The mobile retail experience
In the current mobile marketplace, desktop sites, apps, in store signage, and mobile sites combine to create a consumer experience that may or may not be consistent across all mediums. In April’s STORES Magazine, Peter Johnson writes about how MandM e-retailer identifies this issue and works to resolve it. Graham Benson, IT Director at MandM Direct, says
What you need now more than ever is a soft of ubiquitous consumer experience across all channels. It’s very difficult to achieve the same user experience with the same functionality if you’re running an app, a separate mobile site and a separate PC site.
True. What better way to incorporate these mobile communications into your brick and mortar experience, than to present consumers with those same applications and mobile experiences via an in store kiosk? Download a mobile app (via Google Play for Android devices, or iTunes for Apple), and lock it down with kiosk software. No extra cost (barring the minimal costs of the device and the enclosure/stand) and no additional programming. Another solution, build a site that is optimized for all devices and incorporates responsive design. Then broadcast that site to mobile, tablet, desktop and kiosk devices. In short, do it once and make it count for as many mediums as possible.
Retail solutions
Also in the April edition of STORES is an article by Karen M. Kroll about mid sized retailers and their ability to view inventory across channels including e-commerce, brick and mortar, catalog and mobile sales. Making this full inventory available to store visitors is one way to optimize the use of this solution. Visitors should have access to kiosks that display the store’s website and online inventory. In this particular case, the technology that enables live inventory tracking is a Celerant solution.
Leveraging solutions with kiosks
What solutions and consultants are being used to streamline the retail process? No matter what solution is identified, it often only takes one extra step to allow kiosks to leverage the solution in yet another direction, making inventory management pay in yet another way. Ultimately, consultants looking for ways to leverage their solutions as far as possible may find kiosks are a simple solution with strong ROI and scalability.