The commerce environment has changed drastically with the onset of new technologies. As such, Track #1 of Re:Tech Disrupt focused on immersive commerce and its impact on the customer experience.
Thank you to everyone who attended, and especially thanks to our speakers and sponsors. Here are some key takeaways from the panels, fireside chat, keynote and roundtable discussions.
Missed this one? Don’t worry, we have 3 other events coming up, check them out and register here.
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As the opening event for this event, the first panel, led by April Sabral, discussed the very crux of modern day shopping – the blend of the physical and digital environment, aka phygital. Every retailer today is faced with this challenge, and some are able to master it better than others.
Today, it is about starting at different touchpoints in digital and bringing them into physical stores. As Andrew Laudato of The Vitamin Shoppe said: “We cannot predict how customers will shop; they will order online and buy in store, or vice versa, and expect it to be the same experience.”
As such, the key is to seamlessly blend digital and physical experiences while empowering store employees with customer data for better service, ensuring consistent and exciting experiences across online and offline channels.
Ultimately it’s about meeting customers where they are to enhance retail through increased touchpoints without necessarily reshaping it. Because it is not about replacing the store employees but empowering them, as per Shawn Koffler of Superpharm. And this must mean empowering them with customer data to serve them better, making it an integrative.
BTW – if you’d like, you can get the recording of part 1 of this event, here..
As a spinoff from the phygital space, Guy Rosenhoiz of CoinBridge – Nayax in his keynote talked about a common trend in retail these days, which is that of handling loyalty. Many retailers have chosen to go with the rewards program or loyalty perks route to retain users.
When retailers allow consumers to use loyalty assets outside of the brand, they give customers more financial freedom, which drives loyalty. It’s a self-fulfilling cycle. 84% of consumers are likely to pay with points if the option is available, which in turn increases customer engagement and enables better and expanded loyalty programs and partnerships. Offer consumers the flexibility to spend rewards anywhere, utilizing loyalty assets beyond the brand to enhance financial freedom.
Why bridge the gap? This can in turn increase customer engagement, open opportunities for better loyalty programs and partnerships, and provide new opportunities to personalize the experience for customers.
And how can brands bridge the gap? A few ways that Guy Rosenhoiz pointed out are to upgrade the loyalty app into the e-wallet, turn loyalty assets into spendable money, allow redemption in multiple outlets, and strive to expand the partnerships network.
We couldn’t have done it without you! From our lead sponsor – CoinBrdge | Nayax, to our gold sponsor – Wandtz.ai and to all of our presenting startups – iCape, Vree Labs, Miros, buywith, Hexa, Howazit, SensePass, Oriient, InShop, Cust2Mate, WeR, Nixale, Zowie and Twik – thank you for your support and participation!
As a segway from loyalty and rewards, the next panel, led by Karina an den Oever, spoke about customer retention, focusing again on loyalty. While Guy Rosenhoiz more or less talked about bought loyalty (through rewards, etc.), earned loyalty through authenticity is crucial, especially for younger consumers. For example, Shiri Mosenzon Erez of Ocado Technology suggests that “social nudges can encourage customers to re-engage with brands.”
With respect to personalization, if you allow customers to enjoy using brands/rewards, they know it’s a tradeoff with privacy. So, when balanced with privacy concerns, personalization can foster loyalty if customers are aligned with a brand’s value and want to utilize the rewards.
With regards to AI and customer retention, it seems that search results will be better, and will become more dynamic. Retail experts predict a future where search isn’t as archaic as it used to be, but become more discoverable, thus driving customer retention by catering to them better.
As a break from the commerce intensive talks, we chose to speak with Ohad Finkelstein on the impact of global and economic events on the retail sector, especially in light of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict and the economic recession and political unrest in the US.
With every crisis comes an opportunity. While customers remember bad experiences over good ones, they also express these more openly. Which is why companies need to be sensitive to balancing development areas with elements that work, which might be less obvious.
From the pandemic to economic downturns to the ongoing wars – presents opportunities for innovation and adoption. In today’s retail environment, multi-generational customers require retailers to take diverse approaches, requiring retailers to use a mix of technologies to address varied customer needs effectively.
The goal of the roundtable discussions was to delve into other states of retail tech and how they impact everyone from decision makers to shoppers in retail.
The Amazon Go experience being pulled back. Is this a step back or forward? The stores and market needs to be ready for it, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, which opens the debate of if frictionless checkout is actually a reality that stores are ready for. As a tech executive suggests, frictionless checkout needs to work with the right technology and the right use case scenario. While we have been stuck with ‘self checkout’ for 25+ years, it’s time to move past it. The idea is to find a sensor-free technology.
The traditional store operation doesn’t necessarily fit well with frictionless payout, and we need to rethink the customer experience to give the right fit. A retail tech executive drew a parallel with a hybrid car, for example, which took some time to adapt to as cars were built around motors instead of charging/gasoline, and eventually came into full adoption.
While it is a benefit to have ample data about customers and transactions available to brands and retailers, the challenge is taking the volume of data and making it more visible and usable, especially with new regulatory changes (for example GDPR changes). A CPG executive points out that visibility has to be across systems for accuracy, and also be transparent to customers.
With respect to customers, the customer app needs to become personalized to the shopper, and to accomplish that, all data sources need to be harnessed in a way that makes it easy to customize. The goal is to have it as personalized and relevant to customers; for example, coupons and product suggestions should be adequate for what a customer needs or has expressed an interest in or searched about. This will in turn drive purchases and loyalty. With this in mind, there is a great opportunity to use AI in amplifying the product feed to enrich it and power better search results.
There is a new generation of customers who have never stepped foot in a bank, like Gen Alpha. A retail tech C-suite experienced head says that older generations like boomers find it odd to operate banking without a bank and on an app, or on a new currency. And he adds that these will continue to co-exist, and new technologies must be able to provide to both.
New technologies for payments are all linked to a device; for example you still need a phone for wallet-less and contactless payments. However, the next step would be biometric payments. Some retailers and brands may not jump into new technologies like biometric payments due to the investment involved legally and with privacy concerns required to implement these.
These technologies can co exist with other forms of currencies and payments, for example crypto and blockchain. These come with a learning curve of overcoming people’s apprehension or fear for the new currencies until they become more widespread. Overall, the landscape is changing quickly, and brands and retailers must cater to a multi-generation audience that has a variety of needs, and a different adoption to technologies.
If you missed the event, you can still watch the recording of part one, get it here.
We would love to see you at the next event – Data, AI and Generative AI track, on May 21st! Get your ticket here.