Despite the rapid growth of eCommerce ($740 billion projected in 2023 in the U.S. alone), traditional retail continues to dominate. According to the Small Business Administration, the retail trade industry in the U.S. includes more than 2.6 million small businesses. So, if you’re thinking about starting a retail business, you will have many competitors.
It goes without saying that Black Friday is one of the most important days of the year for merchants. Last year online sales jumped to a record breaking $6.22 billion in the US alone and there’s no reason to expect that this year will see any slowdown.
Appearances are often misleading, and that has certainly been the case with the retail industry. Despite predictions of its demise, retail is here to stay. However, it is undergoing a profound transformation to meet shopper demand for a “frictionless, tech-driven and immersive” in-store experience, according to the RIS “Retail 2025 Shopper Study.”
Tracking and handling finances have become easier ever since mobile banking apps have been introduced. Imagine the struggle you had to face when managing the stack of bills to make payments each month. Common features of a mobile banking app allow viewing balance, previous records, account management, budgeting tools, and bill payments. They also offer fraud alerts to keep consumers aware of any cyberthreats. Most of these apps also provide credit score and also provide instant access to the account, from anywhere in the world.
A line of organic body lotion. A personalized baby onesie. A hand-knit hat. Any of these items seen online or in a store could be the brainchild of a motivated small business owner, fulfilling a life-long dream of bringing their own products to the masses.
With the growing competition in the industry, every organization is thriving to serve its customers to the best of their ability, and this is where the need of a good Salesforce implementation provider comes into play. Of course, this growing competition has led to a strong battleground being formed for competitive Salesforce solutions and its efficient implementations. So, if you are looking for the best Salesforce implementation providers for your growing business, look no further and read our list of some of the best Salesforce implementation providers in the industry.
Customers have come to expect a unified shopping experience across all channels forcing stores to connect the dots between their in-store and online operations. While not all omnichannel features are one-size-fits-all, BOPIS is an option shoppers are coming to expect from retailers. According to a survey from Internet Retailer and BizRate, 53% of shoppers plan to increase their use of buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) this year and by not giving your customers the choice, retailers could be losing sales.
From the moment the buy button is clicked through delivery to the shopper, everything that happens behind the scenes is orchestrated by the order management system (OMS). That’s why 45 percent of retailers report they plan to upgrade or implement a totally new OMS in the next two years. A new study conducted by RIS News uncovers the state of order management in today’s complex retail environments and other key findings.
For retailers, it is imperative to take a customer-centric viewpoint on the business. Current disparate systems, processes and organization must be transformed into one cohesive environment with the ability to offer customers a seamless shopping environment across all channels and the capability to deliver merchandise immediately – wherever it is needed. It is time to prepare for the future of retail – it is here – whether we are ready or not.
We are in the midst of a retail transformation. Consumer behavior and mobile technology have dramatically changed the traditional retail model and it’s not over yet. As upstart online retailers mature, their desire to connect to their customers in a more personal manner is evolving. However, the old adage of right product, right place, and right time is truer now than ever before. As a result, retailers are gathering more data that is being leveraged by financial plans, demand plans, assortment plans, and store plans. The importance of a fully integrated planning solution to analyze and utilize this data is key to ensuring retailers remain competitive in this rapidly changing landscape. An integrated planning solution eliminates silos, leverages the same data, streamlines decisions, and builds consensus.
In order to deliver the best cross-channel shopping experience, future-thinking retailers must go beyond buy online pick up in-store (BOPIS) and push the envelope with inventive new tactics.
And 6 Keys to Modern Customer Support That Can Help Businesses Tap Into Both.
Business owners continue to meet the current digital transformation challenges from time to time. Not only have the product releases been reduced from months to weeks and days, so have the quality standards increased. One of the most revolutionary trends of this era is the software testing tools in the software development process. However, a software testing company works on achieving digital excellence by using the top trends for this year.
High shopping cart abandonment rate is an unpleasant reality for many Ecomm businesses and there are numerous reasons why customers may change their mind half way through the purchasing process. Let’s have a look.
Do you look forward to or dread managing vendor-funded promotions in your retail business? They can be a great sales driver, but they also can be complicated and time-consuming to manage
As anticipated, the retail industry continued to evolve in 2018, with overall sales jumping close to 5%, online marketplaces grabbing a larger slice of the pie, and legacy brick-and- mortar retailers shifting more resources online. The industry is ripe for even more change in 2019. With eCommerce sales projected to reach $530.6 billion by 2020, retailers must continue to evolve to meet customer’s expectations.
As Founder and CEO of UJET, Inc., Anand Janefalkar has 15 years of experience in the technology industry and has served as a technical advisor for various startups in the Bay Area. Before to founding UJET, he served as Senior Engineering Manager at Jawbone, and also previously contributed to multiple high-profile projects at Motorola. Fadi ElTal is the head of Customer Support and Insights at Noon Home, and is behind the program’s overall launch strategy and bring up. These two recently spoke with Retail Operations Insights about customer experience, consumer loyalty, and the future of retail.
