With advancements in technology and lifestyles becoming more mobile, retailers and channel partners must continue to adapt accordingly if they are to stay successful and competitive in what NCR refers to as “the store of the future.”
Tim Dickey, retail technology specialist at NCR, a global technology company that focuses on helping large consumer-facing organizations interact and transact with customers, explains that factors such as technology and the Web have sparked a new way of doing business between retailers and consumers.
Dickey said that to a certain degree, we’re now experiencing and shopping in the store of the future. Times have changed for consumers, from once having to drive to the store to make purchases, to now being able to conduct some of those same transactions through the Web, self-service kiosks and checkouts, mobile devices and ATMs.
“To a certain degree, we’re now living in the age of the store of the future with things like kiosks, digital signs and the Internet and other technology touch-points at our fingertips,” he explained. “In the past, retailers would dictate how they’d interact with consumers, but now, consumers have a lot more choice and the retail environment is now a consumer-driven model.”
David Jacobson, director of emerging technologies in Canada at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in a previous interview with CDN that consumers have evolved into a new profile, which PwC refers to as “selfsumers.”
“What’s happened is the consumer has evolved into this new type of person, the selfsumer,” Jacobson said. “The selfsumer is connected and is able to communicate anywhere and at any time of the day and can participate by making a phone call, chatting, or surfing the Web. With devices being connected at high speeds, selfsumers can surf the Web and can participate in discussions (about products) on social networking sites.”
As a result, retailers are now faced with many types of channels of interaction with their customers, which often leads to complexities in the business and communication fronts. Channel partners who work in the retail space need to act as trusted advisors and consultants with their retail customers, Dickey explained.
Jacobson said that in order for channel partners to stay successful in this area, they must understand how to adapt to selfsumer needs.
“With any sort of implementation, it generally all comes down to laying out a roadmap,” Dickey said. “Partners should help their customers figure out which channels work best for them to interact with consumers and to pass on promotional offers to them. It’s all about providing a choice to consumers in stores to let them deal with the retailer the way they want to deal with them.”
Whether retailers choose to interact with customers in the store, through the Web with social networking sites, or even through mobile devices, the channel can play a role in all of these areas, Dickey explains.
NCR partners can take advantage of solutions such as the company’s Advanced Marketing Solution, which is a software solution that helps drive customer loyalty by creating and managing customer-specific promotions and incentives.
If hardware is what partners are looking to sell in addition to software, they’ll see an abundance of opportunity on the self-service hardware side of things too, Dickey added.
“Resellers have gotten more interested in self-service and are asking more questions about this now,” he said. “There are also opportunities for resellers at the point of sale with kiosks and self-checkouts.”
For partners who are looking for a green solution offering for their retail customers, Dickey said NCR has its NCR 2ST (Two-Sided Thermal Printing) solution. This lets retailers at the point of sale, print on both sides of the receipt so less paper is used. Partners can also add additional value around 2ST by helping customers customize their printing jobs, by printing special promotions on the back of the receipt that cater to different types of customers, Dickey added.
