Retailers have been facing an uphill battle against eCommerce companies in trying to grab the attention of consumers. All the major retailers today have websites that meet the responsive design standards and have even built mobile apps in an effort to retain their existing customers.
So, what is the next step? Is there anything else that retailers can do to attract people and convert shop visitors into customers?
The challenge to retailers is undoubtedly complex and involves several factors. One of the biggest is to convert shop visitors who do comparison shopping and then go buy items on eCommerce sites and turn them into customers.
Softweb Solutions’ Smart Retail Solution is one such answer to this issue. This proximity marketing solution is aimed at retailers who want to engage their target audience with personalized messages and offers. The hardware part is composed of sensors, beacons and cloud-based technologies which are managed in the backend by a web admin. The consumers have to download a mobile application provided by the retailer.
The integration of Microsoft Azure IoT makes Softweb Smart Retail a full-fledged, automated, data intensive marketing solution for any brick and mortar establishment that has a huge footfall. Let’s look at the key features of Smart Retail.
Customer groups
The admin can create customer groups based on the visitors’ behaviors, interests, context, and location in order to deliver the right message to the right person. This type of segmentation of customers gives a clear idea of what a particular customer is interested in. The best part is that the admin does not have to be a coder or require technical knowledge to create these groups since Smart Retail does this by itself.
You can create as many tags as you want for each customer based on number of visits, loyalty points, purchase history, etc. By assigning tags to each of them, the system knows which customer has walked into the store or passed through a geofence.
Interactive media campaigns
This feature lets you deliver customized and interactive media content directly to user devices. It helps in increasing the user curiosity, and automate marketing with personalized as well as scheduled campaigns. A simple interface allows you to create customized campaigns for all the Groups that you have created. This is useful for sending appropriate communication to customers at key points. A first time visitor would get a different message than someone who has been to the store a few times. If the visitor spends a predefined amount of time near a section (set by the admin) then she will get a message about a discount on items in that section. E.g. Buy a pair of shoes in the next 30 minutes and get 10% off.
This way a window shopper can be converted into a customer. This feature can also help retain customers. By identifying and storing the customer’s favorite features and patterns, a more detailed profile can be built up over time.
Virtual zones
Smart Retail also gives you the ability to create V-Zone (geofences), which works on GPS, to target your customers at the street level or when they are near competitor locations. The moment a customer passes a V-Zone, Smart Retail takes an instant decision on what to do next, based on the customer’s Group. The admin can decide what action to take when a user enters or leaves a virtual zone. The range of the zone can be from a few meters to a few hundred meters.
The system can also support as many beacons and sensors as needed which can be deactivated or reactivated whenever needed.
Indoor navigation
Indoor navigation helps shoppers find the precise location of the product that they want or the place they want to visit inside a building. Our Smart Retail solution provides highly accurate maps of customer locations within the establishment. The navigation and routing is based on 3D maps.
Insights
All the data in the world is useless without access to the right analytic tools. Smart Retail’s comprehensive analysis gives you clear insights into your campaigns. You can measure the time customers spend in specific areas by getting heat maps, frequency of customer visits through footfall figures and the success rate of each campaign.
Real-time conversations
With Softweb Smart Retail, you can establish a customer dialog, involve them in your campaigns, and enable them to engage in conversations. Customers can directly ask you questions and give suggestions using their smartphones.
Facial recognition and machine learning
Source: https://www.wsj.com
With this newest capability of Smart Retail, stores can finally deliver the right offer to the right customer. It reduces the need for additional sales staff as it acts as an e-concierge, taking care of the customer’s needs, and eliminating any intrusive experience.
For this feature to work, stores need to install a kiosk that has an interactive digital display, and a camera. The display needs to be placed near the entrance. As the customer interacts with the kiosk, the camera will capture the face and the system will determine the gender and the age of the customer.
With preconfigured tags programmed in the Smart Retail platform, the system will match the most appropriate tags for the particular customer, and display the most relevant offer on screen. If the
customer is satisfied with the offer, he or she can avail the offer. In case the offer is not appropriate, the customer can click no to generate another offer.
The machine learning capability built into the system means that it will keep getting smarter over time.
Get started with Smart Retail
Our Smart Retail solution helps you offer personalized experiences to your store visitors. Get in touch with us to know more about its benefits, detailed use cases, and technical capabilities.
