After the last few years, the retail industry has transformed completely. And it will never be the same again!
Not only the pandemic but the rise of social media and also the spread of e-commerce has impacted the retail industry to a great extent.
It is rightly said by John Chambers, “ at least 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years, if they don’t figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies”.
If the businesses really want to sustain, then it's NOW or NEVER.
We have a list of five smartest retail solutions that will help you grow your business in the right direction. Let’s see what’s in store for the retail industry in 2022.
#1 Omnichannel Retail
This smart trend offers the perfect blend between digital and physical experience of shopping. To enhance the experience of the customers, retailers have started integrating what nowadays is called “Omnichannel customer profiles”.
This trend offers flexibility in the buying journey by letting the customers save or add their favorite products on the smart shopping basket.
Not only this, but the omni channel customer profiles can be accessed by the sales associate and the customers at any point. This will increase the opportunity for the associate to close a sale and to also create a better understanding of the customers.
#2 Cashier Free Shopping
The biggest example of this prevailing trend is Amazon Go, it's been in buzz since the day of its launch. These stores use sensors and cameras to track the activities of the shoppers and bill them automatically when they leave the store.
During the initial time, this new concept was first practiced on small stores, but after the successful practice, it was rolled out into full-sized markets.
#3 Visual Search
Visual search is an intrinsic way to make the shopping experience simpler and faster.
With the visual search or image-based search, customers can look for multiple products or even a single product using that image instead of typing keywords.
Visual search uses screenshots, photos or even social media images as the basis for the search and product discovery. All they have to do is, upload the choice of image and the rest will be taken care of by the visual search engine.
#4 Prevailing of Mixed Reality
This new trend believes in “try-before-you-buy”.
It's the era of mixed reality. AR and VR have already made their impact in almost every industry and now the future of retail is also in their hands.
Users can review furniture and products or even try on virtual clothes for an enhanced shopping experience. This technology has even intrigued the retailers and designers to use VR to conduct runway shows digitally.
Did you know that a retailer named Kohl’s collaborated with Snapchat to actually create an AR visual closet for his brand.
#5 Efficiency And Transparency Of Supply Chain
This new trend will have a ripple effect and will not only affect the customers but also the suppliers.
For more transparency and security, the concept of Blockchain will be inculcated across the supply chains. This will provide real-time and tamper-proof records for the entire journey of the product.
The addition of blocks into the supply chain will improve the traceability and the transparency of the entire product cycle.
And as for efficiency, the focus will remain on employing self driven vehicles and also on airborne drones. This will surely ramp up the speed to the next level.
Considering all the above mentioned smart retail solutions, the future is surely changing at an incredible pace and the businesses are required to adapt to these changes now more than ever.
Investing in the right retail solution will help you stay from the competition and to also enhance the customer experience.
