The retail shopping experience has undoubtedly changed significantly over time, especially with the arrival of in-store and online technology. However, in-store shopping continues to play a significant role in the retail industry because so many consumers still choose to visit a physical store. Furthermore, buying in-person is still preferable to online shopping since it allows you to examine an item in person, get personalised advice from a salesperson, and avoid paying for shipping.
As with any other business, many components of the retail experience have evolved because of shifting trends. One of the most noticeable and significant places has always been the checkout area. However, a long road is yet to be undertaken. Some ways via which the checkout experience can be enhanced for consumers have been highlighted here:
Make Use of Integrated Payments
Consider how you may enhance the checkout process from a payments perspective after you’ve opened new registers and freed yourself from that counter. The first method to use? Use a payment processor with the point-of-sale software you already use or intend to move to. Integrating payments speed up the checkout process and increases security because sales move straight from your POS system to your card reader. These two qualities greatly assist your customers and can even help you develop a following of devoted, repeat customers.
Additionally, integration removes laborious keying-in and gives you access to your shop data. Consider the usage of Vend and PayPal by Australian merchant New Farm Confectionery, for instance. The company’s founder Jodie Neilson uses the Vend-PayPal integration to maintain quick, easy, and mobile sales at her retail location and pop-up.
Enable Contactless and Mobile Payments
Considering that there are currently nearly 450 million people using mobile payments worldwide, accepting mobile and contactless payments in your store(s) ought to be a no-brainer. Mobile and contactless payments will hasten checkout times and enhance consumer experiences, whether you use a mobile point-of-sale system like Vend, create your mobile payment app, or use third-party solutions like Apple Pay. Let’s take an example of Kohl’s here. To build Kohl’s Pay, a speedy checkout system that leverages the customer’s mobile app to store their Kohl’s Card, coupons, and loyalty points, Kohl’s merged its unique loyalty programme with its membership card. When a customer is prepared to make a purchase, he proceeds to the checkout counter, where a salesperson rings up his purchases and hands him a barcode that may be scanned. When the customer scans the barcode using Kohl’s Pay, his Kohl’s Card is automatically charged for the transaction, and loyalty points and coupons are also applied.
Self-Service Terminals
Consumers favour unattended retail channels because they like to buy at their own pace; 49.4% use self-checkout since it’s quicker, and 34.7% appreciate the shorter line-ups, according to a PYMNTS survey from February 2020.
Parametric Model
“Showrooming” is another trend that combines the convenience of online shopping with the brick-and-mortar experience (also known as low or no-inventory stores). Customers essentially visit a store to look at products and get a sense of them in person before placing an online order. Warby Parker is a notable company that used a showroom approach to expand its internet goods into the offline market. Although the company initially only sold glasses online, it soon made sense to create brick-and-mortar stores in a few cities so customers could try on frames in person. Customers can touch, feel, and try on frames in these retail locations before ordering their spectacles on Warby Parker’s website, either with help from a staff member or independently. This showrooming approach benefits merchants who cannot afford to lease a sizable location to house the merchandise of a complete store.
Make the Store’s Point of Sale Simpler
What the checkout page is to websites, the point of sale (POS) is to physical stores. They weren’t all made equal, though. While firms have invested in streamlining the online checkout process, most continue using antiquated point-of-sale systems. Typically, these systems are fixed solutions with credit card readers, receipt printers, and various other devices (calculators, phones, you name it.)
Making the Checkout Process a Chance
You need to provide a flawless checkout experience everywhere clients can purchase from you. However, as more people purchase online, they will demand similarly quick, easy, and pleasant experiences from physical stores and mobile apps. Nike’s Chief Design Officer John Hook once said: “Imagine the website, live. The future of retail will be less fixed, more fluid, and hyper-responsive to consumer trends and needs.”
Have a Look at In-App Checkout
You want to make further payments, so what should you do? Allowing clients to pay in-app is the solution if your objective is to make your checkout experience as quick and seamless as possible. In addition, customers can fully skip checkout lines with in-app payments, which frees up your team members to concentrate on responding to customer questions and generally improving the customer experience.
Purchase Online and Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS)
Despite the pandemic, the omnichannel retail approach known as “buy online, pick up in-store” (BOPIS) is here to stay. BOPIS enables customers to pay online and pick up their orders in-store or at a designated pickup location. It is also known as click-and-collect or curbside pickup. BOPIS has several advantages, including enhanced inventory management and higher store traffic and sales. An order that would typically take three days to arrive is now available for pick up in a few hours or less.
Since the pandemic first spread, the world has changed, and one of the businesses that have been most impacted is retail, particularly at the point of sale. While the crisis has inflicted unspeakable destruction on retail businesses, their employees, and their families, it has also given many outlets the impetus they needed to finally move through with long-delayed digital transformation plans. In fact, according to some industry watchers, retailers’ struggles to overcome pandemic-era obstacles “saved” their storefronts by requiring them to make fresh technological investments.
Read More: Five of the Leading Digital Commerce Trends of Today
