A 3 Point Plan to Creating the Modern Retail Experience

As retail undergoes somewhat of a renaissance (with ecommerce spends up year-on-year and more brands choosing to open new stores) and so much choice now available online and in-store, the need for retailers to reimagine and reinvent a fit for purpose shopper experience has never been more pressing than today.

Customer wait time analysis has shown that customers are willing to wait only 14 minutes before being served in stores and online, customer expectations are significantly elevated still further: for example, 47% of Internet users won’t wait longer than two seconds for a website to load and the average time spent on a page is only 54 seconds. This means brand experience is front and centre if aggressive customer expectations are to be met.

Mickey Drexler, former CEO of J. Crew Group and GAP, once said, “people like consistency. Whether it’s a store or a restaurant, they want to come in and see what you are famous for.” In short, customers value consistency of brand, regardless of the channel or medium.

Against an increasingly opaque retail industry backdrop where online and in-store experiences are now expected to be seamless, and personalised options have been normalised post-pandemic, how can retailers practically do this? To unlock the store experience customers today desire below are five essential elements that retailers need to master.

Empowered associates create modern store experiences.

The changing habits and characteristics of modern shoppers require a rethinking of store associates’ roles, skills, and tools. Nowadays, people don’t just visit a store to make a purchase. They may also go there to evaluate products before buying online or to seek personalised support when evaluating multiple products.

The interaction between modern shoppers and store associates is more of a value-added relationship than a simple sales transaction and 86% of shoppers agreed that they have a better store experience when store associates are equipped with the latest technology to assist them while shopping.

Modern stores are no longer the sole points of purchase for customers, just as the function of associates has evolved beyond solely playing the role of a cashier at a checkout. The modern store represent something entirely different now; they have transformed into ‘Point of Services’ where team members must be brand ambassadors, product advisors, sales and service specialists, and fulfilment expeditors, skilfully guiding and supporting customers at any stage of their buying journey.

The modern store experience is seamless.

48% of Gen Z consumers claim they will abandon a shopping cart if their preferred payment method isn't available. This stat alone illustrates how important seamless selling is as part of the modern store, as it provides the convenient and complete purchase experience that today’s shoppers not only value, but increasingly expect.

Owner of the popular Dynamite and Garage fashion brands, Groupe Dynamite Inc (GDI) leveraged Manhattan Active® Omni’s broad functionality to significantly reduce ship times, inventory levels, and customer call times while also improving sales, profits, and customer loyalty and satisfaction. GDI also used Manhattan Active Point of Sale to turn stores into omnichannel sales hubs and the solution’s endless aisle capabilities saved sales in out-of-stock situations and significantly improved the retailer’s store conversion rate.

The modern store delivers on ‘personal’.

In a world where online shopping is increasingly the norm, personal retailing enables modern stores to stand out and provide value to customers beyond just a purchase transaction.

There’s certainly more to the modern store than meets the eye in 2024 and stores today are not simply the shop windows for a brand, they offer optimised fulfilment options that satisfy the customer desire for immediacy, which in turn creates a positive experience.

Recognising the need for a more decentralised approach to digital order fulfilment, this is exactly why Grupo Éxito turned to Manhattan to leverage its extensive network of 80+ store locations.

Leveraging Store Order Fulfilment enabled it to support efficient ship from store operations that significantly reduced costs and expedited product delivery to customers nationwide; while its Store Order Capture capabilities allowed it to save sales in store and contribute to increased revenue, improved customer satisfaction and an eight-point increase to its Net Promoter Score (NPS) in just one year.

GDI also employed Manhattan’s Store Inventory and Fulfilment to transform its 300 store-strong network into reliable and scalable fulfilment points too.

Exposing store inventory to online demand helped GDI significantly reduce store transfers, delivery times and shipping costs all contributing to improved margins and today, the retailer actually fulfils the majority of its online orders from its stores and is able to ship orders to customers (on average) in just 23 hours – much faster than the 3.307 day industry average.

You never know when the next consumer trends will appear, or what the next industry shock might look like, but with a unified approach to your store systems, inventory management and order fulfilment processes, retailers have the tools to ensure a seamless and consistent modern retail experience for each and every shopper, every time.