Retail Technology – The Future of Convenience Stores
Retail Technology – The future of convenience stores is based on proximity, agility, and convenience. We are facing an era of conflicting desires, with customers demanding new models of service from retailers. Consumers have become accustomed to the vast amount of choice available online yet still require and often prefer a local, immediate, personal service.
If brick-and-mortar stores want to remain current and stay competitive with their digital counterparts, they must revolutionize the way they reach customers.
However, implementing technology for the sake of doing so isn’t productive. Instead, retailers must turn their attention to the customer and how they have changed in recent years to choose the right technology to transform their business and perceive it.
“So many retailers are failing because there’s still a disconnect with who the consumer is, and what they shop, and why they shop, and how they shop,” said Brian Solis, a principal analyst at Altimeter Group.
The appreciation of convenience stores is a trend driven by new post-pandemic consumption habits. People in social seclusion are accustomed to staying within their own neighbourhoods, cooking more at home, preferring to buy their provisions in local stores close to where they live or work, and consuming in a more fragmented way – purchasing little but often.
Following many months of staying at home, people appreciate more and more the value of those short, pleasant interactions often found in local shops and convenience stores. The future is bright for convenience!
Due to their characteristics, convenience stores gain even greater momentum in this new age of the consumer. More than ever, people are keen to support local businesses and suppliers and enjoy tailored and exclusive products to their locality. With cutting-edge technology support, these local conveniences can work seamlessly with the modern consumer’s expectations. Fast purchases through self-service, integrated cashless transactions, a parallel online store, and delivery options via delivery-friendly applications are no longer the domain of large-scale empires; local convenience stores can enjoy all.
Big Technology for Small Stores
Thankfully, new technologies and tools can help expand and improve every company’s client-engagement efforts, promoting greater efficiency, and offering excellent return on investment. As your business uses technology to grow, make sure you have the right amount of exposure to support that growth through great marketing and promotions. Investment in the right technological solutions can positively reflect on daily administrative and financial processes, provide valuable insights, and free up time for you to reach your customers and provide that all-important personal service.
Recommendations:
Use the best system you can
When it comes to management efficiency, good technology is one of the top requirements for optimizing time, reducing costs, minimizing errors, and increasing productivity. In turn, this benefits customers by promoting trust and freeing up management and staff time to provide excellent customer service.
Intelligent systems keep integrated processes and essential functions under control. In addition, the use of suitable software allows the store to offer other services, such as an online store or delivery service, all under the same platform. All of these actions positively impact the quality of service and, consequently, on business revenue.
Choose the right technology
It’s important to select technology based on your customers’ requirements, and for accuracy, the systems chosen must allow access to a business overview. Your EPOS system can provide valuable reporting and insights into your customer’s purchasing patterns, allowing you to target the areas that most interest them. Subsequently, the business owner can monitor whether growth is happening proportionately and act as quickly as possible when identifying any discrepancies in results.
Be in tune with your customers
Make life easy for your customers with useful services. Cashless payment facilities make transactions faster and queue shorter, while integrated payment services provide a one-stop-shop for regular bill payment tasks within your store. Electronic shelf edge labeling provides accurate and instant pricing information. At the same time, online shopping for collection or app-based delivery services can offer even more convenience, depending on the needs of your store’s client base. In short, there are many useful technology options available to any sized convenience store that can bring your business quickly up to date and in line with your customer’s ever-evolving expectations.
Who are we?
Retail Solutions is a market-leading EPOS provider with over 25 years of business experience. Our leading sectors are convenience stores, supermarkets, forecourts, and pharmacies.
We are dedicated to providing your store with the most up-to-date and reliable point of sale hardware, along with software management tools to help you manage your business effectively.
To find out more about what we do, get in touch to chat with one of our knowledgeable consultants:
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About the author
Susan McGuire is a Accounts and Maintenance at Retail Solution. You can follow her on LinkedIn!
Juliane Camozzato is a Marketing Executive at Retail Solution. You can follow her on LinkedIn!
