As the popular quote goes “Change is inevitable,” the retail industry has seen a series of ups and downs in the recent past. From the fall of conventional selling techniques to the rise of breakthrough ideas and retail innovation, the companies in the retail industry are leaving no stone unturned to identify new techniques of garnering popularity among customers. With the number of competitor brands on the rise, retail companies are left with no option but to identify and adapt to new business trends. Here are a few examples of popular retail innovation trends that have taken the retail industry by storm.
Amazon Prime
The world is going digital. Companies are competing with one another to own top-notch technology that would give them an edge over their competitors. With e-commerce sales being predicted to grow exponentially, there is no looking back for e-commerce companies like Amazon. Amazon Prime members are entitled to special services such as shorter delivery time, easy tracking of order (using an app similar to Uber cab arrival), attractive discounts for prime customers, etc. Amazon is implementing many such business trends into their business model to enhance its customer experience.
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Blockchain
For those unacquainted with this term, blockchain is the foundation of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. With the help of blockchain, data can be structured and a digital ledger can be shared by competitors across a network of computers without regulation from any central authority. Blockchain is being adopted as a retail innovation to track the products from the manufacturing stage to the end-user, provide product warranty information to customers through a cloud network, trade promotion management, etc.
Mobile Click-And-Collect
Click and collect refers to a mechanism, whereby, the customer purchases the product online but collects the product from the retail store. Many retailers are experimenting with this retail innovation, which helps companies to deliver products easily to customers and also saves them the effort and time required to go to the store and make the purchase.
Real-Time Analytics
Real-time analytics is mainly concerned with giving the customers a personalized experience through the customer data collected. With new and varied types of business and customer data available to retailers, employing them into various retail innovations and business trends should not be a difficult task for the business.
Mobile Payments
Don’t you get annoyed when you have to wait for a long time in the billing counters while the card machine processes the transaction and gives you a receipt? Many retailers have identified this gap, and hence the breakthrough retail innovation of mobile payments has garnered popularity in retail. Many retailers have switched to cloud-based POS systems, making payments simpler and faster for them and the customers.