Digital stores are the stores of the future, transform your store to provide an incomparable new shopping experience 

The Digital Store: Transforming Retail in 10 Simple Steps

Digital stores are the stores of the future. This is because these days, with both fierce competition from e-commerce and customers with more options and expectations than ever before, nothing should be left to chance. Because a positive visit to a store becomes an experience that leaves a long-lasting impression.

Whilst store design and a customer-centric experience remain crucial, brands need to invest in technology to ensure stores can meet modern consumer’s expectations.

As more and more brands are competing for the shopping budget of fewer and fewer customers, the intention is to create customer loyalty towards the brand. To this end, the digitisation of stores creates a more seamless shopping experience and bridges the gap between online and offline shopping.

Digital Stores

What is a Digital Store?

Maybe you’re thinking of high-tech stores loaded with interactive touchscreens, and while those stores do exist, the truth is more that stores are becoming increasingly digitalised on a back-end and operational level. This is a trend we see in business in general, improving efficiency by digesting processes or using intelligent software.

So, what does this look like for brick-and-mortar stores? A digital transformation of a store is largely centred around a stores core offering – it’s products. Technology is being used to digitise the way products are processed, with RFID stocktakes, and managed, with digital applications.

Stores not only digitise time-consuming manual processes such as stocktakes and replenishment, but they also digitise the view of stock itself. This means stores have reliable visibility on all store inventory, on an item-level.  This allows for omnichannel services like click-and-collect and ensures the store experience is optimised to a point that it consistently delivers – no operational mistakes and no more disappointing customers with unavailable products.

Digital Store

What are the advantages of Digitising Stores?

The Digital transformation of stores delivers benefits all across the value chain.

For store staff on an operational level, they spend less time performing manual administrative tasks like inbound order processing or stock management – reducing labour costs and freeing up staff to attend to customers.

The store itself benefits from an accurate inventory meaning quicker reordering, fewer out-of-stocks, and ultimately higher sales.

If we zoom out a level to look at a network of multiple digitised stores the retailer can use this real-time view of stock to make better decisions run a smoother supply chain and build a first-class omnichannel offering.

The customer enjoys a friction-less experience with fewer out-of-stocks, staff who know exactly what is available both in their store and online, and convenient purchasing options like click-and-collect.

Benefits for the store 

  • Real-time control over inventory and more efficient replenishment
  • Greater inventory accuracy
  • Quicker reordering
  • Reduction in reserve stock
  • Increase in staff efficiency
  • Increased sales

Benefits for the customer

  • Reduces out-of-stocks, reduces disappointment
  • Able to get accurate information on stock levels both online and in-store
  • Convenient omnichannel features like click-and-collect
  • Staff have more time and more information to assist customers with

The 10 Steps to Building the Digital Store

Here’s what you have to do as a retailer to strategically set up your stores for digitalisation:

 

1)  Lay the foundation for real-time article accuracy with RFID-based labelling

2)  Accelerate the process of goods-inbound: delivery notifications, preparation on the sales floor, check-in of merchandise even if the boxes are still unopened, bring merchandise faster to the sales floor

3)  Make use of effortless permanent inventory monitoring for a complete item transparency

4) Transform your sales personnel into more competent shopping consultants equipped with tablets and unburden them from administrative tasks

5) Set the stage for your brand through pure and spacious merchandise presentation with only a few items on the sales floor

6) Automate and speed up the replenishment process

7) Set up an early notification system to prevent out-of-stock situations

8) Retain the customers in the store by ensuring that they have access to real-time availability information

9) Ensure that you have an efficient click & collect system in place

10) Optimise the flow of merchandise from the central warehouse as well as between individual stores

The Detego Platform: A quick start to the digital store

The Detego Platform brings all of this together in an out-of-the-box solution, providing an easy and cost-effective fast track to the digital store.  It does so by utilising item-level RFID tagging combined with the Internet of Things (IoT), digitising store inventory via a mobile application.

By doing this the store knows exactly what merchandise they have, and more specifically what is in the backroom and on the sales floor. This increases inventory accuracy, on-floor availability and dramatically improves store efficiency. Additionally, as the Detego platform is built to fully integrate with existing tech like ERP systems, this real-time stock visibility can easily be made available to the customer including online stock enquiries, click and collect and click and reserve.

Detego Retail Store Application

Cloud-hosted RFID software

Stock Accuracy, On-Floor Availability, and Omnichannel Applications in Stores.

Detego Store is a cloud-hosted RFID solution which digitises stock management processes, making them more efficient and more accurate. Implemented within hours, our multi-user app can provide intelligent stock takes and a smart in-store replenishment process. Later, you can scale the solution to offer omnichannel services and effectively manage your entire store operations with real-time, item-level inventory visibility and analytics.

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