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By 2040, 95% of all purchases will be online with the Digital Retail market growing at over 23% year-on-year.
Today, with the amount of information available on the internet, customers are making smarter purchase decisions, getting better offers, and all of this from the convenience of their homes.
Statista also notes that there will be 2.14 billion global digital buyers in 2021, accounting for a total of 18.1 percent of retail sales worldwide.
According to retail industry insiders, this tech-enabled “store of the future” can double retailers’ EBIT margins and will be easier to operate. They credit this to the improvement in better customer experience and greater employee engagement. They further note that retailers who don’t adopt existing technologies proven to be ROI-positive to transform their business model will risk falling very far behind.
So we’ve understood that this is a growing market and has immense potential in the future, but let’s look at some technological developments of today and tomorrow while finding a place for ourselves in this ever-growing market.
Transformation into Phygital Retailing
Phygital retailing combines physical and digital retailing, or in simpler terms, omnichannel retailing. Businesses are not just going online but are trying to integrate online with offline.
This way, when a user comes to pick a pre-ordered product, he/she might walk away with some more products from the shelf. Phygital is one of the strongest and most sustainable trends in the Digital retail market because it combines the feeling of an actual store purchase with the convenience of digital.
The future of retail largely depends on the trends of the present day, and businesses are already adapting to Phygital retailing.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR) in Retail
Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality are leading the front when it comes to customer satisfaction. Companies like Amazon, Facebook, TravelTriangle, and many others are making full use of AI in assisting their customers in purchasing better. In the B2B space, service providers are making use of AI to find potential clients using Sales Enablement tools and advanced recommendations.
Amazon’s recommended products or TravelTriangle’s Trip Planning ChatBot, AI is everywhere. On the other hand, Augmented Reality is assisting Interior designing firms and fashion by placing a virtual object in the real world, be it a sofa, a table, or a piece of clothing over a person.
Both AI and AR are the pillars of modern digital retail, and if businesses start harnessing their power, they’ll be far ahead than they initially thought of in the market. In today’s world, AI is still gaining perspective, but most experts believe AI is the future of the retail market because it will smoothen the business like never before.
Targeted-Marketing in Retail
Marketing is the backbone of any successful business, and it doesn’t matter how good a product is; unless it sells, the company doesn’t make a penny.
In traditional marketing, the option to target specific customers based on demographics or interests and hobbies was impossible, but in the modern world, with digital marketing, it is indeed possible.
Your customers spend a lot of time on the internet and are approached by a lot of advertisers on Google, Facebook, and Instagram, but are you one of them? With the introduction of targeted marketing, companies can now reach directly into the devices of their target customers and get better leads, turning them into better sales.
Targeted marketing has largely killed the presence of traditional marketing, and by all accounts, the future of retail.
Smooth User-Experience
Most of the new digital retail businesses face a huge bounce rate; that is, the customer comes to your site/app and leaves it in less than a minute, ultimately with no purchase.
A smooth user experience is important to keep the customers engaged and help them make a good purchase decision and ultimately get you some profit on the sale.
But before we design a smooth user experience, we need to know what our user wants, and the only way to find out or even predict their needs is by using an analytics tool. An analytics tool that is backed by Artificial Intelligence so that you can take data-backed informed decisions without second-guessing your analysis.
But even though you can provide the smoothest user experience with your services, it still won’t be of use if there are no clients to avail of your services.
It’s important to find clients and close deals so you can help them experience what you have to offer. The dashboard on Draup’s Sales Enablement tool can help you hand-pick clients by understanding their needs in real-time while tracking their deals and your competitors.
Real-time Tracking
Since we’re on the subject of tracking, finding out what your prospect wants and when using an analytics tool can get you far ahead of the competition. Have you ever heard the saying “the early bird catches the worm”?
If you’re late or if you’re using outdated techniques, you might miss out on some serious business. Businesses need to keep up with the trends and stay ahead of the competition at all times.
Let’s say a fashion company is looking to try AR-based trial rooms. You being an AR solutions provider, decide to approach them and when you do, you find out that they’ve already closed the deal with some other service provider. As a digital service provider, this is not an ideal situation to be in.
But imagine if you already knew that they were looking for an AR-solutions provider and you were the first to approach and close the deal. This is where you want to be.
But how do you find out the needs of your potential clients in real-time and prepare a hyper-targeted proposal for the same?
With the ecosystem feature on Draup’s sales enablement tool you can find specific clients and understand their present projects, deals, and needs in real-time, thus giving you an edge over your competition. Using this information, you can craft custom proposals that target your prospect’s pain points and leverage AI-powered insights to deliver cutting-edge solutions.
