Guest post: the street needs a revolution in technology

by Jon Worley, director of customer loyalty, group logic

The future of the street is hotly debated. Traders, politicians and industry experts argue constantly about what could or should be done to preserve our streets and centers of the city against a growing attack from online retailers. As consumers increasingly more adopt technology including smartphone and tablet devices to navigate on the fly, are becoming turn on led and more demanding in their expectations of a retailer. Forcing a battle perceived between physical stores and the 'cyber store' by money from the customer. However, as the review of Bill Grimsey's high street, suggests doesn't have to be a matter of all or nothing. Instead, retailers should look to take full advantage of the benefits of the sale under these new shopping channels can provide and create an integrated multi-channel strategy to attract buyers if they are online, in the store or on the mobile.

The future of the street

What should retailers be doing to keep up with the expectations of this new consumer tech-savvy?

While there are a varied number of answers to this question, you can bet that all of them will revolve around a key practice - commitment to the customer.

With consumers have so much information at your fingertips, retailers should ensure that it allow to deal with them when they want and how their customers want.

A study by eMarketer forecasts the 2014, 30.9 million people in the United Kingdom are using phones smart and contactless payments and mobile in upward, is increasingly clear that consumers more and more are turning to your mobile to commit to retail.

This is great news for High Street retailers as a range of exciting new marketing opportunities opens.

One interesting counter measure is the point of sale mobile (MPO) - this gives you greater freedom to interact with in store customers to retailers.

MPoS helps with stock availability checking and personal empowerment decisions with real-time matching and promotion price, while being able to accept payments without the need of the customer return to the cashier desk.

MPoS will evolve without a doubt, provide a shopping experience more agile and personalized that maximizes the benefits of the physical space for retail consumers.

So retailers to breathe new life into the street requires fresh thinking and intelligent deployment of technology to achieve the real customer engagement and a clear role next to online channels and continually moving in evolution.

Networked storage of High Street

Thinking beyond the initiatives that will lead retailers to improve engagement with your customers and build competitive advantage.

High Street in general terms should benefit from a cohesive technical strategy.

This must provide consumers access to services in a consistent and familiar way.

For many customers your current experience of digital high street is one of confusion and fragmentation.

Poorly designed and ineffective, mobile applications and solutions of mobile payments different from store to store, means that such lack of uniformity can potentially turn off consumers to participate with the high street in all.

If the retailers on the work of High Street together to do well however and they provide a constant and value added experience, the benefits that this could provide could be considerable.

In the simplest terms, this could be working in a service of mobile wallet that provides consumers relevant information, special offers, loyalty and platform to pay points without even touching cash or a card of.

Ultimately, retailers need to take a decision on where you want to be in relation to its consumers.

Do you want to be perceived as a static entity in the changing landscape of modern retail, or instead to lead the way toward a new experience of High Street.

Biography of the author

Jon Worley is director of customer loyalty - interaction with the client with the Group of logic and is responsible for leading the management of the customer loyalty practice of consulting. Jon has over 20 years of experience complex management technology and business change projects and has provided assistance to more than 25 in the United Kingdom and Europe customer loyalty programs. Jon's experience has been gained in multiple sectors, including retail, financial services and hospitality & leisure. His previous roles include senior project management positions both in the United Kingdom and the United States.

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