By Marc Appana, WebLinc
Technology can be a real differentiator for retailers — one that draws new customers to a brand and keeps the loyalists coming back.
Whether they’re browsing on a desktop, using a tablet while lying on the couch or walking into a store with smartphone in-hand, consumers are clearly addicted to their screens, making a great tech-enabled experience something that can set a brand apart.
While leading brands are experimenting with ways to stay ahead of their competition in the technology arms race, it’s critically important that they proceed cautiously and ensure that new features are introduced smoothly and operate as intended. If they don’t, a single bad experience can turn customers away and keep them away for good.
Advertisement
A recent visit to the mall, and specifically two of the most popular stores there — Apple and Sephora — were a good reminder of this tough reality for retailers. Both companies are known for their use of (and in Apple’s case, creation of) digital commerce technology, so it was surprising to find tech issues that were frustrating for customers and could have been easily avoided.
At Sephora, a big sale made for a crowded store, and the retailer’s typically elegant use of technology could have really saved some hassle. Sephora stores have a main checkout counter and now many stores also have mini checkout counters that use mobile point of sale systems (mPOS). This setup could disperse long lines at the main counter, as I’m sure was intended, but I waited for almost an hour in the checkout line.
In some respects, Sephora was a victim of its own tech success. The main challenge seemed to be driven by the store’s network congestion, causing the dreaded “spinning wheel of death” on the top of my iPhone screen, and on Sephora’s mPOS terminals, as well.
There are many things the retailer could have done to alleviate long wait times, such as offering pop-up coupons to their app users or loyalty points to their VIB’s as a way to make up for the longer-than-normal queue — but it’s always easier with hindsight. The simplest way to ensure minimal wait times with their current setup would have been to separate both networks — one for customer devices and one for company devices — or have a backup hard line.
Surprisingly, Apple is in a similar situation within its stores, where most times the traditional checkout line or counter is almost non-existent. Almost any blue shirt Apple store employee can check you out on the mPOS anywhere on the store floor. In fact, you never even have to speak to an employee if you don’t want to because Apple lets you self-checkout on the Apple store app on your own iPhone. It’s a huge convenience, in theory, but the actual implementation leaves a little to be desired. For some reason, you can’t buy multiple items at once. If you want to purchase more than one thing, you have to check out separately for each one of them.
Early on, during the infancy of the application, multiple item checkout might have been a novelty, especially with pricy goods of desire. But given the revolutionary retail standards set by Apple, a software update should have been a quick and simple fix, especially when retail reps are encouraging iPhone owners to use this method to checkout.
Like many things in life, digital commerce is about setting expectations. While Apple and Sephora deserve to be commended on their ability to push the tech envelope, in search of a quicker and more user driven checkout, they stumbled on delivering the complete experience.
While these were both very well-intentioned attempts to give tech-savvy customers what they want, a little more time and thoroughness before rolling them out or faster updates after rollout could have saved them from disappointing customers who are used to a great experience from these brands, but had to settle for a frustrating day at the mall.
Marc Appana has a long history of helping big brands plan and implement e-Commerce strategies. Before joining WebLinc, he spent five years with e-Commerce consultancy FitForCommerce, where he worked with marquee brands such as J. Crew, Steve Madden and Bed Bath & Beyond, and gained a deep understanding of the major e-Commerce platforms. Earlier in his career, he worked in various solution engineering, product management and marketing roles for a number of e-Commerce and e-Marketing solution providers.
