Building a Connected Store: A Retail Playbook

The retail industry is currently undergoing a sea-change, with the competing influences of changing consumer spending patterns, demographics, and online shopping; all of which are putting unprecedented pressure on high street store survival.

As a result of these challenging circumstances, The European share of Top 250 global retailer revenues has dropped, falling from 39.4% to 33.8% over the last ten years.

On the high street itself, this decline has been embodied by many major retailers closing stores, and there have been many high-profile casualties, including Toys ‘R’ Us, Maplin and Select.

To help retailers identify how they can adapt to the changing market, our networking partner, Ruckus, spoke to over 5,000 consumers across the UK, France and Germany, asking them how they feel about the in-store retail experience in comparison to online shopping, the last time they shopped in a store and why they chose to do so, as well as the technology they’d like to see in-store.

Given the well-documented struggles of in-store retail, you might expect consumers to have a bad view of the experience, resulting in the move to online. However, the survey revealed that people actually believe the in-store experience is ahead of the online shopping experience. This should offer hope to those with a high street presence and the research shows how retailers can act on local nuances to build on this positive viewpoint.

What motivates consumers to go in-store to make a purchase?

The results showed that shoppers prefer the physical point of sale thanks to being able to interact with sales staff. Other popular factors included being able to purchase in-store after browsing online and taking advantage of staff expertise regarding products.

There is constant discussion in the retail market about the role that technology can play in helping retailers succeed.

What technologies should retailers be investing in?

The respondents were given a range of options including self-service payment apps, free Wi-Fi access, and real-time stock availability and the results were clear when it came to what shoppers want to see in-store.

Of course, it is impossible to talk about digitisation without also thinking about the sanctity of consumer data. As a retailer, understanding how your customers shop is essential to in-store strategy. However, with rising awareness and concern about how this data is used or shared, it’s important to understand what consumers are willing to give away in order to access digital services.

The results reflect the fact that consumers remain cautious about sharing their data. Nonetheless, it does also show that some consumers are willing to part with personal data for access to services such as Wi-Fi access and self-service payment apps.

The Ruckus ‘Building the Connected Store: A Retail Playbook’ shows how retailers need to adapt to the changing demands and expectations of the modern shopper.

Retailers need to act now to lay the foundations for their future success. Ruckus used the insights from the survey to create three retail plays based on their position in the market.

Each play addresses the needs of today’s store, the demands for tomorrow’s store and the fundamentals that will help retailers tackle the ever-changing retail landscape.

Download The Playbook

Why not download the report and take the first steps towards Building the Connected Store, and, if you would like to understand how we could help implement a better network solution in your retail outlets, we can also offer a free retail audit.