labels™ are well-engineered, highly scalable, and utilize a strong sub-1 GHz frequency capable of penetrating through any wall or obstacle. Paired with a battery life of up to ten years and the ability to withstand temperatures down to -25°C, Digital Smart Labels™ can be relied on to update in even the busiest—and harshest—of retail environments.
Flexible payment options
Nowadays, if you aren’t at the forefront of technological leadership, you might as well not be in the game at all. Therefore, prioritizing tech tools such as point-of-sale (POS) financing and/or buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) has become a motto for many. This leads us to our next top retail trend—flexible payment options and payment apps.
Deferred payment options allow customers to pay off their purchase in increments. This way, consumers feel less pressure when spending money and retailers are able to increase their profits. With these ‘buy now-pay-later’ tools and options, purchasing items has become easier on consumers while enabling retailers and business owners to increase sales, improve conversion rates, and build customer loyalty.
Moreover, with payment apps now available and retailers relying on tools such as iPads to complete transactions and sales, the whole process has become that much more simplified. Through the same approach, customers can also place orders for desired items and have them delivered straight to their home—making for a transformed shopping experience.
AI-driven big data
In the words of many, information is power. This brings us to our next top tech trend in retail: the combination of big data analytics and artificial intelligence. With retailers scrambling to gather and analyze the huge volumes of data and information, it’s becoming increasingly more important to find a way of doing so in the most efficient manner possible. Investing in AI-driven big data retailing can help convert useful information into essential insights, allowing retailers to improve efficiency while building a competitive edge.
Larger and well-known retailers are relying on AI-driven data collection to better evaluate and understand the field of e-commerce and online product assortment. In addition, other categories such as dynamic pricing and product discovery through visual search are aiding in accelerating information evaluation and distribution. Embracing these digital changes can help retailers better manage their area of business while enabling them to focus on other operations.
The aforementioned article above also goes on to mention that AI “can help businesses generate valuable data…to drive an enhanced customer experience and greater operational efficiencies.”
With that being said, implementing Digital Smart Labels™ within your retail space could help bring up efficiencies and overall improve operations. In order to be able to collect accurate data and convert necessary information for a profitable business, it’s essential that your pricing and inventory be correct. With Digital Smart Labels™, manual errors could become a thing of the past, as you can begin to rely on accuracy and cost-effectiveness.
Revenue and loyalty programs
Another top trend which helps retailers build customer engagement and loyalty are subscriptions to revenue and loyalty programs. More and more retailers are conducting sign-ups for loyalty programs and/or email marketing tactics when in the middle of a transaction. Through this strategy to retain customers, a retailer can offer special discounts and other incentives to keep the customer coming back as opposed to having them shop at a competitor.
Purchase decisions are often based on the shopping experience overall. In order to improve and transform that experience, showing customer appreciation can go a long way. By implementing a good loyalty program that provides value to the customer, retailers can retain customers’ trust while increasing sales.
How could Digital Smart Labels™ help retailers with revenue and loyalty programs? As we know, it all comes down to brand loyalty and customer engagement. Consistency and trustworthiness go a long way when upkeeping a customer-retailer relationship. With the simple installation of Digital Smart Labels™, your customers would be able to rely on correct pricing and real time promotions. Consistency and reliability will keep that customer coming back!
Keeping pace with the digital age
The rules of retail have gradually been transformed and continue to be rewritten with each new digital trend. But at the end of the day, offering a rich shopping experience for consumers is the goal of any successful retailer. In order to be able to do so, it’s important to keep up with the latest innovations and to always be on the lookout for tools which can help you improve and enhance your area of business altogether. We’ve adapted to the flexible variety of payment options, we’ve implemented AI into our business operations, therefore, why not take the next step and add Digital Smart Labels™ to that business plan? Stay tech-savvy, gain an edge on your competitors, and give us a call today to get started!
