2019: the year of technological innovation in the reinvention of the point of sale

Technology is the big challenge for the retail sector in 2019. This new year brings us new trends and innovation challenges which will enhance the digitalisation of strategic marketing and opportunities in the field of retail marketing.

Being at the forefront of trends is essential in reinventing the point of sale, adding value to the client’s shopping experience, improving expectations, and increasing sales.

Innovation developments in providing the best possible shopping experience

These are the main trends which will grow in importance in 2019:

Artificial intelligence

This is the year of artificial intelligence (AI). Through the automation of processes it will bring optimisation and increased efficiency to the point of sale. AI can detect problems and opportunities, and offers improvements in customer service, automated store management (inventories, staff, catalogue management, billing…), the shift from e-commerce to a-commerce, and strategic brand marketing, and much more.

Thanks to the opportunities provided by big data, the point of sale can offer products to the consumers who need them, when they need them. Storing data on consumer behaviour for future strategies is essential for retail marketing strategies.

Chatbots

Artificial intelligence has ushered in the automation of messaging with the use of chatbots to improve customer service and efficiency at the point of sale.

Offering one-to-one conversations, when and where the client wishes, to answer enquiries quickly and straightforwardly will be crucial in 2019.

Omnichannel experience

In the same vein of improving the shopping experience, omnichannel commerce is now a reality and is being strengthened by AI (customer intelligence), as it takes advantage of any opportunity no matter the location, time, or channel.

The aim is to create a unique user experience by taking into account the different channels involved in the consumer’s decision process.

Smart shopping

Shopping has changed greatly and mobile commerce is now here to stay. 86% of users in Spain and 80% in the EU shop on their mobiles.

In the shift from e-commerce to m-commerce (Mobile commerce), the smartphone has become the preferred device for online shopping. At the point of sale we must consider, for example, enabling NFC to facilitate digital wallet payments.

Retailers must identify patterns so as to meet customer needs as well as factoring in aspects such as applications like Personal Shopper or virtual assistants such as Cortana and Siri.

CRM Strategies

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a system for managing and automating our client relationships. This is a clear opportunity to create strategies that embrace the personalisation of customer service based on consumer needs, repeat purchase rates, average basket, recommendations to potential clients, and much more.

If the data storage offered to us by CRM has been a highly important factor thus far, it will really come to the fore in 2019.

Augmented and virtual reality

Linking physical and digital aspects is now a reality and is here to offer a new shopping experience to assist client decision making at the point of sale.

Being able to virtually explore a product while shopping online, displaying product functionality in store, as well as showing the insides and the production process are all possible with augmented reality and strengthen the client’s decision process.

Get in touch with Evvo Retail to rethink your point of sale retail strategy.