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Leveraging Retail Technology

Written by: Will Atkinson

Article Overview: Retailers need to continue to invest in enabling technologies, even in an economic downturn, to enhance efficiencies, productivity, and customer experience.

Leveraging Retail Technology

Despite the dour economic news and unsatisfying retail sales lately retailers must aggressively assess their business and their customers' needs and wants with an eye on continued investment in retail (in-store and otherwise) technologies that will help them compete for customers who are increasingly scarce.

To do this, retailers must identify key issues in their line of business that are the primary factors contributing to competitiveness, productivity, and customer experience. Then, they need to selectively invest in those technologies, either out of cash on hand, leasing, or debt, in order to improve their businesses.

This is about more than shiny new computers and flashy websites too. Properly chosen and implemented inventory control, ordering, customer tracking and employee management systems, with tie-ins to customer marketing applications will increase employee productivity, effectively reducing payroll costs, while improving customer satisfaction through reduced wait times, greater item availability and targeted marketing.

Even if new customers are increasingly hard to find, the above tactics can help retailers better serve their existing customers, increasing the average dollars per sale and the frequency of visits to the store. Happy customers, who are made to feel special, will come back and they'll tell their friends.

Now is the time to leverage technology to improve the way you do business, reduce operating costs, and improve customer relationships. All three of these things will help you survive a recession and will pay HUGE dividends when the economy turns around. Investment in a tight market may be painful, but it's more than worth it.

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Article Tags: competitiveness, customer experience, customer marketing, customer relationships, customer satisfaction, customer tracking, customers needs, dividends, economic news, employee management, employee productivity, existing customers, inventory control, line of business, new computers, payroll costs, recession, retail sales, targeted marketing, tight market



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