The 2017 Brick and Mortar Evolution: Biggest trends and impact on QSRs
Turning a problem into an opportunity!
One could argue based on 2016 retail trends that brick and mortar is dying. After all, in-store traffic is down with mobile accounting for nearly 1/3 of all black Friday sales and sales at online merchant warehouses like Amazon have nearly doubled from year to year. Mobile sales are being driven by four primary factors, which include:
• Larger Handsets – While smartphones are getting lighter, the screens are getting wider, which equals a better online shopping experience.
• 4G - Bandwidth is higher, which makes internet transactions faster. Additionally, when adding innovations, such as FEO and SPA's with high speed internet,
…show more content…
Customers can now use their mobile devices to interact with the digital signage. The display could generate a QR code, which could it turn be scanned by smartphones or simply be a touch screen, thus allowing the customer to interact with screen and play a game or just learn about the product. Macy’s used a 75 inch interactive touch screen as a virtual sales assistant to sell Calvin Klein products. Shoppers preferred the touch screen to real person associate because it offered customized immediate …show more content…
Major companies have seen tremendous success with their apps. For example, the Target Cartwheel, allows customers to choose from a wide range of discounted items and generate points by buying online or by scanning the app barcode at a brick and mortar location. Starbucks has also seen tremendous success with its own mobile reward program, which has led to very high customer satisfaction and also generated over a fifth of company revenue.
Beacon & Wearable Technology – Both the use of beacon and wearable save the store and the customer valuable time and energy. Beacons are Bluetooth based technology that rely on sensors across the store to notify customers via their smartphones of every coupon or sale. Customers do not need to rely on signs or wait for live help to discover where all the goodies are. Wearables are relatively new and are used by stores to notify customers of long lines or to send customized