In the new world of shopping, many customers are discontent with retail stores. In a recent PSFK study of general shoppers, 71% were moderately or not at all impressed by their retail experiences. It appears as if these stores need technological upgrades to entice and engage their consumers.
In this week’s video, Piers Fawkes, founder of PSFK and Retail Innovation Week, facilitates a conversation about the future of retail store automation. First, Scott Lachut, President of Research and Strategies at PSFK, and Lauren Lyons, Senior Strategist at PSFK, discuss retail innovations. They mention trends such as targeted displays that personalize in-store advertisements and self-sampling machines that enable customers to register intent through a touchscreen or mobile device to receive a free trial. Next, retail experts Scott Finlow, Global Chief Marketing Officer at Pepsico Foodservice and Edith Väli, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Cleveron, discuss how to bring these trends to life. They cite building omnichannel pathways, high volumes of orders and returns, and small workforces as significant obstacles to updating retail technology.
This video can also be applied to the future of marketing. Innovations such as self-sampling machines require that consumers voluntarily provide stores with personal information: name, gender, addresses, and purchasing preferences. What’s stopping stores from designing hyper-personalized advertisements or upselling campaigns with this information? In this way, retail innovations directly connect to advancements in marketing. How else will impending changes in retail affect the marketing world?