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Taking a mobile-first approach to personalizing the retail experience can create a community of customers who are better informed, more engaged, and most importantly, have more fun.
When it comes to the current state of retail sales, one particular Bob Dylan song describes it best: Times are a-changin’.
This is because shopper expectations have evolved following pandemic-driven shifts towards digital-centric environments. Advances in the proliferation of e-commerce have fused new levels of personalization and convenience into the buyer’s journey. Above all, your current and potential customers increasingly expect a comprehensive shopping experience optimized for their device of choice: the smartphone.
Over the past decade, we have witnessed how smartphones have gone from being a luxury device to a staple of society. This rapid adoption has changed the way shoppers interact with brands. Whether through social media channels, mobile commerce, the smartphone is a powerful tool that serves as a one-stop-shop for the digital-centric customer.
And the best part? The future is full of opportunities. The impact of smartphones on retail sales has only scratched the surface.
Starting with the staff
Providing customers with personalized experiences is the name of the game in retail. And that mindset can be applied to the employee experience, too. Empowering sales reps with sales enablement tools that inject personalization into the learning and coaching process directly translates to more effective buyer engagement.
With mobile technology, sales reps can complete customized training courses, from anywhere, at any time, tailored to their unique learning needs. Those traditional retail training frameworks where reps are stuck in a back room watching how-to videos just aren’t effective. They are static and offer no actionable guidance.
By adopting sales enablement tools that are optimized for smartphone compatibility, retailers can create carousels of different training tips in the form of quick videos, short blocks of text, and gamified quizzes that can be accessed on any mobile device. . The increased level of accessibility and customization allows reps to take advantage of just-in-time microlearning, adaptive learning paths, and continuous everboarding to improve their performance.
Oh, and it’s also more fun!
Leveraging this targeted approach to employee empowerment creates a unified front of skilled workers operating in unison. Like a well-oiled machine, they have access to timely and relevant information in real time from the palm of their hand. The end result is excellent customer-focused sales teams at multiple store locations. Red tape is eliminated and employees have the information they need, when they need it, on a device that works best for them.
Bringing products to life
Retail shoppers have also become more tech-savvy. Smartphones allow retailers to transform physical showrooms into immersive and interactive digital experiences. Augmented reality (AR), for example, gives customers a 360-degree view of a particular product that can be customized to any style or color.
Want to see if a particular chair matches your dining table? Easy. Or what would the painting look like on your wall? Done. All on a mobile device without even entering a store. It takes the stress out of purchasing decisions and, frankly, makes shopping more enjoyable.
Beyond AR, virtual reality (VR) also aligns prospects with digital-focused selling environments. They can interact with products in real-life simulations that mirror the in-person experience. Since everyone learns in different ways, providing potential customers with sights, sounds, and actions of how a product works enables them to make smart buying decisions.
The future is now
Now more than ever, retailers have the ability to increase their shopper engagement and deliver impactful experiences for retail customers. Sales associates are now the curators of personalization, while buyers can explore beyond the physical shelf.
Smartphones are becoming a basic tool for the way we interact with the world around us. Taking a mobile-centric approach to personalizing the retail experience can create a community of sales reps and customers who are better informed, more engaged, and most importantly, have more fun.