Retailers to Find Mobile Lump of Coal in Their Holiday Stockings
Retailers that didn't make mobile point of sale (mPOS) part of their retail technology upgrades this year may be leaving billions of dollars on the table this holiday season. A recent whitepaper from Brickstream, a retail behavior intelligence and analytics solutions provider, reviewed the impact that checkout line wait times have on customers’ perceptions of service. According to Brickstream, "… one-third of customers reported that they abandoned a checkout line when they were forced to wait more than five minutes; customers typically become frustrated by waiting in line, if forced to wait longer than two-and-a-half minutes."
With retail's biggest season upon us, many companies are missing an opportunity to improve customer-to-brand interaction at the checkout line. mPOS, in its simplest form, offers retailers the opportunity to "line bust" by letting mobile-device-equipped sales associates assist with the impending flood at the checkout counter. Not only can mPOS devices improve customer brand perception by quickly serving frustrated customers, it often saves the sale when a customer would rather walk out the door than wait in line to purchase their item. To retailers that spend millions of dollars on marketing and advertising over the holidays to get consumers into their stores, the prospect of having those shoppers walk out without making a purchase is a painful loss.
More advanced mPOS devices deliver capabilities well beyond saving potential lost revenues. Leading retailers that deploy advanced mPOS solutions transform the customer experience with clienteling features like endless aisle and recommendation-enhanced shopping. Analysts rank transforming the customer experience as the primary foundational pillar for retailers. In a September 2014 report, Forrester Research analysts Peter Sheldon and Lily Varon point out that, "in the age of the customer, brands seek a unified experience between the six stages of the customer life cycle (discover, explore, buy, use, ask and engage)."
The Endless Aisle
Endless aisle features make it easy for sales associates to access off-site inventory from other retail locations or the e-commerce distribution channel. For example, when a shopper is looking for a size, color or other product attribute not available on-site, associates can select the item from the company's e-commerce site and have it shipped to the customer.
A June 2014 report from Forrester Research reveals, "Perry Ellis experienced a 14 percent lift in average order volume once it implemented ‘endless aisle’ capabilities in-store." This 14 percent increase in average order volume could translate into billions of dollars of increased revenue for major retailers this holiday season. And for smaller retailers, a 14 percent shift can translate into a significant improvement for their business because the profit margin of all incremental sales is drastically higher as the majority of operational costs are fixed.
The latest mPOS deployments include integrated recommendation engines that suggest products based on items the customer has already purchased. With recommendation shopping, sales associates can easily upsell or assist shoppers in finding complementary items to what they have in hand. Though cashiers often ask customers if they found everything they need, the nature of a stationary cash register doesn't lend itself to assisting the customer if they really want help finding additional items.
Adding the ability to recommend items enhances the clienteling aspects of transforming the customer experience. This approach changes shoppers’ perceptions of sales associates into one of a resource rather than a burden. Armed with a mobile recommendation engine, sales associates can approach shoppers with a helpful "let's take a look at products other shoppers choose" approach as opposed to the standard, and awkward, "can I help you find anything?" The result is happier shoppers, more empowered sales associates and increased average order value.
Advanced mPOS solutions also offer the ability to process mixed in-store and ship-to transactions, making them appear as a single transaction for the customer, but ensuring on the back end that each disparate system receives the information and workflow needed. This smarter, advanced approach streamlines the buying process and minimizes confusion for consumers and sales associates alike. It also increases efficiency and checkout rates by taking what can typically be a 15-minute to 20-minute process on two systems (kiosk and POS) and turning it into a single transaction that can be performed in under two minutes.
This year was one of missed opportunity for retailers. They were slow to adopt and are too late to deploy mPOS this year, but should push it to the top of their lists for higher revenues, fuller stockings (i.e., increased profits) and happier customers in 2015.
Mike Montrose is the vice president of marketing and sales and UniteU, an e-commerce platform that provides integrated commerce, mobile commerce and PCI compliance in a SaaS model.
