Customer Experience
Kelly Brown
Delivering a unified CX: liquor retail's new ...
Delivering a unified CX: liquor retail's new priority
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Kelly Brown
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Retail reboot: How to shut down budget blocks and reset your tech spend
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How new customer loyalty programmes fuel the c-store retail experience
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Kelly Brown
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Low tech, high risk: 8 signs your retail business is underinvesting in IT
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Stock smart: How to elevate the omnichannel CX ...
Stock smart: How to elevate the omnichannel CX with real-time inventory

The four trends shaking up liquor retail and four bold recommendations

As we reach the height of peak holiday season, most retailers are hard at work preparing for 2024. And the big question on everyone’s mind is how to battle declining sales growth. 

The outlook for next year is uncertain.  

While retail spending has slowed, with predictions of subdued sales until late calendar 2024, it’s not yet falling off a cliff. The latest ABS/MST Marquee data also reveals that liquor retail is holding up well compared to other categories, with liquor sales rising 2.2% in September. 

But as retail spending starts to lose share of wallet to non-retail spending – like travel, dining out, housing and health - retailers are urgently looking at how to boost sales growth. 

To secure a profitable future for your liquor retail business, you’ll want to understand the latest trends transforming our industry.  

Here’s the outlook for liquor retail, plus the four steps to take to remain relevant: 

1. Digital-first world order 

A compelling in-store experience that is harmonised with a digital offering can be leveraged for competitive advantage.  

Global online alcohol sales are back at pre-pandemic levels, with growth of 15.2% expected between 2022 to 2030. That is creating new online shopping habits and changing expectations of the in-store experience.   

As more customer journeys begin on mobile apps or online, and consumers increasingly demand digital convenience within stores, the ability to convert fleeting transactions into enduring relationships will rely heavily on unified experiences across all channels.   

Recommendation #1: Deliver a unified customer experience 

Liquor retailers will need to make shopping a fast, easy and compelling omnichannel experience with personalised products, prices and promotions pre, during and post their purchases, plus fast and frictionless on-demand delivery options.   

2. Changing consumer behaviours 

Liquor stores that deliver a unified and memorable CX are best positioned for long-term growth and loyalty.  

Changing consumer preferences and rising expectations for convenience are creating new growth opportunities.   

Conscious consumption is driving sales of local and sustainable alcohol brands. An increased focus on balanced lifestyles has fuelled the no- and low-alcoholic drinks category, with global sales topping $11bn in 2022 and growth accelerating. There’s explosive growth in ready-to-drink (RTD) and canned cocktails, and a continuing rise in premiumisation and viral craft cocktails.  

Recommendation #2: Adapt products to meet consumer expectations 

Liquor retailers need to create a distinctive omnichannel customer experience by developing a strong brand, offering tailored convenience, expanding the breadth of their product offerings (or moving into specialist categories) and generating new revenue streams.   

3. Economic headwinds 

High inflation, increased costs, supply chain disruptions and changing workforce roles are creating financial pressures.  

The liquor retail sector has changed significantly over the past decade. Independent retailers are increasingly joining banner groups, and brick-and-mortar retailers face formidable competition from new entrants, such as on-demand delivery providers and online-only retailers.  

With increasing costs, pressure on consumer spending and the cost of doing business on the rise, there’s likely to be more consolidation and business failures. The climate crisis is also putting pressure on retailers to create a sustainable future for their businesses and the planet.  

Recommendation #3: Embrace complexity to build new capabilities 

Resilient companies invest during tough times, and evolving new businesses takes a long time. Those that don’t invest in their customer experience will get left behind.  

4. Rise of services businesses 

Services are a tremendous growth opportunity for retailers – and a way to start building ecosystems that satisfy more consumer needs.  

Retailers can achieve up to 20 to 30% additional growth by expanding into services businesses and developing ecosystems that attract and retain loyal customers. Technology is blurring industry lines and allowing different operators – including retailers – to move into services such as healthcare, finances, travel and entertainment. 

Retail media networks are emerging as one example in liquor retail. A retail media network is a retailer’s advertising platform where they can sell ad space across all their digital assets, such as their website, apps, social channels and in-store digital screens. 

The most significant benefit of a retail media network for retailers is that they can monetise their valuable first-party data by selling and delivering relevant ads to customers – resulting in a better customer experience, stronger supplier partnerships and a new, high-margin revenue stream.   

By offering suppliers the opportunity to promote their products through their store networks and digital assets, it enables supply partners to reach the right audience - people interested in purchasing alcohol and legally entitled to do so – and boosts their sales at the point of purchase.  

Recommendation #4: Monetise your customer data by selling advertising 

With the alcohol industry’s advertising spend expected to reach $6bn in 2023, liquor retailers are launching retail media subsidiaries to capitalise on the advertising revenue opportunity and drive additional new growth for their business.  

Are you experiencing technology challenges that prevent you from exploit these trends and opportunities? 

Our partnerships with retailers delivering disruptive, world-first experiences give us a deep understanding of changing consumer needs and technology trends. Get in touch if you’re looking for help to develop a unified customer journey. 

Want to deliver every customer a personalised, fast and seamless experience? 

Get our ebook to find out how to revamp the liquor retail CX.  

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 the strain of labour shortages continues to impact all retailers.  

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 six significant benefits for c-stores:  

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

  2. 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 further reduce costs 

  3. 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 

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

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

  6. 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. 

This blog was originally published August 2022 and updated on 13 November 2023. 

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. 

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

New in Infinity – October 2023

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

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

INFINITY API

Enhance ecosystem integrations by accessing more transaction source data

As part of our continual expansion of Cloud Events payloads, we’ve included additional information about the transaction source, as well as any information about the use of external loyalty cards and fuel coupons, to allow you to enrich your integration with ecosystem platforms. 

Streamline sharing of sales data with ecosystem partners 

You can now use the Infinity Cloud Events service to securely share sales of specific products with ecosystem partners without having to waste time and resources manually cleansing and redacting data.  

PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Automate shelf pricing updates with Pricer integration 

Keeping your shelf pricing up to date, especially during a promotional period, can be time consuming and costly. Using Infinity's new integration with Pricer software, you can reduce labour costs by harnessing the power of real-time electronic pricing. The integration regularly sends the latest Infinity pricing information to Pricer, saving you the effort of manually updating prices and ensuring your shelf pricing is always current. 

Boost efficiency with ETL tool item selection enhancements 

Bulk exporting and updating item data using the ETL tool is easier and more efficient now that you can select items by subdepartment and product class rather than just by department, giving you more focused and targeted results.  

INVENTORY

Streamline inventory management by stock taking any time of day 

Businesses can find it hard to fit stock taking around the need to keep trading. Infinity Cloud now allows you to stock take during trading hours at a time that suits you and then refresh stock data at the Back Office, meaning you don’t miss any sales that happened during the stock take.  

Save time and effort when receipting multiple stock transfers 

If your business chooses to reduce transportation costs by shipping multiple stock transfers from your warehouse in a single delivery, you can now use Infinity Cloud to receipt all the goods in that delivery at the same time. When the consignment arrives, your store staff can simply scan the goods and Infinity will deal with the hassle of matching them to the right stock transfer, saving you time and effort.  

Simplify checks of shelf price labels using mobile devices 

Verifying shelf-edge pricing, particularly during a promotion, can be difficult for store staff, who have to match the shelf price to the price recorded at the POS station. To overcome this, Infinity Cloud now allows store operators to see both the standard price and the single product promo price on a mobile device as they move around the store. 

CUSTOMERS & LOYALTY

Increase accuracy of fuel loyalty balances via manual adjustments 

Loyalty program administrators in fuel businesses can now create both positive and negative manual adjustments to cents-per-litre balances, giving them more control over suspicious transactions and instances where operator error has inflated the balance.    

PRICING & PROMOTIONS  

Simplify the setup of quantity-based promotions 

If you use quantity break/price bands, you can now use additional price adjustment options to simplify and optimise the setup of scale pricing rules. By enabling price fields 2-8 on the item master, you can define a single rule to manage multiple items, reducing the overhead in maintaining these rules.   

POINT OF SALE

Improve security and employee safety with contactless cash recycling 

Handling cash is a financial and security risk for all retailers. Infinity’s new cash recycler integration improves your peace of mind by taking the responsibility for processing cash payments away from store staff and giving it to the recycler machine instead. This reduces both the chance of staff error when giving out change and the risk of theft, while also allowing you to enjoy the benefits of contactless cash handling.   

Boost profits by removing credit option from Windcave EFTPOS 

Customers who use the credit option when paying by EFTPOS as a way of circumventing the credit card processing fee cost your business precious revenue. To overcome this, you can now configure payment options at the point of sale so that when the customer chooses to pay by Windcave EFTPOS they must debit either their cheque or savings account, rather than using the credit option.   

Let customers quickly and easily self-scan loyalty cards on Magellan scales 

Infinity Loyalty now supports the use of Magellan scanner scales for scanning Loyalty cards, optimising the search for Loyalty customers at the Point of Sale.  

INTEGRATIONS

Speed up GRNI reconciliation in Xero 

Reconciling the GRNI account postings in Xero is faster and more efficient now that the original purchase order number displays on purchase order goods receipts.  

TECHNOLOGY

Accelerate upgrades with fewer exceptions  

We've enhanced the Infinity Upgrade Service to accommodate situations where applications are running that may block the upgrade from updating files in the Infinity folder. This will result in fewer exceptions needing attention post-upgrade, reducing the time pressures on technical staff.    

Support for diverse scale hardware at site level 

Businesses that configure scales at the site level can now set station-specific scale configurations, allowing for mixed hardware options to be supported.  

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 downturn begins: Craig Woolford on how convenience retail can battle declining sales growth 

There’s been regular debate about this year’s retail sales slowdown – when is the tipping point, how long will it last and how far will it drop? MST Marquee analyst Craig Woolford recently shared the outlook for convenience retail, plus three opportunities to exploit and three challenges to anticipate. 

Last month I attended ACAPMA’s excellent 2023 Asia Pacific Fuel Industry (APFI) Forum event in Brisbane. With attendees spanning fuel retailers and suppliers from across our region, it sparked lively discussions on the trends changing mobility and convenience retail. 

One of the highlights was a keynote from Craig Woolford of MST Marquee on the outlook for convenience retail in Australia. It included valuable insights for fuel and c-store operators across our region. 

Retail spending has slowed, but is not falling off a cliff 

Craig began by sharing the latest MST Marquee/ABS data showing how overall retail sales growth is slowing. While there was growth of 3% year on year for the three months to July 2023, interest rate increases have triggered a drop in consumer sentiment and spending slowdown. 

Craig predicts the trough in retail sales to arrive late calendar 2023. And while income tax cuts make him more positive for fiscal 2025, he predicts sales will be subdued until late calendar 2024, making it a lean 18 months for retailers. 

The data showed divergence between the major retail categories. Dining out is holding up well, alongside sales growth in supermarket, liquor, pharmacy and beauty, but volumes are generally weak. 

Retail spending is also starting to lose share of wallet to non-retail spending. Craig explained that this is the ‘normalisation’ path for consumers as we gradually revert to pre-Covid spending behaviours. Travel and dining out are winning our share of spend, along with ‘needs’ like housing and health.  

While there are several drivers for the slowdown this year, Craig described three key swing factors - drags from fading price inflation and higher interest rates, and a boost from consumer drawdowns on household savings. 

Opportunities in convenience retail  

Craig explained that convenience retailers can look to boost sales growth in three key areas:   

1. Exploit growth in dining out 

The trend towards dining out highlights a consumer now looking for convenience, not just experience. Consumer preferences long-term have moved from in-home dining towards dining out, with employment growth, excess savings and inbound tourism all supporting this trend. 

There’s an opportunity for convenience retailers to capture share in dining out, with cafes and fresh food customised to sites and regions. 

2. Drive up basket size through an expanded range  

The major supermarket chains generate good sales productivity through convenient store locations and a favourable basket mix, with average basket size around AU$45-50. Craig urged attendees to think about what could drive a 15-20% higher basket spend for their business. 

Successful retailers are building basket size through range extension. We’re seeing this with our own fuel and convenience retail clients, with many focussed on expanding their c-store offerings (combined with the potential of EV charging in fuel retail). 

3. Tap growth in online food retail by offering fulfilment 

Online retail accounts for around 7% of the entire food industry, spanning supermarkets, convenience, restaurants and takeaways. Craig described how it will continue to grow in high single digits, but the cost of fulfilment remains a barrier to a viable online food offering.  

C-store retailers can play a role by developing new business models that take advantage of convenient locations to become home delivery hubs. 

Challenges to anticipate  

Craig closed his keynote by sharing three challenges likely to test the mettle of convenience retailers:  

  • Declining tobacco sales: Tobacco sales are falling 10-15% and the fall is faster in some convenience channels, with tobacconists winning share. The tobacco industry is grappling with illicit tobacco and vaping, but with “limited government action” to address the problems.  

  • Rising wage costs: The 5.75% increase in retail award rates and 0.5% superannuation levy rise have made wage cost growth a problem into 2024 and beyond, with rates likely to rise by more than 4% in fiscal 2025. Craig said the Australian Fair Work Commission tends to take a balanced approach but noted that wage rate growth is currently less than inflation and could result in wage rate growth ahead of inflation in fiscal 2025. 

  • Rising occupancy costs: JLL Research has said that the forecast pipeline of new floor space will be just 37% of the 10-year historical average, with construction costs and high interest rates limiting new projects. That means floor space growth will be tight and could drive up rents. 

Are you looking for new ways to drive c-store revenue and profitability? 

Our partnerships with fuel and convenience retailers delivering disruptive, world-first experiences give us a deep understanding of changing consumer needs and technology trends. Get in touch if you’re looking for help to reduce costs, boost productivity and improve margins. 

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

What’s the difference between unified commerce and omnichannel?

In recent years, the terms ‘unified commerce’ and ‘omnichannel’ have reached buzzword status. Both are used to describe the delivery of seamless customer experiences across physical and digital channels.

But while they’re used interchangeably, there’s a significant difference between them.

Unified commerce is the next-generation architecture that finally delivers on what omnichannel promised.

 A unified commerce platform provides a central hub that breaks down the silos between channels to deliver truly seamless experiences, while also solving omnichannel’s biggest weakness – operational complexity.

 At a time when only 25% of retailers can connect their online and in-store transaction data it’s gaining momentum, with 20% of retailers heavily investing in it, 32% beginning to invest and 36% considering doing so. And retailers who used unified commerce in 2022 saw a solid 7% revenue boost over those who did not.

Omnichannel offers options, but creates operational complexity

Omnichannel strategies talked about creating a seamless and consistent customer experience across all channels, but the execution has left a large gap in the user experience. 

Why? Retailers have to quickly spin up new channels as consumers demand them. An omnichannel approach does connect numerous channels, but they all operate in functional silos. That means customers can’t hop between channels in one seamless interaction and most attempts to deliver unified experiences fall well short. 

Omnichannel makes things much harder for retailers in five ways: 

  • Integrating data silos: Often loosely connected with manual processes and custom integrations, omnichannel solutions are fragile, inefficient and costly to maintain. The silos generate a cascade of inconsistent, inaccurate data shared across the business, making it virtually impossible to deliver a seamless customer experience. 

  • Inventory that isn’t real time: Many omnichannel systems only access rudimentary sales and inventory positions. This prevents retailers from offering the ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ options that are best for customers and most profitable for them. 

  • Adding modern technologies and capabilities: Connecting legacy systems with modern technologies requires custom integrations, making the creation of new brand experiences complex, expensive, time consuming and risky. 

  • Obtaining a single view of the customer: Silos negatively impact customers because they have to deal with inconsistencies and gaps, such as partial sales histories, different answers to questions or having to start new conversations in each channel. 

  • Loss of innovation: Day-to-day inefficiencies mean that internal teams are tied up in remediation and troubleshooting and have less time to spend on creating the innovative, personalised experiences customers desire. 

Here’s an example of how omnichannel creates operational complexity:

An omnichannel architecture could allow a retailer to look up inventory across all its stores but they would struggle to make all items available online. This is because many retailers have items that are difficult to ship, such as fragile items, dangerous goods or large and bulky or heavy products. With no ability to create customised views of inventory to make them available for click and collect but exclude them from home delivery or inter-store transfers, they can only offer these items in stores.

Omnichannel-Box.jpg

Unified commerce puts the customer experience first 

Customers today 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. 

The only way to meet these demands for a truly unified experience is to move beyond omnichannel to unified commerce. 

Unified commerce is an architectural approach that delivers seamless customer journeys across all channels, touchpoints and locations. 

It breaks down the walls between internal channel silos by using a centralised commerce platform that combines point of sale, inventory, ordering and fulfilment, loyalty, pricing and business intelligence. 

With a unified view of the customer, and all channels and engagement points connected in real-time, you can deliver a personalised and consistent customer experience.  

Your customers get a ‘one brand’ experience: one person with one account, interacting with one unified brand. No hitches, and no inconsistencies. 

You can make purchasing online and in-stores more seamless and convenient through endless aisle, digital payments and ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ services. 

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

A unified commerce platform enriches your customer experience and positively impacts your entire business in so many ways:

  • Simplify your technology

  • Accelerate speed to market

  • Optimise inventory and availability

  • Boost in-store productivity and sales

  • Personalise your customer experience

  • Create relevant and agile experiences. 

unified-commerce-box.jpg

This blog was originally published in January 2020 and updated 17 October 2023.

Want help to reduce operational complexity?

We can help you define your goals, develop a business case and create your roadmap to simplified operations and unified customer experiences. Get in touch.

For insights into how a unified commerce approach gives you the flexibility and agility you need to keep in step with consumers’ changing needs, download our ebook:

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.

For most omnichannel retailers, the growth of ecommerce has meant 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. 

Consumers now see both the online and offline shopping experience as part of the same buying journey and not as one versus the other. Investments in unified commerce to unify the store and online experience are gaining momentum, with 20% of retailers heavily investing in it, 32% beginning to invest and 36% considering doing so. Retailers who used unified commerce in 2022 saw a 7% revenue boost over those who did not.  

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

  • Store loyalty captures more share of wallet 

Today’s shoppers are purposeful and discerning. They don’t just compare your service to that of your competitors, but to the best service they’ve ever received, anywhere, any time. They want consistency across your channels, recognition wherever they shop with you and a relationship with your brand.  

With the ability to see, touch and feel products and assess alternatives, stores are important for marketing and customer acquisition. Store conversion rates are typically 20-40% - around ten times more than ecommerce channels (only 2.5-3%). And the store remains the dominant sales channel, still generating more than 70% of sales.  

  • Stores shorten delivery times 

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.  

  • Stores set the stage for experiences 

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 personalised recommendations. They are often better at acquiring customers and stimulating repeat purchases than digital channels. And self-service technologies can create an easy and fast experience at transactional moments of the in-store journey.  

 

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. People who use digital while they shop in-store convert at a 20 percent higher rate compared to those who do not use digital as part of the shopping journey. 

  • 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.

This post was originally published June 2022 and updated on 25 September 2023.

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.

Success or surrender: 5 critical moves for rescuing a failing retail software project, plus when to cut your losses

Has your retail software project hit rock bottom?

In my last blog, I talked about why many retailers fail to achieve the expected ROI from their retail management software investments and shared five tests a new purchase must pass.

In this blog, we’ll look at what to do when a software project goes wrong.

Enterprise software failure rates are remarkably high, though naturally rarely discussed in public! For some companies, their investments become a black hole, sucking up funds and resources to rescue the project. Others lead to serious business disruptions when the software goes live and the loss of innovations that deliver a competitive edge.

So how do you resurrect a failed software project and, more significantly, what are the important signs it’s time to cut your losses and walk away?

There are five steps to take to salvage a failing software project, or rebuild after a failure:

Step 1: Rethink your game plan and goals

Take another look at the original project plan and strategic objectives. Adjust them to fit the new reality and the challenges you've faced. Then set realistic expectations and lay out clear objectives for moving forward. Maybe you need to tweak the timeline, shuffle resources or reconsider the budget? A fresh plan gives you a chance to gain momentum and start over.

Step 2: Take a good hard look at what went wrong

Figure out the specific issues and challenges that caused the project to falter. Was it poor planning, bad program management, miscommunication or technical shortcomings? Communicate openly with all the stakeholders involved and listen to their take on the situation. Working together and sharing ideas will foster trust, encourage problem-solving and ensure everyone is on the same page regarding the path forward.

Step 3: Take stock of your team

Are the people and team dynamics that got you to this point capable of turning the project around? Check that the individuals have got the right skills for the job and are aligned with the revised project goals. Examine the team dynamics and make sure your leaders are up to the task. A great team can often turn things around.

Step 4: Call in the experts

If the project is in a critical state, it’s probably time to bring in outside help. Get on board external consultants and software vendors with real-world experience in the current disrupted retail environment. Ask them to provide guidance, identify areas to improve and suggest potential solutions. They'll have managed complex, large-scale deployments and can provide new perspectives and bridge skills gaps to get things back on track.

Step 5: Take action and keep tabs on progress

Take actions to remedy the identified issues and implement corrective measures. Whether it's changing team members, improving communication, adjusting workflows or adopting new project management methodologies, implement the fixes needed to address the issues. Keep a close eye on the progress, track the key performance indicators (KPIs), and have regular status updates to make sure things are heading in the right direction.

But what do you do when you’ve completed all these moves and the project is still floundering?

If the project is still not delivering real value after taking these steps, it can mean the wrong product was selected. Any software purchase that doesn’t meet its target ROI is a failure. And at a time when consumer confidence is low and customer expectations are rising, new technology investments are being held to an even higher standard.

Sometimes making the uncomfortable decision to cut your losses and start the process of finding a new software provider is the right thing to do.

While it may first register as a loss, it could end up being the best thing that ever happened to your retail business.

Here are the indicators that mean it's time to pull the plug and start over:

  • Misalignment with business KPIs: If the project no longer aligns with your strategic goals or the original business objectives have significantly shifted, it's a fundamental mismatch.  When the deviation is substantial and irreconcilable, it's best to cut ties and focus on initiatives that do.

  • Unrecoverable delays: If the project keeps getting delayed without any end in sight, it's a red flag. When the delays are significant and impact the project's viability or business objectives, it’s time to assess whether the proposed solution is even feasible.

  • Escalating costs: If the project costs are skyrocketing and return on investment isn't looking promising, it may be financially unsustainable to continue. When cost overruns outweigh the expected gains, it’s better to cut your losses and move on.

  • Susceptibility to the sunk cost fallacy:  This is our tendency to follow through on a project if we have already invested time, effort, emotion or money into it, whether or not the current costs outweigh the benefits. Any unrecoverable costs sunk in the past are irrelevant when deciding what to do next.

  • Insurmountable technical challenges: If the project faces technical obstacles or limitations that can’t be overcome within a reasonable timeframe, it’s an indication that the solution is not suitable or feasible. When the problems are too big to fix or would require a complete overhaul, the software is not the right fit.

  • Stakeholders withdraw support: When important stakeholders lose confidence in the solution or no longer provide support, it's a clear message. If the solution cannot realistically recover to meet their expectations, it’s time to consider ending it.

Making the call to exit a failing software project is tough, but often necessary.

It’s an opportunity to find a solution that best meets your particular needs, allowing you to create real, sustainable value for your retail business.

Want help to assess the viability of your software project?

If your project is not delivering the returns you expected, we can help you navigate the complex issues and find the right path forward. Just contact me at kelly.brown@triquestra.com or get in touch.

For insights into how a unified commerce approach gives you the flexibility and agility you need to keep in step with consumers’ changing needs, download our ebook:



Your four stages to unifying customer experiences

Can you deliver to changing customer needs? Here’s how to simplify and streamline interactions with your brand and fulfil the promise of omnichannel retail.

1

Get tight control of your inventory

2

Extend your brand experience across all channels

3

Create delightful, personalised shopping experiences

4

Innovate, innovate, innovate

Omnichannel retail promised to make things better for customers by delivering unified shopping experiences, but the execution has left gaps in the user experience.  

Shoppers today have numerous selling channels available to them, but silos mean that customers can’t just hop between channels in one seamless interaction and must deal with inconsistencies that lead to disappointment and frustration. 

Omnichannel has also made it much tougher for retailers. Today it’s not just about providing multiple options – it’s about delivering a frictionless experience no matter where or when customers shop. This variety is overwhelming retailers, with 47% saying there are too many channels for them to effectively deliver the best experience.  

And many omnichannel set-ups neglect to take full take advantage of stores, which provide unparalleled opportunities to provide excellent service and personalised recommendations to retain loyal customers, as well as take on activities such as returns, fulfilment, endless aisle orders, in-store wishlists and more. 

That’s why retailers are moving from omnichannel to an integrated unified commerce platform strategy.  

Unified commerce makes it easy to meet and even exceed customer expectations by creating a ‘one brand’ experience everywhere your customers shop while solving the problems and restrictions of omnichannel retail.  

It’s gaining momentum, with 20% of retailers heavily investing in unified commerce, 32% beginning to invest and 36% considering doing so. Retailers who used unified commerce in 2022 saw an impressive 7% revenue boost over those who did not.  

And the transition to unified commerce is simpler than many think.  

Retailers can quickly reap the benefits by following these four stages:

Stage 1: Get tight control of your inventory

Ensure you can accurately manage your inventory levels across all your locations and customer touchpoints by centralising your inventory information in near real time.  

With a unified inventory management system in place, you can guarantee you’ve got the right inventory available in each location, without carrying the cost of overstocking or “buffers”. You can optimise your product range by matching stock to each store’s location, community and demographics while still giving access to your complete range via endless aisle. You can also react to trends quickly, and forecast demand based on historical data, sales forecasts and seasonal variations.

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See how Night ‘n Day started with inventory to create great customer experiences and increase net profit by around $12,000 a year for each store.

 

Stage 2: Extend your brand experience across all channels

Once your inventory is under control, you’re free to increase your purchasing, ordering and fulfilment options. To do that, you’ll need to move from multichannel silos to a unified commerce platform that provides a strong order management capability.  

Exposing, rather than replicating, inventory and customer data from your platform to each channel means everything stays in sync. Your staff and customers will have consistent product visibility and can expect fluid and accurate interactions, whether in-store, on mobile or online.  

And with real-time data on stock levels, you’ll be able to see where inventory is located, find the lowest cost or fastest fulfilment route, and provide better promotions. 

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Here’s how Cue Clothing is using unified commerce to combine physical and digital channels into a ‘one-brand’ experience.

 

Stage 3: Create delightful, personalised shopping experiences

Now you can build genuinely meaningful customer experiences. With a single view of customer, order and inventory data, you can treat each customer as an individual, all the time – one person with one account, interacting with one unified brand. 

Make your loyalty programme your cornerstone for innovation, delivering the unified and personalised experiences customers expect. Use AI and data from online and offline channels to deliver timely and personalised communications, recommendations, offers and rewards across in-store and digital touchpoints, including desktop web, mobile web, mobile apps, email and social. 

By delivering each customer a powerful, tailored, one-of-a-kind experience across all channels and touchpoints, you’ll create rich emotional connections, drive up conversions and send transaction values soaring.

 

Stage 4: Innovate

Your unified commerce platform is now your hub for innovation - a springboard for adding new channels and services to take advantage of new capabilities and deliver results at a speed and scale that would be unachievable within a traditional omnichannel model. 

By using agile methodologies and APIs to expose data and functions, and easily plug in and deploy new services, channels and devices, you’ll reduce integration and maintenance overheads, increase real-time accuracy and enjoy virtually limitless scalability and agility. And by seamlessly embedding purchasing opportunities into everyday activities, you’ll make the shopping experience seamless for the consumer. 

The end result is the ability to create extraordinary customer experiences that help to capture market opportunities, generate additional revenue and build brand advocacy. 

See how APIs can help you innovate at pace and build powerful ecosystems to give customers extraordinary experiences.

 

This post was originally published May 2019 and updated on 28 August 2023.

If you’re urgently revamping your omnichannel capabilities and want advice on which projects to tackle first, our checklist could help. It will let you assess where you are at against retail leaders and decide what you need to improve. Download it here.

Show me the ROI: 5 tests to justify your retail software purchase

Are traditional ROI measures good enough in today's environment?  

Everyone’s focused on ROI for their enterprise technology purchases nowadays. ROI has always been important, but at a time when consumer confidence is low and customer expectations continue to rise, new technology investments are being held to an even higher standard.  

But making the shift to a new retail management system can be difficult.  

Research has shown enterprise software failure rates range from 30-70%, and some observers say that fewer than 10% of major software purchases fully meet expectations. Stories  about  outright software failures do appear in the media, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg - people don’t talk publicly about failures because they do not want to be associated with them.  

For some companies, their investments become a black hole, sucking up funds to salvage the situation. They pour money and resources into further development, implementation and maintenance, only to find after a few years that they’ve fallen by the wayside.   

And many projects may not be outright failures but lead to serious business disruption when the software goes live. Chaotic stores frustrate customers, supply chains go haywire, data integrity and security can be compromised, employee frustration kills productivity and integration challenges hinder efficient operations.  

Plus there’s the loss of innovations that can give you a competitive edge. A successful solution will be implemented faster than expected and meet or exceed the expected ROI, letting you create frictionless and differentiated omnichannel customer experiences that drive loyalty and grow revenue.  

You don’t want a project that fails to deliver the desired returns because the wrong product was selected.  

So how do you justify your technology investment?  

There are five tests technology purchases need to pass, and the first is the most important by far: 

Test 1: Does it deliver your strategy and help drive forward your KPI's?

Evaluate how the software will help to achieve the strategic goals and objectives of your organisation.   

It should be a solution to the challenges you face or help you take advantage of new opportunities. It needs to offer clear benefits like boosting productivity, cutting costs, improving customer satisfaction or increasing revenue. If it doesn't directly address your needs, it's probably not the right fit. 

Test 2: Does it deliver REAL value?

The ‘shiny object’ syndrome is prevalent in retail. People can get fixated on the latest trends and fail to assess how the investment helps to deliver a return on investment.   

How much will the system cost in terms of licenses, implementation, training and maintenance? Compare those costs to the benefits you expect to see. Consider both the tangible and intangible returns, such as increased revenue, reduced operational costs, improved decision-making, enhanced scalability or competitive advantage. A positive ROI should be evident over a reasonable timeframe.  

Test 3: Does it deliver operational savings?

People are your most important resource. If your investment saves them time, that frees them up to work on higher value activities.   

The system should be user-friendly with intuitive workflows and features that align with users' needs and preferences. You want a solution that your store and head office staff can easily adopt and start using right away. No one wants to deal with complicated interfaces or spend hours in training sessions. And a solution that provides a positive user experience will yield higher productivity gains and better overall results. 

Test 4: Can it grow with you and adapt to change?

Assess whether the system can scale and adapt to your organisation's changing needs. It should be able to handle more data, channels and touchpoints, easily integrate with other systems, be flexible enough to adapt to new technologies and scale to provide long-term value.  

You don't want to be stuck with an outdated or narrow point solution that won’t let you evolve to meet changing customer needs.  

Test 5: Can you rely on the vendor for new functionality and ongoing support?

Biggest isn’t always best. A mid-sized company will have fewer layers of bureaucracy, giving them more agility and responsiveness. It also means that you’ll be an important customer of influence to your partner - they will value your business and work hard for it.  

Assess the reputation and support provided by the vendor. Do they have a good track record of successful implementations in the current, disrupted omnichannel retail climate, with customer reviews and references?  

Are they known for their customer service? You’ll want a partner that will be there for you when you need it, ensuring you can easily add new functionality and connect to third party systems (via APIs) to cultivate your retail ecosystem. 

By putting your potential software investment through these five tests, you’ll find a solution that meets your needs and is cost-effective, adaptable, user-friendly and supported by a trusted and reliable partner.  

Want help to ensure your software investment pays off? 

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

For insights into 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 – August 2023

Here’s new functionality across the Infinity platform that will help you unify your physical and digital channels and deliver to changing customer needs. 

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

PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Streamline stock sorting by setting preferred sort criteria 

It’s now easier to sort and find stock items in Infinity using the criteria that makes the most sense to your business. When you browse for items in the inventory, your previous sort selection will be retained for the next session. So, for example, if you prefer to sort items by description, they will automatically be sorted in that order the next time you open Infinity.   

Empower store staff to control stock at new stores 

We’ve streamlined the effort involved in creating a new branch by providing a choice of which stock items will be sent to the store. When inventory items are copied from a source branch to the new branch, you can choose to only send the active items, or decide to set them all active and send them all. This empowers store staff to decide which items they want to keep, giving them more control over their stock. It also means your Head Office staff no longer have to be involved in setting up the inventory for a new store.  

Manage financial risks by setting store-specific cash limits 

Keeping cash in the cash drawer can be one of the most important financial and security risks your stores face on a day-to-day basis, and those risks can differ across branches. You can now empower stores to handle those risks in the way that meets their needs by allowing them to set their own cash drawer limits.   

Keep promotions running smoothly during franchise ownership changes 

Changing franchise ownership in the middle of a promotional cycle can be disruptive and potentially cost your stores valuable revenue. You can now minimise that disruption by easily transferring existing pricing and promotions when a store moves from one cluster in your organisation to another. This saves you having to recreate the promotions and means offers keep running without missing a beat. 

INVENTORY

Make supplier searches easy with non-case sensitive name check 

We’ve improved the user experience when creating purchase orders and receipts by making the supplier name check non-case sensitive. This means that you will find the supplier without any trouble when there’s a difference in the capitalisation of their name on the item record and the supplier record.   

CUSTOMERS & LOYALTY

Speed up loyalty prepay enquiries with full transaction info 

Your Loyalty support staff can answer Loyalty prepay customer transaction enquiries more quickly now that they can see more details about those transactions, including the date, the receipt number and the external transaction code.    

Improve efficiency during cents-per-litre rule searches 

Searching for specific cents-per-litre rules has been made more seamless and less time-consuming now that fuel administrators can easily filter and sort them.   

Customise error messages when external fuel balances unavailable 

Your Loyalty program administrator can now be warned that a customer’s external partner cents-per-litre fuel balance is currently unavailable using an error message that meets your customised business needs.  

POINT OF SALE

Boost sales by providing customers with estimated arrival dates 

Securing a sale can sometimes come down to being able to tell the customer that the item they really want to buy will soon be available. Infinity now allows your store staff to see more details about the estimated arrival date of goods on purchase orders, as well as quantities on draft orders, allowing them to drive sales by giving customers the information they need to make purchasing decisions.  

Seamlessly switch POS stations for faster transactions via auto-logout 

At busy times, your sales staff may need to switch between POS stations to process a high volume of transactions quickly, while also allowing you to keep track of who processed the sales. To meet these simultaneous needs, Infinity can now log users out after a set amount of time, rather than locking the entire station. This keeps the sales process moving while not compromising on the audit trail. This feature is also useful between shifts if a user forgets to log out and means the next user can log in without having to involve a manager in unlocking the station.  

Customise age-check policies store-by-store 

If your business sells items that have an age restriction and you use Infinity’s advanced age check module, age policies can now be set on a store-by-store basis. This is especially useful if your stores operate as franchises and franchisees want to apply different policies. So, for example, one store can decide to age-check everyone who looks under 30, while another store decides to check everyone who looks younger than 25.  

Enhance fuel transaction monitoring by identifying legitimate test deliveries 

Monitoring fuel transactions using Digifort DVR is easier now that the video footage identifies the pumps used for test deliveries to ensure they were legitimate. 

INTEGRATIONS

Republish cloud event sales invoice transactions effortlessly 

Cloud event sales invoice transactions can now be republished to either RabbitMQ or Azure should they need to be resent to the system that consumes them, ensuring that all transactions are sent and accounted for.  

TECHNOLOGY

Support for latest Microsoft technologies 

Infinity now supports SQL Server 2022, the latest SQL Server version available from Microsoft. Note that SQL Server 2016 and higher require a 64-bit operating system.  

Faster POS setup with accelerated data replication 

Infinity Point of Sale will be ready to use much sooner following improvements to the setup process. Accelerated data replication can reduce the time it takes to perform the initial setup data synchronisation down to just a few minutes, depending on network speeds and the amount of data involved.  

Reduce costs with enhanced Wishlist integration 

Infinity’s integration with the Wishlist company now supports a multi-tenanted back-end.  

Effortless safety sheet distribution with API integration 

If you sell dangerous goods, distributing material safety sheets across your business can now be done via an API back-end, optimising the management of these documents and saving you the trouble of having to make them available on a site-by-site basis. 

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

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