With the advance of online shopping stealing the market, the retailers who own shops are finding it difficult to maintain their sales. But with a launch of new retailers app, Macy's app, the customers will be enabled to do more convenient shopping.
According to Reuters, this holiday season is expected to bring a retailer's app at some Macy's outlets. The shoppers with a downloaded Macy's app in their Smartphones will be guided through the store to products they're in quest of. The customers at JCPenney will be able to take a snapshot of any accessory worn by anyone and then through the app they would be able to find if the store has similar ones in stock. Through this app, Staples sales clerks will assist customers to match store's prices with Amazon and other rivals.
Retailers have been seeing their sales being snatched from online rivals as customers nowadays rely on their phones to find better deals than those offered in stores. Brick and mortar retailers are trying to change the reasons shoppers use their phones while doing holiday shopping. Through the new app, customers will be able to order out-of-stock items for home delivery, to check store prices and even to summon a clerk.
But there are some anticipated challenges, retailers' will face while trying to claw back the market from online retailers in this holiday season. Encouraging customers to accept the new technology, which is not yet perfect to use as it is faulty and dependent on in-store systems is a bit difficult. Second, it is even hard to get them trust that stores can match the Web's prices and convenience.
According to IBM this year, a rise in retail purchases by mobile phone have been seen by 34, contributing 40 percent of the online traffic. This Thanksgiving, about 20 percent of sales will come from smart phones as reported by Channel NewsAsia.
This month, half of 3,000 respondents from a Reuters/Ipsos poll said they would prefer using their phones for making price comparisons, taking photos or researching products while shopping in stores this holiday season. Last year, the respondent's percentage was only 42%.
According to Jay Henderson, head of IBM's cloud-based marketing platform, companies without mobile work are playing a "very dangerous" game, "Retailers that can't deliver a more personalized experience on mobile devices will start losing customers to businesses that can,"
As mentioned by Standard Digital, Macy has followed JCPenney's to launch pilot program to guide customers to products within stores and a photo program. A dating app Tinder has also been the basis of Macy's inspiration and will recommend products to customers online who swipe one way to like an item and the other to reject it.
"We look at using phones in stores as an enhancement to shopping," said Kate Coultas, a representative with JCPenney which is heavily focused on mobile this year.
Customers can also use another app, JCPenney's app to save digital coupons and scan barcodes to find product information or order out of stock items.
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