How Bricks-And-Mobile Is Transforming Retail

‘Tis the season … for mobile shopping. Mobile shopping while in-store, that is.

Bricks-and-mobile is the latest trend that’s sweeping the bricks-and-mortar retail scene this holiday season, particularly as retailers race to keep up with eCommerce giants like Amazon.

While there’s a push from those traditional retailers to draw in an audience online, there’s also a push to keep those digitally minded consumers engaged while in-store. That means turning to smartphones to enable consumers with the tools needed to make their shopping experience fit into the omnicommerce goals retailers are striving for.

A Reuters article that digs into this trend discusses some of the retailers that are innovating this concept. For retailers like JC Penney — which has had its share of struggles in the past year alone — keeping up with the times means enabling their consumers to use their camera to snap a photo of a person’s shoes in the store to see where else they are in stock.

Staples, which has all but declared war on Amazon, has equipped their staff with devices to show customers online rivals’ prices to show if their prices are beating the eCommerce giants, or at least how they’re comparing.

And then there’s Macy’s, which has created a Tinder-like retail app that allows consumers to swipe through items to either approve or reject what they’d actually buy. Target has been a leader in digital commerce and has been consistently enhancing its app to enable more consumers to shop while in-store. Best Buy’s app lets customers text a store representative for help while in stores.

What these retailers are doing, of course, is trying to prove that there’s still an in-store experience that can’t be duplicated online. The ability to see, feel and check the quality of physical goods in-store is still one thing that Amazon can’t compete with. But with that in mind, retailers have also caught on that their consumers are coming into their stores with the power of the Internet — and other shopping sites — at their fingertips.

But what retailers risk in this digitally focused era is enabling technology that comes with glitches.

“Poorly executed plans can be worse than no mobile strategy at all,” Perry Kramer, VP at Boston Retail Partners, told Reuters. “The dangers are losing those customers for the rest of the year or for a long time.”

From apps to beacons, retailers have been working for years to find innovative ways to make their mark in the crowded digital space, but the slumping foot traffic and lackluster in-store sales have shown retailers it’s time to give their customers a connected in-store experience. Otherwise, companies like Amazon will continue to gain greater market share.

An IBM research stat shows that mobile commerce retail purchases have jumped 34 percent in the past year. That research also projects that on Thanksgiving weekend, of the 40 percent of online shopping traffic, more than 20 percent of sales will be driven from smartphones.

That same research indicated that slightly more than half (51 percent) of consumers (from a survey of 3,426 adults) will be turning to Amazon for a majority of their online holiday shopping. The big-box retailers rang in far below, with respondents listing Walmart second (16 percent), Target third at 3 percent and Macy’s at just 2 percent. Those figures, however, are just for online shopping.

What this poll reveals is most of what retailers already know: That it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with Amazon’s growing ecosystem that’s adding more customer-centric services that are making retailers find new ways to draw consumers into physical stores (or even to their websites).

While physical retailers look to upset Amazon’s business model by providing shoppers with something they can’t get online, Amazon is attempting to do the same by giving into what shoppers want most.

And, according to IBM’s research, retailers who fall behind on the mobile commerce shift will be missing out big on securing consumers’ attention.

“Retailers that can’t deliver a more personalized experience on mobile devices will start losing customers to businesses that can,” said Jay Henderson, head of IBM’s cloud-based marketing platform.

The latest data from Reuters/Ipsos shows that, of the 3,000 respondents surveyed, half would be using their smartphones for shopping while in-store. That means comparing prices, researching the goods and taking photos. Last year, around 42 percent said the same thing.