Almost 70% of customers willing to use fingerprint biometrics to shop

Need for digital skills

People have an increasing need for digital skills regardless of their role, and technology can give store staff the information they need to ensure the consumer experience spans channels and is worthwhile.

Vicky Dring, omni-channel senior customer proposition manager for the Walgreens Boots Alliance, said some staff members can take well to the introduction of technology in stores, while others may resist and need more training.

“It’s trying to get that balance and, in the nicest way, force compliance to use the kit they are given,” she said.

In a dining environment, 65% of the consumers surveyed said they would rather pay a robot than wait for service staff. Almost 30% said they had used an application to get faster service in a restaurant, and 88% of those who had done so said they found it a positive experience.

Consumers would much prefer technology be used to add value to the already existing shopping experience, such as roaming staff allowing customers to pay via a mobile card machine or mobile devices.

Almost 70% of the consumers who had encountered these technologies in shops said it allowed them a more personalised experience in the shop, but only 31% said they had been offered the opportunity to pay in this way.

There is growing demand for omni-channel service, and customers increasingly expect a seamless, more personalised experience regardless of which channel they choose to shop on – 76% of all consumers are omni-channel.

Joining up channels can be a challenge, said Dring, but it can be valuable because it is what consumers want. At Boots, processes such as returns can be difficult because its systems “just aren’t hooked up across channels”, she said.

Dring said of the current system: “It’s not doing what we need it to do, but it’s not broken.” This makes it difficult to justify shifting towards omni-channel, she added.

This is increasing the popularity of services such as click-and-collect, something that is expected from retailers, and 76% of consumers said they would abandon a purchase if a retailer tried to make them pay for the service.

Martin Goldstein, head of purchasing at River Island, said consumers rarely want to pay for services provided by retailers, but knowing when goods are likely to arrive is more important.

“On the whole, the consumer doesn’t want to pay for a same-day service, but they want to be certain of when the item is going to arrive,” said Goldstein.

“In our industry, if someone is buying a dress on a Sunday and they have a party next Friday, as long as they know it’s going to arrive on time, then they’re fine.”

There is also a current trend of decreasing brand loyalty, which is surprisingly more common among older customers. In the survey, 75% of customers aged 16 to 20 and 69% of customers aged 21 to 34 said they were becoming more loyal to the brands they shop with, while 51% of 35 to 50-year-olds and 58% of 51 to 69-year-olds said they were becoming less loyal.

Goldstein said consumers are becoming more fickle, especially when they feel an in-store experience has not met their standards – and the older generation are less afraid to shop where they think the service will be better. “Going forward, it’s going to be a combination of staff and tech improving the customer experience,” he said.

Many believe that collaboration between retailers will help them to improve customers loyalty and develop a more personalised experience for consumers.