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What’s In Store For Retail: The Connected Associate

By Ian Hutchinson, Samsung

Last year, Americans spent over
$513 billion on e-Commerce. That’s a sizable sum — but it’s pocket change
compared to the trillions spent inside stores. Online
shopping accounts for only 10% of retail in America, according to the U.S. Department of
Commerce.
In other words, even though we
can buy almost anything we want with just a few taps on our smartphones, more often
than not, most customers still enjoy shopping in person.

But that doesn’t mean brick-and-mortar
stores can bypass digital solutions — especially when it comes to delivering a
differentiating, high-quality in-store experience. Today, the most successful
traditional retailers are implementing digital strategies to enhance the best elements
of shopping within a store.

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Some stores are already using
digital touchscreens as interactive
shelves
, allowing customers to see products that
aren’t in stock, while others are encouraging shoppers to download and use their apps
while browsing
, allowing them to scan barcodes to
learn more about products. But perhaps the best way to fully leverage the
digital possibilities of today’s retail environment is by developing a truly
connected retail workforce.

Ensuring retail employees are
fully connected — both to each other, and to their customers — is essential in
a world where constant connection has raised customers’ expectations higher
than ever. For instance, greater connectivity lets retail sales employees not
only communicate better with each other, enabling faster, more accurate
communications within a store, but it can provide essential information to
every team member, helping them to become an on-demand expert in the process. Using
mobile technologies that are available today, here are two scenarios being put
into use today to consider:

  • The Connected Associate: Put simply, shoppers like buying from people
    who know what they’re selling. Using smartphones or tablets, salespeople and
    employees can now become connected
    associates
    — or experts on a given store topic or product. By equipping them with
    the right mobile device and application, today’s in-store associates now have
    solutions to gain real-time access to the information required to answer specific
    customer questions related to a product category. For instance, in home improvement
    stores, a sales associate can use their tablet to access information on toilets
    or gardening tools or lighting — enabling them to answer questions quickly and knowledgeably
    and present their expertise. This ultimately helps improve interactions and
    complete a sale.
  • The
    Connected Team:
    Of course, connecting
    associates to the information they need is only half the battle. The other half
    is connecting associates to their colleagues, creating connected teams. By leveraging mobile technology, employees can
    communicate in an instant through notifications and alerts, ensuring workflows
    move smoothly. For instance, after a customer checks into a restaurant on a
    smartphone, the host can be notified instantly on their smartwatch, so they can
    add the customer to the queue. Once that customer is seated, the host can send
    a notification to the rest of the team, and a waiter can respond to it, greeting
    the customer at their table. These are crucial digital tools within the
    physical world, and they’ve quickly become the norm when it comes to elevated
    service.

These technologies aren’t replacing
human interaction, they’re enhancing it — creating more relevant and
fruitful connections by offering an experience to customers that they could
only find by walking into a store.

To use these devices to their
fullest potential, however, retailers need to be mindful of two key issues: mobile device management and enterprise security.

In terms of mobile device
management, an arsenal of connected mobile devices isn’t much use if businesses
don’t have an easy way to manage and update them. Thankfully, there are several
digital solutions that allow businesses to simplify IT management and customize
devices to fit their unique needs — installing or removing applications over-the-air.
These solutions allow IT managers to remotely manage and control their company’s
entire fleet of devices through the cloud — restricting the use of a mobile or
wearable device to business-related apps.

Second, device security is imperative. That’s
why leading security platforms allow IT managers to send alerts or sound alarms
when devices are removed from the perimeter of a store. They’re also built with
lockdown capabilities, using geofencing to automatically disable devices when
they’re lost or stolen. In the worst-case scenario, IT managers can even wipe a
device remotely.

There’s no denying that digital platforms have
driven disruption in retail. But digital solutions have the potential to
transform brick-and-mortar outlets for the better, allowing retailers to more efficiently
serve their customers’ evolving needs and improve their bottom line. By
equipping teams with the right mobile tools — the smartphones, smartwatches and
tablets — retailers can create a truly connected sales force, and businesses
will be able to remain more competitive for years and thrive in the decades ahead.


Ian Hutchinson
leads 
Samsung’s Business
Development efforts for the retail vertical, with a focus on digital and
go-to-market strategies. He is passionate about enabling enterprises to move
the needle with their customers by applying unique technology solutions. Hutchinson
holds multiple U.S. and international patents in the field of interactive
spaces. When he is not helping retailers implement new technology solutions, he
is a lead facilitator in the Mobile Innovation Workshops
for Samsung enterprise customers.  

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