Understanding Retail 4.0 & The Digital Transformation

Retail 4.0: Join the digital transformation or get left in the retail cyber dust

What retailers need to know about digital and data technologies driving a new age of customer service and retail sales

Retail 4.0 is the term used to describe the digital transformation underway right now in the retail industry. Essentially, Retail 4.0 is the digitization of the physical shopping experience through the integration of new retail and data capture technologies.

That’s the textbook definition. But what Retail 4.0 really means for brands and retailers is a whole lot clearer. It’s about using technology to get products to customers in the most efficient, effective and personal manner possible. How well are companies doing it? A recent post at businessnewsdaily.com suggests there’s much room for improvement. The article sites a recent survey taken among marketing technology decisionmakers of retail companies that showed only 12% feel like they do a good job of delivering a personal customer experience. Not exactly impressive, is it?

Retail 4.0 technologies and meeting customers on their terms

Retail 4.0 adaptation has become a business necessity in a world where the customer has assumed greater control over the retail experience. Today’s customer demands an easy, instant, and uniquely personal shopping experience. For a retail business, this means finding new ways to manage inventory; fulfill products across all channels; provide fast and relevant information; train exceptional sales and service professionals; provide the right customer journey in stores and online; and streamline operations in order to manage all of these greater responsibilities in ways that optimize revenue and profit.

What Can The Right Retail 4.0 Solution Do?

A Retail 4.0 solution built to deliver on specific business goals is a digital game changer. The right solution will deliver insights and best practices that improve every aspect of sale by providing real-time visibility across retail operations.

• Store appearance and conditions
• Merchandising
• Online and physical channel integration
• Inventory management
• Customer engagement
• Marketing and promotions
• Employee performance

Maybe it’s time to find out how the right retail management software and technology can lead to  2-3 times faster issue resolution and increase sales by up to 50%?

Don’t wait. The retail industry sure isn’t.

The retail transformation is a direct result of the growing trend toward instant information, immediate and open access, personal service, and omnichannel fulfillment.

The industry shows no signs of slowing down, which is why Retail 4.0 is such a pressing issue for so many companies. New digital and data solutions help brands and retailers keep pace by allowing them to operate with a level of real-time visibility and transparency never before available.

Collecting retail data and intelligence, which was once an extremely costly and far less reliable endeavor, has become an affordable and incredibly accurate component of retail best practices. More importantly, it’s absolutely vital for any operation that wants to succeed at the forefront of the industry.

You’ve heard the old adage; the future is now. This isn’t a figure of speech in retail. It’s a matter of survival. A wait and see approach just won’t work in today’s retail environment, as detailed in an informative article posted by Total Retail.

So what can digital data really do?

Here are just a few ways brands and retail companies are using new technology to drive performance and increase sales.

Merchandising Compliance

Smart data solutions provide a real-time look at merchandising and store conditions. Using mobile devices, field teams capture data and photos instantly. This data is then distilled into customized reports that show companies how customers experience their products when they visit stores. Issues can be identified and resolved quickly and efficiently.

Inventory Management And Channel Alignment

In today’s world, retail companies must be prepared to fulfill across all retail channels. With more and more shoppers researching products online before making in store purchases, and others opting for home delivery or delivery to a select store location, managing inventory is a growing challenge. Retail 4.0 solutions provide real-time inventory and distribution management, so customers can always shop and purchase products how, when and wherever they like.

The Customer Experience

Customers want great service. They want someone available to answer their questions. They want a personal and convenient shopping experience. A retail solution might help a brand or retail business deliver better service by incorporating digital tools into training programs, or by using mobile devices to provide salespeople with instant access to FAQs and product details.

Sales, Market and Personnel Data

Imagine the advantages a retail business would enjoy if it could instantly understand individual location sales, product sales, customer traffic patterns, inventory updates, competitive intelligence, footfall traffic, weather and geographic impacts on sales, and employee performance. Today’s digital solutions provide actionable data and insights into these key retail areas, and many others, to help companies optimize end-to-end performance.

Retail 4.0 and COVID-19

Implementing a digital retail program is no longer a consideration. It’s a necessity. This has never been more apparent than now – as retail faces the substantial changes and difficult challenges brought on by the COVID-19 crisis. Brands and retailers that have digital strategies in place are in far better positions to adapt and adjust to unprecedented customer, channel and market conditions.

As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the advantages of integrating digital advancements and new intelligent data solutions into retail strategies promise to prove even more crucial to success, separating the new leaders from those left struggling with best practices and solutions that simply aren’t built for the future.

For more information on how technology and digital data solutions are driving the next generation of retail, visit www.mobileinsight.com.

Mobile Insight® is the only retail and merchandise management solution designed to meet the brick and mortar sales challenges of high-value brands and retailers. Unlike hardware and software providers that focus on fast-moving goods, the Mobile Insight® platform delivers assisted sales solutions for more complex, interactive, and customer-centric environments. Combining data from in-store systems, 3PLs, employee and partner activity, Mobile Insight® enables informed, smarter decisions that drive sales and operations excellence. For more information, visit www.mobileinsight.com.