Phygital: How Technology is Transforming Traditional Stores and Customer Journeys

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The way modern consumers are shopping nowadays has undergone a major upheaval. Technology was already well on its way to changing the way shopping and e-commerce transactions take place. And, the pandemic gave it an even further boost to revolutionize shopping altogether.

In-store retailers are actively making changes to offer digital and virtual experiences. While e-tailers are also imbibing the qualities of a physical store and replicating them in their online channels. There is a perfect union of physical and digital happening currently and this phenomenon has given rise to Phygital.

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What phygital commerce does is that it bridges the gaps between traditional shopping and online shopping, thereby giving customers a superlative virtual shopping experience.

Now, Every Business is a Digital Business!

Gone are the days when there used to be a clear distinction between the real and virtual worlds. Customers are expecting digital tech in physical stores and in-person experience in online stores.

This digital disruption has made its way into every business. Now, technologies such as scan-and-go, self-checkouts, augmented reality, real-time engagements, etc. have become the standard norm. Not only do your customers expect this, but also your business must leverage this technology to stay ahead of your peers.

Challenges Holding Back Traditional Stores

  1. Hyper personalization

The customer of today prefers to have his or her specific needs and desires met while scouting through an array of available options. It is imperative for retailers to understand their customers’ requirements and offer an experience tailored to suit these needs.

Phygital shopping experience can address this by providing real-time, personalized engagements and leveraging past data and customer interactions to ensure meaningful communication every time.

  1. Workforce allocation

The footfall of customers varies based on different time slots, days, or seasons. It can become time-consuming and challenging for retailers to gauge the appropriate number of employees needed at each of these intervals, thereby running the risk of under-staffing or over-staffing. Not only does it lead to wasted effort, but also can result in increased overheads and dissatisfied customers.

  1. Operating costs

Speaking of increased overheads, physical stores and retailers need to pay a premium for prime locations that boast of heavy footfalls. And with this, they also need to ensure that there is reserved parking space available at all times. A digital store could cater to a good chunk of this shoppers’ volume, thereby making it easier to manage the in-store experience.

  1. Demand forecasting

It can become quite challenging to manage the correlation between the demand for a certain product and its availability in the physical store. Understocked shops can often leave customers dissatisfied as they do not want to even wait for the extra minutes (or hours in some cases) it takes to retrieve the item from a warehouse.

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A phygital shopping experience through online platforms can take care of this headache since the digital version of the product is always on the showcase and the customer does not need to spend any extra time before completing their purchase transaction.

  1. Checkouts and exchanges

Physical stores, especially in malls and shopping complexes, end up having large queues of customers lining up for completing the checkout process. It can get even more grueling when people want to return or exchange items. By taking a brand store online, businesses can handle both these processes with ease and can offer a faster turnaround to their customers, making the overall virtual shopping experience convenient and memorable.

The Technology Needed to Transform Traditional Stores and Customer Journeys

  1. High-quality Camera and Microphones

Setting up a high-quality infrastructure with appropriate lighting, camera, mike, and other such equipment can help you showcase your products and service offerings through the digital medium.

This allows your customers to gauge the look and feel of your product while shopping online. You can even onboard a professional third-party vendor who already has this type of phygital infrastructure set up and is ready to go live with your product demonstrations.

  1. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR)

AR and VR-based technologies can pave the way to create an immersive experience for the customers.

It adds an additional layer of understanding your products and/or services in greater detail and helps your target audience get closer to making a purchase decision without the need to physically visit a store. It helps consumers get accurate information and insights about how to use the product or how well it suits their requirements.

  1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI and AI-based workflows have made it possible to take stock of customer data, their preferences, past interactions, purchase history, buying behavior, and much more. By integrating with the right technology, AI can help you analyze this data and create actionable insights in order to increase traffic, conversions, and customer retention.

  1. Digital Kiosks

One effective way of taking an online experience in an offline setup is through digital kiosks. A digital kiosk also makes use of the customer data fed into the backend system to provide a personalized experience to the customer. In addition to keeping track of a customer’s data, such digital kiosks can also guide them through the purchase, offer any eligible discounts, and encourage customers to share their feedback, thereby making it an enriching shopping experience.

  1. Smart Shelves

Another technology making waves in the retailing market is the smart shelf technology. What this technology basically does is that it keeps a track of the available inventory on each of the shelves. When it senses that an item is running out of stock, it triggers a signal to the backend system to restock it right away.

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This enables the store managers to ensure that the shelves are never empty, and it also helps them prepare purchase orders in advance in case more stock needs to be bought for the warehouse.

Additionally, smart shelf technology can also determine which products are fast movers or are more popular with the customers, helping businesses make more informed decisions in terms of offering discounts and stock management.

Paving the Way Forward with Phygital

A phygital customer experience is what the modern consumer needs. Phygital brings the best of both worlds by combining digital technology with an in-person experience of a physical store.

By leveraging cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, AR/VR, chatbots, IoT, wearable devices, and more, phygital provides a highly connected, personalized, and immersive experience to the customer. Phygtial commerce, therefore, ensures that the customer enjoys a seamless experience across all channels, whether online or offline.

The future of shopping is phygital. Phygital customer experience will revolutionize the way audiences look at shopping, thereby bringing a new spin into how customers interact with your brand. Get on the fast track to success and make phygital a key pillar of your growth strategy.

Sukhdev Singh
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