As 2018 fades to a close, Retail Customer Experience reached out to industry watchers, customer experience experts and those in the know—in the trenches of customer experience technology, advancements and innovation—and asked them to share what they expect to come into play in 2019.
Here’s what they had to say:
In a blog post on what’s in and out in 2019, the National Retail Federation said it expects the physical retail space to undergo greater transformation with customer experience values such as transparency and sustainability playing a greater role. The industry organization also expects AI, robotics and personalization to take a front-and-center role.
Those predictions match up with what Retail Customer Experience readers were most interested in reading about in 2018 – the top 10 topics of interest included store design, automated retail, self-checkout and assisted selling.
Zynstra CEO and co-founder Nick East predicts advancing technology will further catalyze checkout options.
“With retailers already using ‘scan & go’ technology this holiday sales season, including Macy’s, Target and Walmart, seamless and innovative checkout procedures will surely become the new norm in 2019. Whether it be cashier-less checkout, ‘Scan-Bag-Go’, self-checkout, mobile checkout kiosks or mobile app payment, there will be a higher demand and adoption rate of alternative checkout options as retailers adapt their point-of-sale technology to meet customers’ changing demands and the new buying habits of shoppers in-store,” he told Retail Customer Experience in an email.
“With this implementation, store associates will also become more productive and empowered, building brand loyalty through higher levels of customer engagement in the aisles and will even have the potential to ‘upsell’ on popular items.”
He too believes the retail space will be a big focus with brick-and-mortar stores using their footprints more effectively.
“Next year, retailers with physical stores will become more creative with their use of space: For operational efficiency with stores being used as fulfilment centers for click & collect and home delivery; for cross-sell and upsell through use of added value partnerships and for more experiential shopping as retailers strive to make their stores more entertaining and engaging in order to drive the right experiences in store,” he said.
Amit Sharma, founder and CEO at Narvar and Chris Miller, vice president of logistics at Narvar, expected last-mile delivery to be a key focal point for retailers.
“Consumer expectations for conveniently timed delivery are continuing to skyrocket, forcing retailers to allocate more resources to innovations in last-mile delivery. As Amazon continues to experiment with last-mile delivery options like Amazon Key and delivery to the trunk of your car, retailers without Amazon’s wallet will have to think about how to innovate in the last-mile without allocating a ton of resources from the rest of their supply chain,” the leaders shared in an email.
“It’s become especially challenging to retain customers in this new era where convenience reigns supreme and retail has been somewhat commoditized. The returns experience is one area that continues to stand out as a potential advantage to gain consumer trust and loyalty,” added Sharma.
“The data speaks for itself — 96 percent of consumers would shop with a retailer again based on a positive returns experience. In this next year, expect the focus on post-purchase to intensify, as retailers are aware they can’t ignore this pivotal part of the shopping journey anymore. I expect retailers to overhaul their existing returns programs and offer proactive notifications about refund status and return tracking, as well as providing more flexible pickup and return options across all channels.”
Derek O’Carroll, CEO of Brightpearl, a retail ERP platform, predicts retailers will further embrace voice recognition technology and agrees with Narvar’s leaders on customers’ delivery expectations.
“Retailers are under increasing pressure to deliver. Customers have more options than ever to choose from and their expectations are continuing to soar. This means that 2019 will bring even more hurdles — as well as opportunities — for brands and businesses,” said O’Carroll in an email interview.
“2018 saw incremental increases in voice searching, and I believe we’re on the verge of full-scale search revolution that will happen over the next few years. There are a few strong motivating factors here, including the increased sophistication of voice-recognition systems. Microsoft’s voice recognition software now has an error rate of 5.1 percent, equaling that of its human counterparts. Ninety-five percent word recognition is actually the same threshold of accuracy as human speech (Google officially reached this threshold last year, to great excitement). This sheer accuracy of recognition is what will help voice search grow mainstream,” said O’Carroll.
Regarding delivery options, such as same-day, which is expected to be in play with 65 percent of retailers by the end of 2019, O’Carroll expects customer expectations to be a driving force in new advancements.
“We’ve certainly come a long way since 1995, when consumers, on average, thought an acceptable delivery time was nine days (yes, nine!). In 2018, it’s a mere 24 hours. And customer expectations are about to change again — same-day delivery will be the new normal within 18 months. However, 59 pecent of shoppers in the last year have experienced goods not arriving on time. If your business isn’t able to deliver on current delivery expectations, how are you supposed to cope when the timeline shortens again? You won’t,” he said.
Yet a good number of retailers still don’t have the needed systems in place to deliver on delivery expectations, he noted.
“This could be a major differentiator for retailers next year and many will have to innovate or fall further behind their competitors. Heading into 2019, those retailers who do step up and give serious thought to retooling how they invest and operate their supply chain are most likely to remain competitive.”