The third installment of the “From Idea to Doorstep” blog series takes a look at what retailers and brands should focus on to optimize the in-store experience.

Brick & mortar retailers need to re-invent themselves and turn their physical presence into a competitive advantage, not a liability.   But this is happening too slowly.   Just this year, several major retailers have announced store closings and bankruptcies or declining store sales. At the same time, online and other non-store sales are thriving and expected to grow 8-12 percent in 2017. This doesn’t mean that brick and mortar retail is a dying breed, however, it does signal a need to create more engaging shopping environments that infuse digital into the physical store.

New digital and mobile in-store technologies enable retailers to bridge online and in-store shopping experiences and help retailers optimize efficiencies, bring down operational costs and empower associates to provide better and more personalized customer assistance. But, many retailers struggle to identify where to start, the resources needed, and the technologies to best support the effort.

Guest post by Bill Zujewski
EVP Marketing, Tulip Retail

At Tulip Retail, we believe that the greatest, untapped resource for in-store transformation are the front-line workers interacting and engaging with customers. 2017 has become a pivotal year as retailers invest heavily in mobile technology to drive an in-store transformation and to leapfrog to a best-in-class customer shopping experience. Effective next generation in-store mobile solutions for store associates must be:

• Omni-channel capable – Powering a seamless path-to-purchase across channels.

• Personalized – Providing information and tools for associates to treat customers uniquely based on their preferences and history delivering a more intimate, delightful and memorable experience.

• Relationship-centric – Focused on building lasting relationships with customers.

• Data- and analytics-driven – Taking advantage of data and analytics to make better decisions.

• Automated – Delivering automatic creation of recommendations, promotions, follow-ups and employee tasks based on data.

• Intelligent – Using AI (artificial Intelligence) to power recommendation engines, robot advisors and virtual selling agents.

• Mobile-first – Designed and purpose-built for mobile devices with beautiful easy-to-use interfaces that offer rich-media to enhance the use experience.

• Cloud-first – Powered by low-cost and easy-to-maintain cloud computing

Next Generation Clienteling

Clienteling is relationship-building with key customers that takes into consideration information about their preferences, behaviors, and past purchases. Clienteling is what the best sales people have been doing for years. In the future, mobile associate apps in the hands of salespeople will be the foundation of clienteling. These apps will enable selling to be relationship-centric and automated and more advanced from today’s product-centric or sales-centric approaches.

In the future, all associates will be able to ask their customers questions about needs and wants and capture meticulous notes in their mobile apps to be better serve the customers. They will have access to product catalogs, key product information, inventory, product availability, customer preferences, order history, online browsing behavior, wish lists, and other content to ensure that they proactively present customers with timely offers, intelligent recommendations and accurate information that is highly valued.

Great salespeople will be proactively communicating with customers via phone, text, email and new emerging social apps. They will understand their customers’ wants and needs, be well-trained and informed and equipped to personally serve each customer the way they want to be served. Salespeople will understand the importance of relationships and will be motivated to delight customers but also sell and drive new business… all made possible by killer mobile apps.

In summary, retail is transforming rapidly to meet customer expectations and the role of the physical store is evolving to compete with online businesses. At the heart of this transformation, will be the empowerment of store associates and managers with the right mobile solutions.