Retail brands depend on innovation to stay relevant in today’s economy. With so many online alternatives, it’s getting harder for brands to justify their brick-and-mortar expenses, but it’s critical not to lose sight of the benefits that physical locations provide. No website can create the kind of unique experience that a physical store provides.
Retailers today are turning to new technologies to amp up their in-store capabilities. They’re using technology to enhance the consumer experience, cut down on costs, and open up new capabilities when they throw brand activation events or launch new campaigns.
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Self-Service Kiosks
Technology has changed the way people shop. Innovations in self-service kiosks have allowed retail to lead the way in finding new productivity, and it’s an industry that’s been in dire need of a shakeup. Retailers continue to face unrelenting pressure from online competitors. Many retailers who have been most successful at fighting back competition from digital giants have nevertheless taken a bite out of their own brick-and-mortar business with successful online options.
The self-service kiosk is a game changer, significantly reducing the labor cost of processing transactions and even helping customers shop. The self-service kiosk can also be so much more than just a self-check-out, as some of the technologies below prove.
Lift-and-Learn Kiosks
The lift-and-learn kiosk is a staple of in-store campaigns. They can introduce new product launches to familiar consumers or give new customers a chance to learn more about your brand and your flagship products.
Lift-and-learn kiosks give people a chance to learn about products on their own terms – without feeling like they’re being pressured by a salesperson.
Virtual Assistants and AI Avatars
In only a couple of years, the power of AI has evolved at breakneck speed. For retailers, virtual assistants and AI avatars can be game changers. AI avatars are able to humanize digital conversations and bring conversational intelligence to digital interactions.
Digital interactions have been around for years now, but the chatbots of the past are notoriously robotic and often frustrating for people to actually use. AI avatars bring unprecedented intelligence to assist shoppers using digital kiosks, using language-learning models to provide more human and helpful responses.
Augmented Reality Mirrors
Augmented Reality mirrors have become the perfect solution for pop-up retail that needs to minimize space and storage usage. Augmented Reality has become a popular way to let consumers virtually try on clothes, glasses, fashion accessories, and more. AR mirrors bring that capacity into the physical space, allowing retailers to cut down on the inventory they need to have on the floor or at pop-up events.
Interactive Indoor Totems
The key to enhancing the in-store experience with digital technology is multi-purpose interactivity. Interactive indoor totems are flexible technology solutions that can drive lead generation, handle direct sales, provide an outlet for your information campaigns and product launches, provide wayfinding information in larger spaces, or provide special messaging, such as GreenFeeds or social media feeds.
Technology can help retail adapt to consumers’ modern-day expectations. Enhance the experience of brick-and-mortar shopping while cutting costs with innovations like self-serve and lift-and-learn kiosks, AI avatars, Augmented Reality mirrors, and interactive indoor totems.
