Rethinking retail with connected customers and staff

Customers are familiar with it from the Internet. When shopping online, they can find out everything they need to know about the product they want, get the opinion of other customers, and research whether they can get the product cheaper somewhere else. The digital kiosk system Digital Touchpoint enables customers to obtain information and advice about products interactively while in the shop. Retailers can present complementary products and if the right color or size is not available in the shop, the customer can order the goods to be delivered to their home using the display. This approach allows retailers to combine shopping in brick-and-mortar shops with online shopping.

Customers have long been familiar with this from the Internet. When searching for a specific product, shop operators selectively insert information about a product or provide information about special promotions in order to encourage customers to make a purchase. This is largely absent in physical stores. If a salesperson is not available, the customer is often left alone. Attempts to provide information via analogue advertising boards or leaflets on display are too static. Digital signage lets you inform customers about targeted discount promotions and product specifics in real time – directly at the POS or at the checkout.

Full vending machines, defrosted frozen products or long queues at the checkouts: Situations that can ruin the shopping experience for in-store customers. The solution: IoT sensors attached to freezers, shelves, cash registers or other equipment in the connected shop report critical conditions to a managed IoT cloud platform. If, for example, predefined thresholds are undercut or exceeded, the platform informs the employees in the branch, who can then proactively remedy a problem. The data can also be used to optimize processes in stores.      

Check each credit card receipt individually, compare it with the booking system and archive it digitally: Processing receipts costs clerks a lot of time and effort. This is made much easier with the help of digital software bots. The solution automates repetitive activities, thereby enabling employees to concentrate on more demanding activities. If the bot identifies an irregularity in the matching process, it automatically opens a ticket and sends a message to the responsible employee. The software bot also takes care of the archive and stores all checked documents there in digital form.

By providing charging stations for e-cars in car parks and multi-storey parking buildings, new marketing concepts can be implemented for shops and additional income can be generated. Retailers can, for example, offer customers e-charging at a special rate if they spend a certain amount on purchases. T-Systems provides retailers with the charging infrastructure for e-cars – from the planning to the realization to the commissioning of the charging points – and the management of the e-charging infrastructure.

Online shopping knows almost no bounds. Food, electronics, textiles: people are increasingly ordering online and bricks-and-mortar retail is becoming involved in the process for compilation and trade. One thing still bothers customers when shopping online: when exactly will the goods arrive? Many customers would also pick up their ordered goods themselves, just like at parcel stations – if possible, also outside the official opening hours. The solution: pick-up stations offer an alternative to delivery and enable customers to pick up goods themselves without having to make contact – around the clock.

How many people are currently in the shop? How long is the queue at the changing room or checkout? Regulations from the authorities have unexpectedly made access management an issue during the corona period. How can visitor flows in branches be controlled automatically – from the entrance to the checkout? And how can you ensure that the sales rooms are not overcrowded? Instead of having to assign sales staff or hire additional security personnel for this purpose, retailers can keep track of all incoming and outgoing customers in the shops with access management, a traffic light solution.