What customers really want

With customers’ expectations sky-high, the pressure is on retailers to deliver an innovative shopping experience. A new survey reveals where they should start.

Lower prices, better service, more convenience, and tailored products, services and offers. Consumers are a demanding group. Far more demanding, in fact, than many retailers appreciate. A new survey from TNS UK reveals that customer expectations of how shopping could and should be are well ahead of retailers plans for their organisations. At the heart of customer demands is the idea that shopping should be a more integrated, multi-channel experience.

In practical terms, they want:

• More choice – not only in products and services, but also in how they engage with a retailer.
• More convenience – shoppers want to see investment in technology to make things quicker, easier and, of course, cheaper.
• More personalisation – in products, services, offers and customer interaction.
• More integration – customers who shop online simply don’t understand why retailers’ systems aren’t joined up to create a single ‘sign in’.

Exploring attitudes to technology

Says Dr Mark Dorgan, Fujitsu’s retail partner: “Retailers need to reconsider their attitude to the use of technology. Look at the success of self-scan check outs, for example. Until recently there was an idea that shoppers automatically preferred human interaction. In effect, retailers were thinking ‘how many staff can we take out of stores without upsetting the customers?’

Yet this is based on a misconception. In many situations, people would actually prefer to use technology to accomplish tasks. And, crucially, this is true not just for younger people, but for people of all ages – provided, of course, that the technology works well and that staff are available for the times when human interaction is required, like customer service problems.”

“In meeting the challenges that customers are setting them, retailers need to think about how they can use technology in the right way and in the right places to improve the customer experience.

Some retailers, for example, are already experimenting with zoning their stores to refl ect the customer task and the level of engagement required. This means that the simple, more automated activities are nearest the door, graduating through unaided browsing and fi nally to full customer support at the back.

The result is that people can shop as they choose and staff are freed to concentrate on really helping those customers who need it.”

Boosting loyalty among food shoppers

To show how retailers can use existing technology to deliver an improved customer experience, Fujitsu recently demonstrated two shopping scenarios at the UK’s largest retail trade show.

The ‘Store of the Future’ allowed retailers to walk through a supermarket and a department store and see how technology like biometrics, RFID and mobile devices could produce a much more personalised, satisfying experience and one that, crucially, would encourage shoppers to spend more.

Says Dorgan: “Imagine you stop at your local supermarket to pick up dinner. You could have your fi ngerprint scanned on the way in and be given a set of tailored offers matched to your needs. Picking up an RFID-tagged product could trigger adverts promoting complementary products, while intelligent shelving could help you match ingredients – like fi nding the right wine to go with dinner. In-store kiosks linked to your web browsing could also help you shop for higher value items like electricals and then organise home delivery.”

Personalised clothes shopping

“In a department store, the potential to improve the shopping experience with self-service technology is similarly wide, particularly in an area like clothing where the purchasing decision is so complex. Again, biometric technology could identify a shopper, alerting staff on the shop fl oor if, for example, this was a high value customer that they should greet and offer assistance to.

Suppose that our shopper is looking for an outfi t for an important occasion. The ability to link display products with stock information and the ability to display complementary products could both increase sales and help convince a shopper that this is the right item of clothing for them.”

“Using existing technology, it’s perfectly possible for a store to RFID tag a pair of shoes so that, when they are picked up, a display shows which sizes are in stock.

And, in the fi tting room, mirrors can now double as touch screen displays so that, if an item doesn’t fi t, you can scan the barcode, request a different size and a sales assistant will be dispatched to retrieve it. Likewise, if the shopper is concerned about the colour or cut, the mirror can display other items that match the colour and style of item, making it easier to choose a tie for a shirt or match shoes to a pair of trousers.”

Realising this vision of the future is now within the grasp of most retailers, says Dorgan. “When the web fi rst took off, many retailers opened separate web operations.

As internet sales rose, organisations found that these parallel organisations could not always offer a brand experience consistent and integrated with the traditional in-store offer. Retailers are now having to introduce integrated brand management, organisations and processes to support effective multi-channel retailing.

Not surprisingly, integrated technology is needed to support this. The good thing for retailers is that new technology is available in the form of Service Oriented Architecture to address these legacy problems cost-effectively.” In other words, it’s time for retailers to start helping shoppers to help themselves.