How Mobile Devices are Revolutionizing
the Retail Industry?

Winning customers has never been more of a challenge with mobile devices helping them be more well-informed than ever. They are able to easily research products, pricing and availability anytime and wherever they happen to be. Customers may find what they want in stock on your shelves, but a recent poll by Interactive Advertising Bureau (73% of consumers say they have used their mobile phone in a store) reveals that most of them use their mobile phones to comparison shop, read peer reviews and get product information before making a buying decision. With customer service at a premium, customers today prefer to walk away instead of making a purchase if made to wait. Regardless of whether your business is large or a small, in order to succeed in this hyper-competitive environment, you need to consistently and dependably provide a new level of service that will impress customers and win brand loyalty. With the research by Park Associates predicting the number of smartphone users worldwide to exceed 1 billion by 2014, we are in the era of mobile technology driving the retail industry in the following ways:

Mobile point of sale (POS) management

With anywhere and anytime access to the POS system, store managers can monitor sales throughout the day and approve voids, over-rings and exceptions. Customers no longer need to wait at the register for a manager to appear. Managers being busy throughout the day no longer need to interrupt the task at hand for a trip to the POS station.

Simplified task management

Equipped with mobility, managers can instantly distribute tasks throughout the day via a push-to-talk call, a text message or your task management application. Managers no longer need to waste time tracking down employees to delegate tasks or determine if tasks have been completed. With real-time task management, managers can keep employees working and productive every minute of the workday, improving the capacity of the existing staff, thereby streamlining the entire process.

Effective in-store merchandising

With managers’ intent on growing sales, they can better monitor customer buying trends, fast moving products and potential problems – all in real time – using mobile devices. With access to the ordering system from anywhere and the ability to identify the best-selling items, managers know when to modify re-stock orders based on real time purchasing trends. Also, the ability to identify purchasing trends in real time allows managers to change promotions on the fly to improve sales.

Streamlined inventory management

With constant access to critical inventory and supply chain data, store managers can monitor inventory levels, verify in-stock positions, confirm order status, check stock in other store locations and much more. Almost everything that is required to place orders on time and keep shelves stocked is possible with mobile devices in use.

Email access anywhere anytime

The employees are no more dependent on desktop computer, so they can attend the urgent messages on their mobile devices even when they are out of the store. Critical messages from suppliers or distributors will be responded to in almost real time.

Workforce management and scheduling

Monitoring schedules and responding instantly to staffing issues from practically anywhere is at a manager’s fingertips. Schedules can be modified on the go to ensure sufficient coverage for shifts and breaks, prevent overtime and more. Emergency situations or high customer traffic days can be managed by delegating necessary manpower even from the sales floor using mobile devices. Centralized task management has made life easy in assigning new tasks and monitoring statuses of existing tasks in real time.

Improved store security

Store managers can monitor real-time footage and videos from any security video camera in the store on demand. Such real time footage helps managers in determining the level of the threat and the response it requires. With push-to-talk communications available, managers can immediately communicate with employees in-store to prevent heists.

How can i95Dev help?

i95Dev is an industry leader with e-commerce solutions that help retailers of all size around the globe enhance the customer experience while maximizing associate productivity and supply chain efficiency. For more details, please feel free to connect with us at http://www.i95dev.com/contact/or give us a call at 301.760.7499.