Canadian Retailer - Store 2013 - 80

MYSTORE RETAILER'S GUIDE VOL. 9.4: MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

Combat showrooming

Narrow the selection

More and more, customers are comparison
shopping on their phones inside the store. Tablets can help retailers bring showrooming out
of the dark by allowing associates to call up online resources so the associate and the customer can look at it together. When they’re looking
at it together, the associate can speak about the
advantages of buying in-store. “You want customers to do the comparisons in the store and
come to the conclusion that they should buy it
in-the-store, based on whatever incentives you
can offer them,” says Napier.

At the same time retailers can offer endless
aisles with tablets, they can also use the tablet
to narrow the selection. At Sport Chek, associates use the tablet to help determine which of
the 700 styles of shoe works best for the customer based on a series of questions they ask
them. The tablet is a compendium of product
information: questions associates can’t answer
from memory, they can likely find answers on
the tablet.

HOW HAVE TABLETS CHANGED RESTAURANTS?
Restaurants have been quickest to capitalize on tablets and the
operational efficiencies they create.
“Tablets have changed the restaurant experience dramatically,”
says Alex Barrotti, CEO of TouchBistro, a company supplying tablet computers to restaurants. With tablets, servers can
send orders to the kitchen without disengaging from a table to
punch orders into the server station. Restaurants cycle more
customers through more tables each night.
Barrotti says he’s seen other efficiencies. Some restaurants have
saved two hours each night during the cash-out. “Before they
had everything in a separate system and they had to consolidate.
Now they use the same system for everything,” says Barrotti.
The other benefit: lower hardware and installation costs. Barrotti says he’s seen restaurants download and configure apps
and create their own inventories and menus without ever
contacting TouchBistro—a big change from systems that rely
on the vendor. “Not only does the system cost thousands less,
if they have the aptitude, they’ll spend thousands less on the
install,” says Barrotti.
And there is a change with the hardware costs, too. “If you break
your point of sale, you have to call the vendor and they have
to see if that model is in stock,” says Barrotti. “With consumergrade products, you can replace hardware quickly and easily.”

Maintain customer contact

What’s more annoying than having to wait
while a sales associate crosses the store to look
up a price at the cash desk? Tablets that are
wi-fi enabled and loaded with a scanner and
check-out software means that associates can
do anything the cash register can, without having to pause the sales conversation.
Create endless aisles

No longer are retailers limited by shelf space.
By tying into a store’s e-commerce site, tablet
computers allow associates to offer customers more product than fits in the store. “This
is where we see significant potential to generate revenue,” says Reid. “If we don’t have the
customer’s size or colour, we can go onto our
e-commerce site, order it and have it delivered
to the customer’s house.”

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Maintain the impulse buy

The two minutes a customer has to wait in
line for a cash register might be enough time
for them to change their mind about a purchase. Because tablets are mobile cash desks,
they help associates to close sales quickly.
“You can swipe the credit card while the excitement is really high. That’s the Apple store
magic that a lot of retailers are looking for,”
says Dasilva.
Communicate with employees

The tablet can replace the spiral bound notebook. Store owners can send their expectations
to the employees through the device, post work
schedules, shift changes and job tasks. Similarly, employees can communicate with store
owners, take pictures to send to managers and
alert others to important issues.
Bring multimedia excitement to the sale

With tablets, associates can display videos and reviews that can help close the sale.
Rather than talking about what a flower will
look like in the spring, show them a high
resolution photograph. Rather than trying
to explain in words how a new bike tire cuts
through puddles, they can play the vendor’s
video. They can show customers film reviews,
author interviews and every other bell and
whistle that will make them want to make the
purchase in the store. And there is the opportunity to use tablets as promotional displays
and kiosks.
Update employee knowledge

The tablet can be a quick and easy way to
educate employees about the latest product
knowledge. By bookmarking certain webpages
or letting employees use tablets to take an online sales training class, store owners can help
their employees know what they need to know
to make the sale.

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Canadian Retailer - Store 2013

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