“Unified commerce” — linking in-store and mobile experiences — is becoming a major priority for retailers. The majority of merchants will invest in in-store technology over the next five years, according to a survey of more than 500 North American retailers run by Boston Retail Partners, a retail management consulting firm. As Business Insider reports, within that time frame 75 percent of retailers bank on identifying their customers when they enter the store.
The study, “2014 CRM/Unified Commerce Benchmark Survey,” also highlights how mobile technology will continue to impact retailer marketing strategy. While only 28 percent are using mobile marketing presently, 62 percent hope to use the tool within the next five years.
Retailers are making mobile marketing a priority. From La Citta Vita.
“It was impressive to learn how many retailers are now focused on implementing the technologies to deliver unified commerce, but there is still a lot of work to be done to deliver these capabilities,” Walter Deacon, principal of Boston Retail Partners said in a release. “Delivering unified commerce requires seamless execution of the right strategy, technology, and business processes.”
So, what are the specifics? Some interesting takeaways:
- 95 percent of the responding retailers note that “customer engagement is one of their top three current initiatives.”
- A mere three percent of retailers are now able to identify customers upon store entry, but 72 percent of retailers plan to add that capability by the five-year mark. What does this mean for business? BusinessInsider notes that retailers are intent on using beacons to identify and market to consumers. “These devices communicate with consumers’ smartphones via a Bluetooth signal and are particularly suited to recognizing customers when they enter a store.”
- 81 percent already manage a customer database.
- 16 percent of retail stores currently gather real-time data from point-of-sale systems, yet 63 percent hope to do so within the next five years. As BusinessInsider points out, real-time point-of-sale systems let “retailers to make better use of analytics to adjust pricing and discounts on the fly.”
- 22 percent of retailers surveyed have already implemented real-time analytics, while 61 percent plan to do so within two years.
“To deliver the seamless experience, retailers need to gather, analyze and disseminate customer, product, pricing and inventory data in real-time,” Ken Morris, principal of Boston Retail Partners said in a release. “Leveraging technology, unified commerce provides the platform and real-time retail is key to delivering the experience. Retailers that successfully deliver unified commerce will understand and adopt a ‘unified’ approach for: strategic customer initiatives, technology, business processes and execution.”
Mobile technology’s role in retail has been on the rise. Mobile devices accounted for 16.6% of online sales, an increase from 11.4% in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to an IBM Corp. study; tablets accounted for 11.5% of those sales compared with 5% from smartphones, reported the Los Angeles Times earlier this year. What can customers expect? Digital coupons, store-specific apps, and even encouragement: one app, ShopBeacon, allows retailers to offer app users discounts on products the user has “lingered near” in a store.