Unified Commerce
Greg Cantlon
Changing your POS? 7 critical tests your ...
Changing your POS? 7 critical tests your software must pass
Customer Experience
Greg Cantlon
From points to personalisation: Five steps to ...
From points to personalisation: Five steps to galvanise the liquor retail loyalty experience
Team
Carmela Salisbury
Kelly Brown steps down as Triquestra CEO
Customer Experience
Triquestra
6 omnichannel retail painpoints ...
6 omnichannel retail painpoints unified commerce solves
Customer Experience
Triquestra
Delivering a unified CX: liquor retail's new ...
Delivering a unified CX: liquor retail's new priority

Four ways to revamp the fuel customer experience

This post was originally published on 12 May 2021 and updated on 22 February 2023

As consumer demand for convenience, speed, variety and affordability rises, the convenience store format needs to transform. Kelly Brown describes four areas to focus on to modernise the c-store CX.

With demand for traditional fuel expected to plateau around 2030, fuel retailers are urgently innovating to replace shrinking revenues and dwindling profits.

The leaders have quickly moved to improve and expand their traditional products and services and launch in new, but related, market segments. They recognise that the future business of fuel will be less vehicle-centric and more focussed on the customer. They’ve developed a customer-centric mindset and are building new skills and capabilities to compete with unfamiliar competitors.

monochrome-customer-satisfaction.png

We’ve seen some impressive transformations. The retailers making the first move are creating differentiated experiences for competitive advantage and forming strong customer relationships that are driving up conversions and profits.

It’s an immense undertaking. 

While fuel retail has always been challenging – very fast service is non-negotiable, transaction volumes are high and operations typically run 24x7 – this requires a fundamental transformation of the standard business model.

And customer expectations have never been higher. Today’s consumers expect brands to deliver fast and frictionless experiences through compelling interactions across all physical and digital touchpoints.

Building customer loyalty requires a complex mix of emotional and rational factors that enable you to connect and build relationships with customers across all your channels and communications.

 
 

So where should you focus? 

Here are four areas to explore:

 
 

1. Enhance the purchasing experience

Create a seamless experience across the end-to-end ordering and purchase journey, with personalised offers and incentives to encourage store visits, and fast point of sale transactions on the forecourt and in stores.

monochrome-fuel-scanning.png

  • A mobile app will let your customers pay for fuel without leaving their vehicles. Don’t restrict it to payments - use the app to help customers find their nearest service station, view their purchase history, accumulated loyalty points, discounts and rewards, or pre-order coffee, convenience items or a carwash.

  • By identifying customer pain-points and aggressively embracing innovation, Z Energy has delivered a world-first in fuel retail with the launch of its virtual fuel tank called Sharetank.  

2. Create a Convenience Hub

The convenience store format is ready for change. Consumers are cutting back on big weekly supermarket shopping trips and choosing to purchase more of their groceries at easily accessible local stores. 

  • Become a neighbourhood hub by expanding beyond traditional c-store offerings into high-quality products and fresh food, and design places customers want to visit, rather than need to visit.   

  • In highway locations, encourage customers to stay as long as they want, with fresh in-store and takeaway food, and rest areas for travellers. 

  • Consider the un-manned store model, which reduces costs while offering customers a quick, digital experience.  

3. Offer ordering and pickup

monochrome-customer-rewards.png

With the surge in ecommerce over recent years, consumers want new options for purchasing, payment and fulfilment.  

  • Boost sales and profits by letting customers place and pay for their order in advance using your mobile app. When they reach the store, all they need to do is pick up the order and go. Some fuel apps let customers order items while they fill up, and an attendant delivers them to their vehicles.   

  • New self-serve software offers a simple yet sophisticated solution to meet customer demands for speed and convenience via digital experiences.  

  • Draw online shoppers into stores by offering omnichannel services such as click-and-collect.  

  • Home delivery apps let your stores drive sales and engage with new customers, while continuing to encourage their local communities to shop in store.   

4. React smarter and faster to demand changes

Make better decisions about product assortments, by matching breadth and depth to demand, trends and local demographics.  

  •  A unified view of inventory will give you total control over your wet and dry stock to improve efficiency, reduce overall stock, create more satisfied customers and boost the bottom line. 

  • Maximise profits, conversions and promotional impact by customising products, prices and promotions nationally, regionally and even by individual sites.   

  • Offer a range of discounts to appeal to different shoppers, including dollars off the price, cost per litre, percentage off the price, cost plus a specific margin or markup and more.  

Want help to revamp your c-store customer experience? 

As you transform your CX to deliver the seamless and personalised buying journeys your customers crave, your point of sale and retail systems must transform as well. If you’re experiencing technology challenges that prevent you from unifying your physical and digital experiences, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop the agility to innovate and scale new services, faster

For more on how to deliver every c-store customer a personalised, fast and seamless experience, download our new ebook:  

Why unified commerce is the nirvana of omnichannel

This post was originally published on 3 March 2020 and updated on 2 February 2023

We’ve seen a dramatic boom in ecommerce in recent years that is creating new online shopping habits and reshaping consumers’ expectations of the retail experience. 

Many retailers have had to take a ‘just get something done’ approach to creating seamless customer experiences that span channels. Now they’re struggling with omnichannel set-ups that simply link digital and physical systems together, and they don’t have the ability to keep pace with changing consumer behaviours.

But omnichannel should not be the end goal. It’s just one approach to getting a single view of your customers that will help you deliver unified experiences. 

Instead, a unified commerce platform will break down your channel silos and move your retail business toward the holy grail of holistic, real-time, personalised customer experiences spanning in-store, online and everywhere in between.

To help explain why unified commerce is the nirvana of omnichannel, here’s a look at where we are now and where we’re going. 

Infinity-Omnichannel-versus-Unified-Commerce.jpg

Multi-channel

To keep pace with new technologies and changing consumer demands, retailers are giving customers access to new mobile and online channels. Each touchpoint and channel operates independently, with separate people, processes and technologies existing in functional silos.

But when you only add and don’t actually integrate new channels with the rest of your organisation, you create bad service experiences that frustrate internal teams and customers.

Silos mean that your customers have to deal with inconsistencies and gaps, such as incomplete sales histories, different tones of voice or having to start conversations afresh in each channel. These silos inevitably lead to disappointment and frustration, a lack of trust and even a sense that your organisation is incompetent.

Omnichannel

Infinity-omniichannel.jpg

With an omnichannel approach, you’re connecting numerous backend systems so that customers can seamlessly interact with your brand. However, your channels are still operating in functional silos.

 That means most attempts to offer unified experiences fall short.

 You’re likely to be struggling with legacy technologies that have been customised and are infrequently updated, and then you bolt-on new solutions that don’t easily integrate. These omnichannel systems are fragile, inefficient and costly to maintain.

 And things can easily unravel. Adding new channels and tools requires additional custom integrations that are complex and slow, adding significant costs and curbing the agility and scalability you require.

Unified commerce 

Infinity-unified-commerce.jpg

With a unified commerce approach, you can achieve retail nirvana by creating immersive and frictionless experiences for customers across all channels, touchpoints and locations. Rather than building custom integrations to unify different systems, you can easily use all the tools and services within a single unified platform.

 It gives you a single source of truth for inventory, order and customer data. With this one view of the customer, and all channels and engagement points connected in real-time, you can deliver a personalised and consistent customer experience.

 You can also quickly respond to changing customer expectations and new technologies by using microservices and APIs to expose data and connect third-party services.

 Unified commerce has been a game changer for our clients.

It eliminates the customer journey pain points and amplifies the ‘wow’ moments. Now you can treat each customer as an individual, all the time – one person with one account, interacting with one brand.  

Unified commerce can benefit your business in many ways:

  • It provides a stable backbone by acting as the hub for all your channels, reducing integration and operating costs, while increasing efficiency and accuracy. 

  • It gives you total control over all your inventory and lets you create seamless and personalised purchasing, payment and fulfilment options across ‘endless aisle’ shopping, fast (eg 30-minute) click-and-collect, kerbside pickup, store-to-door, shoppable screens, kiosks and hyper-personalised loyalty offers.

  • You can deliver frictionless experiences and let customers access your entire product range from any location, including stores, online, mobile, shoppable screens, pop-ups, stores within stores, virtual showrooms, social channels, call centres and more.

  • And our savviest clients are now investing in new customer-facing technologies, like chatbots, mobile apps and AI. Some are pioneering contextual commerce – the ability to seamlessly implement purchase opportunities into everyday activities (such as Shoppable Instagram and Facebook). 

The end result is the ability to deliver the personal, ubiquitous and unified experiences your customers expect, fostering loyalty, driving growth and improving profitability.

Want help to plan your next steps?

We can help you define your goals, develop a business case and create your roadmap to deliver the unified experiences that are best for customers, and most profitable for you. Get in touch.

For more on how a move to a unified commerce strategy gives you the flexibility and agility you need to keep in step with consumers’ changing needs, download our new ebook:  

How new customer loyalty programmes fuel the c-store retail experience

Fuel retailers now realise there is enormous untapped potential to revamp their loyalty programmes to drive customer engagement and expand share of wallet. Kelly Brown explains how to elevate fuel loyalty solutions to create more relevant and personalised experiences that grow customer value and differentiate the business.

For many years, fuel retail loyalty programmes were an easy way to drive customer engagement and revenue. However, with changing consumer behaviours and formidable new competition, few meet the needs of today’s retailers or consumers. 

Most are simple “earn-and-burn” transaction or discount-based programmes that extend the same set of outdated offers to all customers, regardless of their different behaviours.   

They typically relinquish ownership of customer data and relationships to third party coalition loyalty providers who can’t differentiate retailers from their competition. 

And, crucially, with no access to their customers’ preferences, purchasing behaviour or communications, retailers can’t assess what their customers care about to provide the fast and easy personalised services they increasingly expect. 

The reality is, today customers don’t just compare your service to that of your competitors, but to the best service they’ve ever received, anytime and anywhere. At a time when digital technologies allow companies to ‘hyper-personalise’ to serve each individual customer, fuel retail loyalty programmes are well overdue for an overhaul. 

Leading fuel retailers are investing in innovation, digitisation and branding to launch new loyalty solutions that deliver a complete view of customers’ preferences and purchasing behaviour, with the ability to create fast and memorable experiences. 

If you’re looking at how to develop your loyalty and personalisation capabilities, here are the steps to take to deliver an exceptional CX: 

  •  Take control with a standalone loyalty programme  

In contrast to the coalition loyalty programmes, modern loyalty systems give you a 360-degree view of all retail and trade customers, with their entire purchasing history and preferences captured and centrally stored in one database.   

 By reclaiming ownership of your customer data from all channels and touchpoints – ranging from fuel selections to coffee preferences and convenience items within stores - you can recognise customers consistently wherever they shop with you. 

  •  Extend your loyalty programme to your mobile app 

Today loyalty programmes are an integral part of a smartphone app: loyalty mobile app users typically spend 10-20% more a month, and visit 20-30% more frequently each month

When you create your loyalty app, ensure you include features that save customers’ time, increase convenience and turn purchases into a fun and engaging experience. And to really differentiate your offering, make it a game-changing experience by enabling both fuel and in-store transactions. 

  •  Apply analytics to create more relevant and personalised offers  

The next stage is to use the data-driven insights to create cluster- or even site-specific offers. Tailor your offers for local buying opportunities and use your customers’ transaction histories to customise product bundles, pricing and promotions to increase sell-through without compromising margin. 

 You can then capitalise on opportunities to craft offers that feel personally relevant to each individual in your database by combining internal data (such as transactions and location) with external data (such as competition, weather, traffic conditions and demographics). 

  •  Use AI-driven marketing tools to hyper-personalise the CX  

AI algorithms let you analyse customer preferences, predict many aspects of customer behaviour and develop personalised communications, experiences and offers. 

By interacting with customers at the right moment, with the right offer and in the right channel, you can drive behavioural changes in customers and multiply the lifetime value of loyalty customers. 

  •  Ecosystem loyalty programmes are next 

Looking ahead, large retailers are learning to drive customer loyalty and growth by pooling data within an ecosystem of brands. A recent McKinsey webinar described how multiple companies are tapping into their complementary product and service offerings to develop a joint loyalty programme around a unifying customer value proposition. 

While still in their early stages, these ecosystem approaches promise many benefits: 

  • Consumers will receive heightened experiential benefits in addition to faster loyalty rewards growth, more flexible redemptions and an unmatched simplicity and daily relevance. 

  • Retailers and brands will see a rise in reach and frequency of usage. They will gain access to richer, more privileged consumer data, shared infrastructure and cross-marketing opportunities.  

 As you look at how to modernise your loyalty programme, ensure you focus on the end-to-end customer experience. You have a fantastic opportunity to leap-frog your competition by taking an ecosystem-centric approach that gives your customers a ‘next-generation’ experience. . 

Z Energy fuels more sales and repeat visits

Z Energy, New Zealand’s largest fuel retailer and part of Ampol Australia, developed Pumped to replace a third-party loyalty scheme and create a more seamless mobile and in-store customer experience.

Built using Infinity’s Loyalty module, Pumped uses a QR barcode on Z’s mobile app to identify the customer at point-of-sale or self-serve online payment terminals and add any relevant offers to their transaction. It also lets them consume any offers they have earned, such as free coffee, carwashes or LPG bottle swaps.

Z can now create new offers that help engage customers, offer them valuable rewards and encourage repeat visits. And Pumped is now Z’s cornerstone for innovation, with the ability to deliver the unified and personalised experiences its customers expect.

“With a single view of the customer we are right in the middle of the transaction with the customer in real-time. We know where, when and how they shop and, over time, will find new ways to interact, personalise and reward each customer’s experience.”

Andy Stewart, Head of Digital & Operations – Low Carbon Futures, Z Energy 

Want help to modernise your fuel loyalty programme? 

As you transform your customer experience to deliver the seamless and personalised buying journeys your customers crave, your retail systems must transform as well. If you’re looking for help to develop your loyalty and personalisation capabilities, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop more meaningful relationships that deliver profitable growth. 

For more on how to deliver every c-store customer a personalised, fast and seamless experience, download our new ebook:

6 omnichannel retail painpoints unified commerce solves

With rising customer expectations for a seamless ‘one-brand’ experience, many retailers have hit a wall because their omnichannel efforts can’t meet today’s retail demands.

Here Kelly Brown describes six major omnichannel retail challenges and explains how a unified commerce approach helps to create the relevant and tailored omnichannel experiences your customers now expect. 

Customers today are delightfully unreasonable, and expect to transact when, where and however they want. They don’t care how you achieve it and will reward you if you have it - or shop elsewhere if you don’t. 

Retailers are responding by integrating their physical and digital channels to deliver new omnichannel experiences that align with customer expectations.  

However, it’s complicated. 

Many retailers have taken a hard look at their ecommerce capabilities over recent years, but most are still searching for ways to create connected and adaptable experiences within stores. They have legacy solutions that are no longer fit for purpose and have bolted on solutions for the digital space that don’t easily integrate.  

And they struggle to support their customers’ current omnichannel demands, let alone the ‘phygital’ shopping journeys now expected by post-pandemic, digitally savvy consumers.  

If you’re looking at how to keep pace with customers, here are the most common challenges retailers face as they build their omnichannel systems, and how they can be remedied with a unified commerce approach. 

1

Inventory that isn’t real time

Managing inventory is a retailer’s biggest challenge — no matter their size. It’s also the biggest cost. Many retailers launched digital commerce channels without getting their inventory right and can only access rudimentary sales and inventory positions. That prevents them from offering the ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ options that are best for customers and most profitable for them.  

The solution: Optimise inventory and availability  

One of the most compelling benefits of unified commerce is a single view of stock across all stores and DCs. This means you can quickly see where inventory is and therefore the fastest place to fulfil from. You’ll improve inventory accuracy, reduce stock requirements, minimise fulfilment costs and get products to customers faster. And you’ll increase sales by using ranging and fulfilment capabilities that enable you to sell products across channels (and even sell products not normally stocked within any channels).  

2

Blending physical and digital experiences 

Services such as click-and-collect, ship-from-store, find-in-store and returns anywhere are all just table stakes today. Many retailers implemented quick-fixes at the start of the pandemic to swiftly get new capabilities up-and-running, but now need a long-term unified solution to connect backend systems and deliver the omnichannel experiences customers expect. 

The solution: Create relevant and agile experiences 

With a unified inventory you can increase your purchasing, ordering and fulfilment options to provide customers with frictionless experiences and access to your entire range from any location. A single platform gives everyone across channels and stores the ability to view all customer touchpoints in real time. And you can extend your range across more sales channels such as in-store kiosks, shoppable screens, pop-up stores, concessions and mobile devices. 

3

Obtaining a single view of the customer  

Today consumers don’t think in terms of channels. They now expect a “one-brand” experience that lets them shop at any time, using any channel, from any device, at the best price. But if you’ve got siloed backend systems and processes that mean your customers must deal with inconsistencies and gaps, you simply cannot offer a seamless customer experience.  

The solution: Personalise your customer experience  

The ability to see each customer’s shopping preferences and purchase history across all channels is critical for building personalised shopping experiences. With a unified commerce platform providing a holistic view of your customers, you can better plan your pricing and promotion strategies and get the right offer or message to the right customer, at the right time and right place. By creating remarkable customer experiences that meet or even exceed consumer expectations, you can ensure customers return, again and again. 

4

Integrating data silos

Retailers use multiple customer-facing and back-office systems, spanning POS, mobile apps, inventory management, ecommerce, CRM, fulfilment, finance, marketing and more. Often loosely connected with manual processes and custom integrations, these omnichannel solutions are fragile, inefficient and costly to maintain. 

The solution: Lower cost of ownership 

A single commerce platform gives you a leaner and more flexible architecture that reduces the need for reconciliation and manual processes to maintain and manage data and functions, and there is only one system to secure. Exposing data and functions (rather than moving and replicating them) makes integration faster and standards-based, improving efficiency, decreasing errors and increasing accuracy. Third parties can easily plug in, building the ecosystem of retail software, tools, resources and devices you can add and change to match your business needs.  

5

Adding modern technologies and capabilities  

To keep pace with consumer demands for omnichannel services, retailers need to create and deploy new apps, services and channels. However, connecting legacy systems with modern technologies requires custom integrations, and creating new brand experiences is complex, costly, time consuming and risky.  

The solution: Accelerate speed to market  

With a single platform, there’s less work required to plug in and implement new functions across channels, test cycles are reduced, and you’ll use development capacity more effectively. You can run experiments to test new customer experience innovations and easily move the successful experiments into enterprise-wide operations. These improvements in IT efficiency and flexibility let you launch new tools and services to meet business demands and start seeing revenue benefits faster. 

6

Unifying employee experiences 

After years of underinvestment and now a labour crunch, many retailers are playing catch-up with the employee experience. Their stores often lack the tools and systems that enable their people to deliver the relevant and personalised customer experiences that match online shopping’s price, speed and convenience.  

The solution: Boost in-store productivity and sales

By arming your store staff with the right customer data and tools, combined with AI-driven recommendations, they can more easily make decisions, provide personalised upselling advice, sell inventory at any location and serve customers faster, anywhere in the store. You’ll enhance customer interactions, improve the employee experience and increase conversions.  

Can you keep up with your customers’ expectations? 

Retailers are unifying their backend systems to create the seamless and convenient experiences customers now expect. If you’re experiencing technology challenges that prevent you from unifying your physical and digital experiences, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop the ability to create a compelling in-store experience harmonised with a digital offering for competitive advantage.

For more on how a move to a unified commerce strategy gives you the flexibility and agility you need to keep in step with consumers’ changing needs, download our new ebook:

New in Infinity – November 2022

Here’s new functionality across the Infinity platform that will help you create the convenient and seamless omnichannel experiences your customers now expect.

Infinity is a modular platform and you may need additional components or licencing to access some functionality.

INFINITY API

Extend access to New Zealand addresses

Infinity’s integration with the Addressify address validation service now supports New Zealand addresses. Using Addressify prevents customers from providing inaccurate or incomplete address details, giving you the confidence that loyalty customers and online and store orders are linked to the correct customer address. To use this feature, you’ll need a service agreement with Addressify (details of their New Zealand service are launching soon).

PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Faster access to product profitability data 

Searching for stock items has been enhanced by allowing you to filter by gross profit percentage. Using this filter, you can quickly identify items that are falling below target and adjust prices accordingly. 

CUSTOMERS & LOYALTY

Expand your collection of customer data

Your store and head office staff can now add a small piece of customised free text to each loyalty customer’s account, allowing you to capture customer data that fits your business needs and giving you greater control over the information you collect. For example, if a customer is a registered company, you can use this field to store the company’s ABN/GST number.

Give customers more visibility of manual discounts 

Customers can now see the details of manual fuel related discounts that have been applied to transactions on the printed receipt. This removes confusion about the type and amount of the discount that the customer has received.   

Launch new fuel promotions for non-loyalty members 

Fuel retailers can now offer dollar-off fuel coupons for non-loyalty customers (in addition to existing cents-per-litre coupons). This gives marketers another tool to incentivise customers to shop with them, increasing customer retention and boosting sales. This feature uses the Infinity API. 

REPORTS & ANALYTICS

Easier access to epay and Flybuys refund data 

Infinity has been enhanced to report on refunds of epay items and Flybuys sales, helping you to identify these transactions more easily to mitigate potential fraud.  

Improve cash adjustment reporting 

Your POS users with the required permissions can now record meaningful reasons against safe balance adjustments, allowing for more efficient reporting and decreasing the time needed to investigate cash discrepancies. 

TECHNOLOGY

Stay current with latest Microsoft database 

Fresh installs of Infinity now ship with SQL 2019, giving you the latest database engine available from Microsoft by default. Upgrades are not impacted. Note that if you are using a 32-bit version of Windows, SQL 2019 cannot be installed. You will need to use SQL 2014 which has been previously shipped with Infinity. 

Improve SQL Server performance 

Customers who have a suitably configured and licensed read-only SQL node in an Availability Group can now direct reports to a read-only node to distribute SQL workloads and deliver faster reporting.  

Faster Infinity installs 

Unattended installations of Infinity can now be completed more quickly, following the implementation of a bulk copy function when setting up new Infinity workstations.

To find out more about any of these enhancements and add them to your Infinity platform, contact us. 

If you’d like to get our regular ‘New in Infinity’ updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter.

The 7 omnichannel capabilities reshaping stores

There’s a colossal shift taking place right now in how retailers plan, build and deliver their in-store customer experience.

And the prime driver behind this upheaval is the boom in ecommerce that is creating new online shopping habits and reshaping consumers’ expectations of in-store experiences.

Yet many retailers have struggled to support their customers’ omnichannel demands and aren’t equipped to create the shopping journeys now expected by post-pandemic, digitally savvy consumers.

They have disparate and siloed backend systems that are fragile, inefficient and costly to integrate. Many implemented quick-fixes at the start of the pandemic to get new capabilities up-and-running, but now need a long-term unified solution that delivers a single source of truth across all physical and online channels.

And they’re under increased pressure to implement change fast but can’t quickly spin up the new “phygital” customer experiences the business demands.

So what are the new capabilities retailers need to modernise their customer experience for digital-first retailing?

Here are seven areas where retailers are increasing their focus and investment this year:

1

Stores that amplify the digital experience

The phenomenal rise of live online customer experiences has migrated beyond social media and live chat to virtual shopping appointments. Retailers are using the unparalleled knowledge of their store staff to boost digital sales and service by giving in-store teams the tools to connect with shoppers digitally. Platforms like Brauz provide the video commerce smarts, while unified commerce solutions (like Infinity) help to automate the end-to-end process, from customer communications and data insights to seamless sales transactions and fast delivery.

2

Digital convenience in stores

The POS used to be the epicentre of the store technology experience. But today consumers expect unlimited access to information and functionality to inform their purchasing decisions, and demand digital convenience inside the store. Retailers are putting customers in charge of their in-store experience by integrating digital services, such as the ability to look up loyalty points, explore product information and add items to digital wishlists in stores. Shoppable screens provide ‘endless aisle’ capabilities that let customers browse and order from the entire inventory.

3

Self-checkout expands to self-service

In tandem with the new digital experiences inside stores, retailers are modernising their checkout experience so that customers can transact on their terms. They’re putting customers in control with fast and flexible self-guided assistance, mobile point of sale and contactless payments wherever the customer is - in the store, out in the warehouse or yard, at trade shows and pop-up stores. While self-serve kiosks are practical solutions for larger stores and supermarkets, fuel and convenience retailers taking advantage of new self-service software that can be deployed on any touchscreen terminal, making it simple to create fast and memorable experiences.

4

Endless aisle for anywhere, anytime orders

Consumers are choosing retailers based on the ease and flexibility of the end-to-end experience. With a ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ strategy and centralised unified commerce platform, retailers can give customers and staff real-time visibility of inventory, order and customer data across the business. That means customers can shop whenever they feel like it, at any time, using their most convenient channel. And endless aisle access to inventory lets customers order any product and get it delivered to any address.

5

Flexible omnichannel fulfilment

With ecommerce sales returning to pre-pandemic growth levels, services such as ship-from-store, click-and-collect, endless aisle and returns anywhere are all just table stakes today. Retailers are prioritising capabilities that help them to launch and scale omnichannel experiences faster by improving store fulfilment efficiency and enhancing the store pick-up experience. They’ve created hybrid stores that support the rise in online sales while meeting customers’ expectations for fast pick-up and delivery.

They’re now introducing ship-from-store capabilities that not only enable ecommerce orders to be shipped from stores, but stores can also ship orders placed in other stores. And with a unified view of inventory across all stores and DCs they can quickly see where inventory is located and the fastest route to fulfil orders.

6

Unified channels strengthen personalisation

With more buying journeys beginning online, and store visits become more predetermined, customer expectations for a frictionless ‘one brand’ experience are rising. However, many retailers have channel silos that mean any interaction or activity that the customer had with them online is not available to the customer or staff within the store.

Retailers are delivering personalised experiences by using AI and intelligence across online and offline channels to deliver timely and relevant communications, recommendations, offers and rewards across in-store and digital touchpoints, including the point of sale, mobile app, web, email and social. And some are extending these personalised recommendations into other communications with customers, such as e-receipts and shipping notifications.

7

Unified employee experiences

A great customer experience hinges on a great employee experience. After years of underinvestment and now a labour crunch, many retailers are playing catch-up by making employee efficiency and enablement a top priority this year. They’re giving their in-store teams access to relevant customer intelligence - such as loyalty points and rewards, wishlists and sales histories – to equip them to add more value to their customer interactions. Some are using AI technology to provide personalised upselling recommendations during click-and-collect pickups. And localised pricing gives their teams up-to-date, competitive pricing and empowers them to make better, on-the-spot decisions.

Are you looking at how to modernise your stores for digital-first retailing and a better customer experience? Our unified commerce maturity model is the perfect tool to create your roadmap. Use it to assess your current capabilities, identify the gaps and prioritise areas for improvement.

New in Infinity – August 2022

Here’s new functionality across the Infinity platform that will help you unify your physical and digital channels to create new omnichannel customer experiences and drive growth.

Infinity is a modular platform and you may need additional components or licencing to access some functionality.

INFINITY API

Extend access to inventory data

Infinity APIs now have near real-time support for additional inventory-related transactions for integration with third-party systems, such as ERP, warehousing and order management software. This allows you to perform a range of vital inventory business processes, including stock adjustments and allocations, receipting stock from purchase orders and receipting stock from a transfer. Stock transfers can also be posted to Infinity from third-party systems, such as warehousing systems.

INVENTORY

Easier status changes for bulk PO imports

You can now bulk import purchase orders into Infinity with their status set to ‘complete’ using Infinity ETL. Completed purchase orders retain their external references if the references are included in the import, so that they can be used during receipting. This feature saves time and reduces operational complexity, particularly for businesses that sell high volumes of products.

PRICING & PROMOTIONS

Launch new fuel promotions for non-loyalty members

Infinity Loyalty now gives you the ability to create promotional fuel discount coupons which can be offered to non-loyalty customers. This allows fuel retailers to incentivise new customer segments to shop with them, helping to boost repeat customers and increase sales.

CUSTOMERS & LOYALTY

Faster collection of loyalty points

Infinity gives retailers the ability to issue loyalty points on spend without the need for double entry into an external secondary system. The loyalty card number is captured and discounts are redeemed using a barcode identified at the point of sale. Previously, this service was limited to customers who held Goody cards, but it has now been extended to other secondary loyalty providers as well.

REPORTS & ANALYTICS

Give stores better product performance data

The Customer Performance, Supplier Performance, Product Performance and Employee Performance reports can now be filtered by custom fields that have been added to an item record. A store manager can use this feature to focus on the performance of products according to criteria stored in these fields relevant to their business. For example, stores can search product environmental star ratings and report on star ratings 3, 4 or 5, while filtering out results for ratings 1 and 2.

Better readability of data exported into Excel

Data exported out of Infinity into a spreadsheet is now easier to read and use in your business with the inclusion of column headers. This enhancement applies to all exportable data, including items.

POINT OF SALE

Seamless integration with Latitude financing to boost sales

Your customers can now take advantage of Latitude’s interest free financing at the point of sale without the need to fill in paper forms or go through an online portal. Infinity’s new integration allows you to seamlessly offer financing to Latitude account holders, broadening customers’ purchasing options and reducing the friction that can come with financing transactions. This new integration extends to Latitude’s Gem Finance operation in New Zealand.

TECHNOLOGY

Stay current with .NET 6.0

Infinity APIs and supporting components now use .NET 6.0, the latest general release of the .NET framework from Microsoft. This follows the end of Microsoft’s long-term support for .NET core 3.1 on 13 December this year. Triquestra is committed to ensuring the APIs run on supported .NET platforms, with 6.0 long-term support due to run until the 12 November 2024. 

Customers do not have to update all APIs at once to .NET 6.0 versions, as we will still support current versions and mixed operation of both .NET 3.1 and .NET 6.0 APIs. However, APIs which deliver new features or fixes as part of your standard API release will require .NET 6.0 to function. 

To find out more about any of these enhancements and add them to your Infinity platform, contact us. 

If you’d like to get our regular ‘New in Infinity’ updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter.

How self-service software underpins growth in convenience stores

If queues lengthen and sales slow when your teams are busy making coffee or rolling ice creams, then you’ll be wondering how self-serve technologies can help your convenience business. Kelly Brown explains why many self-serve offerings aren’t suited to c-store formats and describes disruptive new self-serve software that makes it simple to create a fast and memorable experience.

Fuel and convenience stores that become destination stores are best positioned for long-term growth and customer loyalty.

They know that a customer experience centred on convenience is fundamental to success. And they’re urgently modernising the checkout experience so that consumers can transact on their own terms.

But as c-stores build a reputation for speed and simplicity, they often struggle to maintain that convenience for customers.

During peak hours, sales can be lost when customers see long queues and decide not to make purchases. It’s difficult to ensure that there are enough people in the store to handle the peaks without wasting resources during the troughs. And labour shortages continue to cripple the retail industry, with high rates of staff absenteeism compounding the challenge.

The fix for many retailers is self-serve kiosks. They’re a practical solution for large stores and supermarkets, helping to deliver shorter queues, faster service times and reduced costs.

However, most self-service kiosks aren’t suitable for a c-store format and don’t provide the services customers seek.

The high up-front cost of a kiosk is a key barrier to adoption. The large pedestals take up valuable floor space, reducing stock and advertising opportunities, and extending the payback period.

Theft is a serious concern, particularly for small stores with few staff.

Many consumers don’t like self-checkouts and want to engage with a store member during a purchase. In addition, some transactions can’t be completed without help - such as age-restricted products - which limits the streamlined experience self-checkout promises.

So how are c-stores innovating to increase convenience in their stores?

Disruptive new self-serve software is fast becoming a c-store staple.

Convenience stores are taking advantage of new self-serve software applications that can be deployed on any terminal or touchscreen display.

For example, one client is rolling out a touchscreen self-service solution in over 50 stores to provide a simple way for customers to purchase items, order food and make payments.

Positioned on store counters next to POS terminals, the solution includes a second monitor so that store staff can easily view each customer’s progress, assist and serve when required.

Customers scan in barcoded items they want to purchase and use the interactive touchscreen to select non-barcoded products from a menu of made-to-order fresh and hot food.

Developed by application developer Hoodoo, the software takes advantage of Infinity APIs to expose product, pricing and inventory data in real-time and easily add new capabilities. It’s lightning-fast, with an intuitive, easy-to-navigate interface and runs on any hardware device.

This simple yet sophisticated approach offers significant benefits for c-stores:

  • Speed up service: reduce queues and make it easier for customers to transact in less time to boost customer satisfaction and drive profits

  • Redeploy your staff: free up your people for more high-value tasks such as preparing food and engaging with customers. This reduces pressure on them and lifts productivity, creating efficiencies and higher profitability. Some large c-stores will be able to cut their headcount to reduce costs

  • Give customers choice: present all the available options and specials to each customer, step-by-step, and put them in control of their in-store experience

  • Increase order accuracy: integrate orders with your POS, customer and inventory systems to eliminate the possibility of errors or miscommunication

  • Boost upselling: make it easy for customers to add-on items to grow basket size and increase sales

  • Differentiate your CX: provide a modern, intuitive digital experience in stores to amplify your brand and create more memorable experiences.

Ordering and pickup options are next

The surge in self-service goes beyond self-serve purchases – consumers want new options for ordering and order pick-up as well.

Mobile ordering boosts sales and profits by letting customers place and pay for their order in advance using a mobile app. When they reach the store, all they need to do is pick up the order and go. Some fuel retailer apps let customers order items while they fill up, and an attendant delivers them to their vehicles.

Self-checkout options are extending to online ordering platforms. Convenience stores are drawing online shoppers into their physical stores by offering omnichannel services such as click-and-collect.

And home delivery has the potential to further enhance the customer service. Home delivery apps let c-stores drive sales and engage with new customers, while continuing to encourage their local communities to shop in store.

Consumers now expect digital convenience from c-stores

How quickly will you adopt self-serve solutions to differentiate your brand and deliver what customers want? 

If you’d like help to provide a streamlined and fast customer experience, get in touch. We’d love to help you deploy a self-serve solution to shorten queues, reduce wait times and help your team become more efficient.

New in Infinity – June 2022

Here’s new functionality across the Infinity platform that will help you unify your physical and digital channels, create a differentiated omnichannel experience, and let your teams work more efficiently.

Infinity is a modular platform and you may need additional components or licencing to access some functionality.

INFINITY API

Access real-time fuel inventory

Fuel retailers can now get a near real-time view of fuel inventory levels at branches, helping to simplify their stock management. Fuel tank dip values and inventory levels can now be regularly posted as an event notification for processing by external downstream systems, such as fuel delivery management software.

PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Easier updates to item costs

If your business uses Infinity’s inventory review function to manage price updates at branches, you can now update an item’s recommended cost at the branch when that item’s unit cost is updated at head office, saving you the time and effort of changing the cost manually. If you use Infinity ETL to bulk update item data, you also now have the option to update the recommended cost of an item for a specific branch or for all branches.

PRICING & PROMOTIONS

Launch new fuel promotions

Fuel retailers can now offer dollar-off fuel coupons with each fuel transaction, giving marketers another tool to incentivise customers to shop with them, and helping to increase customer retention and boost sales. It allows them to reach a different customer segment, with different purchase motivators.

REPORTS & ANALYTICS

Give stores access to sales data at-a-glance

You can now give your stores easy access to stripped-down sales information using the new Product Sales Summary Report. This report includes the number of individual items sold and total value, minus information you might want to exclude (such as costs or margins).

Better cash management reporting for branch managers

The Banking Transaction Report is now available at the Back Office, allowing branch managers to view the movement of money into and out of the trading location.

By viewing their banking deposits and receipt transactions, they can more easily reconcile bank statements or review cashflow within their store.

POINT OF SALE

Faster item data updates via Wedderburn scales integration

Infinity is now fully integrated with Wedderburn scales. This means that changes to item data in Infinity, such as price per kg, can be pushed directly to Wedderburn, rather than users having to update the prices again independently on the scales.

TECHNOLOGY

SQL Server Always On Availability Group

If your Head Office database is set up in an Always On Availability Group (AOAG) with appropriate read-only access, you can offload some Linker load to the read-only node to distribute the SQL activity for the Linker, thereby reducing the load on the primary SQL node. Note: At present, only one high-use query uses this feature.

To find out more about any of these enhancements and add them to your Infinity platform, contact us. 

If you’d like to get our regular ‘New in Infinity’ updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter.

The critical role of stores in digitising the retail customer experience

There’s been a massive shift in consumer expectations around convenience, connected shopping experiences and personalisation. Here’s how to use your stores to elevate and differentiate your customer experience.

Omnichannel retailers now see their stores as critically important assets to invest in.

Last year, US online sales grew faster than ecommerce for the first time ever - with physical stores growing at 18.5 percent versus ecommerce growth of 14 percent.

And while ecommerce growth is predicted to outpace growth through physical stores in future, the spotlight will remain on stores. For most omnichannel retailers, the growth of ecommerce actually means boosting their investments in physical retail.

That’s because the store is essential to creating and satisfying customer demand - even if the customer ultimately transacts online.

Stores can amplify brands by adding a tactile experience and human factor that isn’t possible online. Store staff build trusted relationships with customers through advice, service, support and sales. They are often better at acquiring customers and stimulating repeat purchases than digital channels.

Stores support ecommerce fulfilment and place inventory close to customers - the source of demand. Click and collect, ship from store and return in store are now routine ways to fulfil online orders. Without a store, many online orders would not happen, and would be unprofitable.

 

Our client, Cue Clothing, is a remarkable example of how to use stores for competitive advantage. Around 20 percent of its sales are online, but over 60 percent are fulfilled by stores instead of a dedicated warehouse. The introduction of endless aisle increased access to inventory eightfold to 80,000 items, leading to a 70 percent increase in conversions and 130 percent increase in overall sales. And Cue has also launched a range of award-winning in-store initiatives – including virtual styling and in-store wishlists - that are driving up conversions, increasing revenue and boosting customer loyalty.

 

So how can your stores play a bigger role in your CX transformation? 

Here are 3 areas to focus on to differentiate your store experience: 

1. Bring digital convenience to stores

Many retailers have relied on convenient physical locations and knowledgeable store staff to entice customers to visit them. But today’s digitally savvy consumers want a ‘joined-up’ omnichannel experience that doesn’t stop when they enter a store.

By reimagining the store customer experience and giving staff tools to connect with customers digitally, you'll bring a rich mix of human and digital interactions into stores.

  • Start by revamping the checkout experience. Offer fast, digital, contact-free point-of-sale transactions wherever the customers are - in the store, out in the warehouse or yard, at trade shows and pop-up stores. Ensure you can provide quotes and take cash sales or charge-to-account orders anywhere, with the flexibility to handle complex split orders, sales and returns.

  • Put customers in charge of their in-store experience by integrating digital services, such as the ability to look up loyalty points, access product information and add items to digital wishlists in stores.

  • Localised pricing will let your team offer up-to-date, competitive pricing and empower them to make better, on-the-spot decisions.

2. Use store fulfilment to increase ecommerce profitability

Retailers are working to optimise their processes and remodel stores into fulfilment centres to meet the explosion in demand for online orders fulfilled in stores.

However, many retail systems weren't built to provide real-time inventory so the challenge of knowing where stock is located across the store network causes missed sales and cancellations of online orders.

  • Create a single view of inventory across stores, online, mobile and warehouses to improve your return on inventory and maximise selling opportunities.

  • Use your stores as mini-distribution centres to give your customers a variety of delivery options, such as click-and-collect, store-to-door, drop ship and returns anywhere.

  • Endless aisle capabilities let you sell products not stocked in your current location and have them delivered to or collected by the customer.

3. Personalise customer experiences by extending digital into stores

With more customer journeys beginning online and store visits become more focussed and deliberate, customer expectations for a frictionless ‘one brand’ experience are rising.

However, many retailers have channel silos that mean any interaction or activity that the customer had with them online is largely unknown to store staff.

By connecting all your customer engagement points in near real time, you can deliver a holistic and personalised customer experience more consistently. That means treating each customer as the individual they are all the time – one person with one account, interacting with one unified brand.

  • Combine your customer, inventory and sales data from all channels and touchpoints and analyse your customer preferences. Use these insights to develop personalised communications, experiences and offers that drive customer satisfaction and loyalty.

  • Make this data available to your store staff. For example, provide your teams with access to relevant customer information, such as loyalty, wishlists and sales histories. Use AI technology to provide personalised upselling recommendations during click-and-collect pickups.

  • Extend these personalised recommendations into your other communications with customers, such as e-receipts and shipping notifications.

As you transform your stores to be the centre of your omnichannel experience, your POS and retail systems must transform as well. If you’re experiencing technology challenges that prevent you from unifying store and digital experiences, get in touch. We’d love to help you make stores play a bigger role in your CX strategy.

If you’re driving the CX transformation at your retail business, our unified commerce maturity model is the perfect tool to create your roadmap. Learn about the capabilities you need to create a rich mix of omnichannel experiences.