How IoT for Retail can Improve Customer Experience

The Store of the Future

Despite the proliferation of e-commerce, brick and mortar stores will co continue to be a cornerstone of the retail industry. Research shows that consumers still accept retail as largely a sensory experience. While online shopping offers the convenience of finding what you want from the comfort of your home, most consumers are still interested in “seeing, touching, and feeling” the product before making a purchase. The store of the future will take advantage of data-driven consumer research and Internet of Things technology to make the store a customer-centered shopping experience. Innovate retailers will increasingly implement IoT technologies to make a “smart store,” where all equipment communicates with each other to provide a more fluid shopping experience and improve overall productivity. What sort of IoT for retail technologies will we see to make your shopping experience better?

IoT for Temperature Tracking

One use of IoT is improving the reliability of hot and cold storage for food items. Kroger uses this technology to check their cold storage every half hour, from having an employee check temperature twice daily from a thermometer. IoT helps automate the process to provide a faster and more accurate reading. The employee can now spend the additional time improving customer service or maintaining product stock on the sales floor.

IoT for Location Services

Another use of IoT is tracking where in the store the customer is most likely to shop. With the ability to analyze foot traffic through their phone’s Wi-Fi, stores can customize their displays based on which areas of the store customers are most likely to shop. The location service also gives an opportunity to offer promotions directly in store to influence the sale. Those locations will also be the best spot for customer assistance, to ensure customers can be fully educated on the product to complete the sale.

IoT for Logistics

IoT also finds a role in a store’s supply chain for accurately estimating when a product out of stock will be made available. On a similar vein, it will remove the amount of back stock needed as IoT will ideally make better estimates on store logistics. This should cut costs from overstocking unnecessary product.

Upgrade Your Business to IoT Today

Do you have a specific idea in mind to reshape the retail industry? Sunflower Lab is always up to the task of finding innovative ways of integrating your business with IoT for retail technologies to make you the standard bearer of customer experience. Contact us today for a free quote.