The rise of e-commerce is an upward curve over almost the last two decades. The pandemic, however, has prompted the closure of many physical spaces, and only the most advanced had fully adapted their digital platforms to continue their business activities. With the “new normal” arriving unevenly, both experiences, physical and digital, are forced to coexist. Thus, the opportunities for the future, innovation, and improved customer experience that this brings are much more apparent.
Some established global brands have foreseen this trend and have been developing omnichannel strategies for some years now: it is not a fight between the digital and physical worlds; the future must combine both spheres in perfect synergy, they must feedback and compensate each other. The present is already doing so. Companies such as Nike, for example, are betting on their House of Innovation, a physical space that relies upon and benefits from the mobile app to complete the customer experience. Its raison d’être was reinforced by the pandemic. Given the restrictions on capacity and physical contact, this technology made it possible to make purchases without any contact with the salesclerks, check sizes or availability, or even make payments, using the mobile app.
Another example is Sephora, a leading cosmetics and beauty products brand. They have been integrating technology into their physical stores for some time now to improve the customer experience with the help of its Beauty Shopping mobile app. Find stores near you, search for products adapted to your physical characteristics, carry out promotions through notifications, etc.
Indoor location for a tailor-made experience
Indoor location technology is a key part of these trends, as it enables our customers to “navigate” both physically and digitally in our stores.
To have various contact channels, both physical and digital, is of little use if they do not interact with each other. Indoor positioning technology makes it possible for the user to interact with the physical space through their smartphone, combining the possibilities offered by both environments. It also opens the door for the unique profile each user has online to continue in physical stores, either through product recommendations based on preferences, or step-by-step guidance to items previously selected on the web from the moment the customer enters the mall. Other options that we are likely to see soon are the ability to pre-book fitting rooms or to receive personalized promotions based on our preferences, profile, etc. In this way, the customer experience will be as complete and tailored as possible.
Geolocation is set to play an important role in this new store concept, and Situm will help overcome the limitations of indoor GPS systems with its indoor positioning technology. Our tools for geo-positioned marketing, notifications, visitor guidance, or even employee management and security are already great tools for omnichannel retailing.
Indoor positioning, an added value for retail: wayfinding, notifications, and staff management
In addition to improving the integration of the digital and physical experience, indoor positioning solutions for retail play an important role in this industry’s needs:
- Guidance. Use Situm’s indoor positioning to guide your customers through your shopping centre or store. It combines indoor and outdoor areas without losing any reliability or accuracy. Display points of interest such as services, parking lots (locate the user’s vehicle in the parking space), different commercial areas, specific stores, etc.
- Promotions and geomarketing. Our polygonal geofencing tool allows you to accurately delimit certain areas. Launch notifications on your customers’ devices, either with promotions, useful information, or security alerts.
- Work teams and security management.Situm’s indoor location also integrates facility management into its technology. Manage your work teams through geo-positioned tasks, the security of your facilities, cleaning teams, maintenance, etc. on a single screen.
- Manage your facility data through analytics. A very relevant aspect of omnichannel strategies is the management of large amounts of data that will help us understand and further develop our business. Situm also provides space usage analytics so you can get comprehensive reports about your app users and customize them according to your activity.
All the different possibilities offered by Situm’s indoor positioning enable any shopping mall, department store, and hypermarket to move towards a multi-platform presence and interconnection. Digitalization is undoubtedly one of the keys and necessary evolution for the survival of physical retail stores both in the 21st century and in the post-Covid era.
Situm’s indoor positioning, already present in many large retail stores
Our experience in shopping malls in Europe and Asia shows some success stories of the use of our technology, such as the Marineda City app. After the implementation of Situm, the mall took a big step in its digitization strategy and transformation into a smart building.
Moreover, other large stores such as Carrefour or El Corte Inglés have also invested in implementing Situm with the aim of improving the customer experience in their mobile apps.
If you manage a large commercial area and are interested in learning how to improve the experience of your customers and employees with Situm indoor location, do not hesitate to contact us.