IoT in Retail
Take Your Retail Successfully into the Future
Take Your Retail Successfully into the Future
IoT in Retail
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Customer cards can be attractive for customers and retailers in equal measure. Customers receive the latest information about special offers along with bonuses or discounts for being regular shoppers. Stationary retailers thereby offer additional, long-term incentives to visit the store and boost sales. Retailers can also target their advertising better. They, after all, know their target group’s shopping behavior better. A general advantage of customer cards is their flexibility. Thanks to digital change customers no longer need to show a physical card at the checkout. Instead they can use interactive apps that contain a virtual version of the customer card in the form of a scannable barcode.
Digital signage means digital displays that are managed by a central system and show information that is of relevance for in-store shoppers. As a result of retail digitization digital signage is already in use at many stores, enabling store managers to target advertising and draw attention to offers in the department in question. Digital customer stoppers are another example of digital signage.
Like Industry 4.0 and Logistics 4.0, Retail 4.0 refers to the increasing digitization of retail business, including the transformation of processes. Its main focus is on connectivity. Smart IoT sensors, for example, connect freezers with the cloud so that store managers can spot defects fast and act swiftly to prevent perishables from perishing because they are no longer chilled adequately. Smart tags, which are also linked to the cloud and which customers and employees can scan with their smartphones, provide detailed information about the product. Digital technologies optimize work processes in the storeroom and in intralogistics too. IoT trackers, for example, keep track of pallets or merchandise, eliminating lengthy searches. Another major objective of Retail 4.0 is to improve the customer experience – across all channels, online and offline. To do so, retailers can inter alia equip shopping carts with trackers. On the basis of anonymized movement patterns they can analyze customers’ habits and design sales areas accordingly to optimize store management. Digital customer cards and other bonus programs offer customers added value in the form of discounts or bonuses. The data generated in turn enables companies to plan their advertising more precisely and align their business to customer needs. Last but not least, the digital technology in Retail 4.0 is intended to ease the burden on employees. Checkouts can be managed centrally and customer flows channeled better by networking stores. Hands-free scanners enable employees to work with both hands.
The classical meaning of a POS display is open and especially striking packaging at the Point of Sale (POS). The background is that many purchasing decisions are made spontaneously in the last stage of shopping, such as near the checkout. If retailers present a product attractively there the inducement to buy it can be increased.
Smart tags are small devices that can be read by smartphones or scanners, supplying information in digital form. Retailers can, for example, attach smart tags to shelves and customers can scan them with their cellphones to find out more about the product or products. RFID is frequently used as the wireless technology to access smart tags.
Retailers use dynamic pricing to adjust their prices automatically to the latest market situation. Software often handles the precise calculation. For dynamic pricing to function optimally in stationary retail digital price tags and a connection with the market are advisable. By using IoT technology retailers can then adjust prices automatically throughout their business.
Retailers can deploy a large number of sensors in different business areas to improve business processes or shopping experiences or to boost sales. In the sales area trackers attached to shopping carts enable shopping routes to be recorded and evaluated in an anonymized format and products to be placed optimally for the customers. Tracking solutions also make the storage of goods easier. IoT sensors establish the precise location of goods in storage and relay this information to a cloud platform. Employees are thereby able to devote more time to productive work and less to searches. Smart measuring devices that record the temperature in the vicinity of goods continuously help ensure that the cold chain is unbroken. When a critical value is exceeded the system is notified. And IoT sensors can monitor energy consumption in the entire building so that retailers can identify weak spots, optimize consumption and thereby make their business more sustainable and more profitable.