Fresh Ideas in Enterprise Mobility: 4 Ways to mobilize store operations

We are so consumed by the hyperconnected world we live in today, it’s hard to believe that it wasn’t that long ago when things were very different. Just over five years ago the iPhone shipped – an event which ultimately led to mass adoption of smartphones and the transformation of our lives. At that time, no one understood how revolutionary this would prove to be for our personal and business lives. One industry in particular that has continued to see interesting and unpredictable change: Retail.

Mobile and eCommerce have changed the retail landscape, with new opportunities that traditional brick-and-mortar retailers can use to take advantage of the valuable (and expensive) real estate and human capital they employ.  The new opportunities are a direct result of changes in shopper behavior and expectations in a physical retail store.

Today’s consumer enters the retail store equipped with access to nearly unlimited information, new and innovative shopping tools and eCommerce websites, all enabled by smartphones and tablets with internet access. Today’s consumer is also far more demanding, with an ever-growing number of players vying for a share of her wallet.  A positive and differentiated in-store retail experience becomes ever more important to ensure that you can maximize the total lifetime value of the shopper.

Consider the retail opportunities in these common scenarios, which you may have experienced recently during this busy holiday shopping season:

• One common frustration we experience is going to a store to purchase a product and finding it is not available – it might be simply sold out or not the right color or size. We then approach a store associate to see if they have the item we are looking for in the back room.  In a few stores, the associate will be able to scan the shelf and tell you on the spot if the product is in the back room or located at a nearby store.  Unfortunately, in most cases, your frustration grows as the associate has to go to the back room to check for the item, leaving you to wonder if they are ever going to return – or, in the worst case, they simply cannot tell you. Equipping the store staff with instant access to inventory information improves the shopping experience for you even if the product is out of stock, as the associate has been able to provide you that information on the spot.

• We all expect retailers to be experts in the products they sell and use the shopping experience to get educated and guide our purchasing decisions. The human interaction generated as a result is an advantage over online competitors.  When you can get a knowledgeable associate to answer your questions, it leads to an excellent shopping experience thereby making it likely that you would shop with that retailer again. Otherwise it would be very wearisome and might make you think twice about coming back to that store. Often the challenge is not that a knowledgeable associate isn’t available in the store – rather it’s that you cannot find them.  We’ve all been through the experience where we find the first associate wearing the uniform and ask for help, and then they have to go find someone else for that department.  If they actually find the right person, it takes several minutes – or you might end up with a store manager. In either situation you had to wait and didn’t have a pleasant shopping experience. What if the associate could instantly communicate with others in the store, directly getting the right person for the job and providing the immediate gratification we seek as shoppers? Mobile communication can be a critical tool to enable instant communication between store associates from anywhere within the store, just at a push of a button.  By enabling mobile communications and un-tethering them from desks and wired phones you could even potentially free up store associates and managers to spend more time on the store floor in front of customers.

• The same situation applies when we call a store – how often do we end up on hold as the knowledgeable associate that can answer your question is called up from the store floor to a wall or desk phone.  What if you could call the store and get transferred directly to the associate anywhere in the store? As a customer, you are immediately helped and may even talk to the same associate you’re going to meet in-person when you get to the store.  It is hard to argue this provides a top-notch and complete shopping experience.

• In today’s world, we expect to get an amazing amount of information about the products we purchase – the challenge is only so much information can be put on a package. As shoppers with a thirst for information and reviews, we rely on store associates and our smartphone. Again, here is an amazing opportunity for the customer to interact with store employees – they can listen to shopper questions and provide them with the best solution for their needs, and they have the chance to up-sell or cross-sell. Unfortunately with high employee turnover rates, it is not uncommon to run into a store associate that is inexperienced and simply cannot provide help.  With the right assisted selling toolset or access to detailed product information and review, even employees without firsthand experience or extensive training on the products can provide a memorable shopping experience to customers.Without such selling toolsets, shoppers have just another reason to go to the Internet, which could lead to a competitor’s mobile commerce website.

These four opportunities have one thing in common – a mobile-enabled workforce. The information and systems, although still evolving, are already in place, ready to be taken advantage of. The in-store staff is eager to help shoppers. The missing piece is enabling the store associates to access the information or communicate from anywhere in the store.

Motorola Solutions provides an extensive portfolio of enterprise-grade mobile devices that allow retailers to equip the store associate with the right device to fit these needs and transform the retail experience.

Nathan Rowe is the Director of Enterprise Solutions in the Global Services and Solutions group at Motorola Solutions.

Source: Motorola (http://goo.gl/FzEttI)