Chris Suff of Tyco Retail Solutions talks to us about new online prospects in the offline retail market. He believes that “brick-and-mortar retail has been online for a while“– thanks to the right technologies.
In the age of online shopping, experts have often predicted traditional retail to be on the verge of mass extinction. But then why are sales in this industry sector still increasing?
That’s primarily due to the shopping experience! Customers want to check out products and experience every facet of them through all of their senses. A customer wants to try on clothing and enjoy competent customer service. Online retail businesses are not able to offer all this or only to a very limited extent. What’s more, operators of established retail stores offer better digital options than most people might think. They use modern hardware and software to analyze customer activities and optimize their sales floors based on the collected data.
They unburden their sales associates by using smart retail security and inventory solutions and enable them to fully focus on their core competence – serving the customer! Innovative cloud-based solutions assist in this endeavor, ranging from cross-location data analytics all the way to remote services for retail security systems.
Does this mean that the offline sector is catching up?
Let me put it this way, brick-and-mortar retail has been online for a while. The sector puts its strengths to work and continues to expand and grow with modern concepts. One example is the checkout area: the payment process is one of the key risk factors in retail – both online and offline. This is where brand-new ideas for retail stores come into play. The customer of the future no longer pays at the cash register but instantly and conveniently via mobile phone after he/she makes the purchase decision. The customer himself is then able to deactivate or remove the security tag at a new self-checkout station – and wear the new piece of clothing immediately. Another example is inventory.
What other solutions were this year’s EuroCIS visitors able to experience at your booth?
This year, Tyco Retail Solutions showcased a new generation of intelligent article surveillance labels or new sensors and analytics tools for tracking and analyzing customer footfall. And the brand-new Sensormatic Global Shrink Index. In this study, which will be published for the first time in 2018, we systematically study and get to the bottom of the extent, distribution, and causes of retail shrinkage. It lets retailers find structured empirical data– as a foundation for informed decision-making.
