The retail houses often outline the customer service as one of the biggest challenges for the business. Effective communication and competent services can lead to strong customer relationship, winning customer loyalty for the retail houses. But at a time when tastes, trends, and dynamics change much faster, in order to improve the communication with customers and understanding their behavior, retail stores need more than a friendly staff. Today, introducing technology in business has become unavoidable, and the role of technology in giving prompt services to consumers has become more vital to almost all the aspects of a business.

Communication is also not limited to advertisements, newsletters, mobile messages, and social media; it has acquired a more defined form, and technology has to be updated to ensure that the retailers know a lot more about their prospective customers. For this, the retail apparel stores are increasingly relying on the mobile retail analytics to extend best services and provide ease of shopping to the customers.

This simple technology of mobile retail analytics is based on the presumption that most of the shoppers today carry mobile phones. The stores receive signals from the mobile devices that are near their vicinity, and when the mobile user switches on the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, the stores can get the individually assigned MAC address of the user. With this unique MAC address, the retail apparel stores can find out the number of customers present in the store and people nearby the location.

For example, the stores can use the help of third-party vendors, by sending them the store tracking data. The data will be then analyzed on online dashboards, providing actionable information specifically designed for each hierarchy level from employees and store manager to top executives. This information can improve the customer service by ensuring that the number of employees is in proportion to the number of shoppers in the store. This will in turn make the shopping experience of the buyers smooth and hassle-free. Also, the waiting time at payment counters or customer service desk can be reduced, and the stores can also find out when the shoppers' rush is highest.

Apart from giving an accurate data regarding the number of customers in the store, these applications can also help the apparel stores collect data about the number of people the store managed to attract from the nearby traffic. It is also easier to compare the number of staff personnel with the number of shoppers. It can help the apparel stores in identifying the need to hire more staff or shift the staff to the other chains where the staff is deficient in comparison to the customer rush.

With the remarkable benefits offered by the mobile retail analytics, the retail apparel stores are installing and using the technology all over the world. This software application is easy to use and is much cost efficient, following which, medium sized apparel stores are also inclined to reap the advantages it offers. The software solution makes it easier to organise, scrutinise, and visualise the huge volume of retail data. It can even gather information from chains of a particular store into a single place, thus extending a combined and prompt view of various chains of a single store and shoppers, across the chains. The use of mobile analytics is not limited to large and medium apparel stores only; the application is extremely useful for even the small retail stores, as it doesnt put too much pressure on internet bandwidth. The apparel stores can manage the schedule of the staff as per the data made available by mobile retail analytics. The promotional calendars can also be adjusted on the same lines.

 

The shoppers too have nothing to worry about, as the software doesnt give away any personal or private information like name or address, it only shares the unique MAC address of the mobile with the apparel stores. Thus, the application is highly secure and complies with the relevant standards of respecting the customer privacy. The retail apparel can collect over 10,000 unique data points with analytics, apart from the data gathered at the point of sale. According to a report, an overseas analytics firm collects data from over 65,000 sensors installed in thousands of retail stores, which in turn helps in tracking over 500 million customers every year.

 

As of now the use of analytics is more in apparel e-retailing and in spite of its success online, there are comparatively few brick and mortar apparel retail houses that are using mobile retail analytic. Fortunately, this behaviour of the apparel retail houses is fast changing and apparel retail stores in developed countries have started using the application.


The apparel retail companies are realising that it is unsafe and disadvantageous for them to take blind decisions with regard to customer care, as it is important to earn many loyal customers to survive the competition. It has also been predicted that the coming years will witness the apparel retail stores saying goodbye to mundane technology, as the competition is growing bigger with each day. It has started to dawn on apparel retailers that if they want to retain shoppers, they need to make use of updated technology to make the entire experience interactive and engaging.



References:


1.      Futureofprivacy.org

2.      Vendhq.com

3.      Blogs.hbr.org

4.      Blog.softwareadvice.com

5.      Secondprism.com