Businesses must keep clients captivated long enough for browsing to turn into purchases when they rush to the aisles and opt to shop in-store.
One significant way to do this is for merchants to develop a personalized in-store experience in which relevant offers are extended in real-time. Providing more payment options also helps to deepen consumer relationships.
According to “Big Retail’s Innovation Mandate: Convenience and Personalisation,” technology continues to be a barrier to the gathering, evaluating, and exploiting data that enables personalization.
Third-party suppliers are used by a large fraction of the more than 300 shops we examined to implement specific payment systems.
Respondents were located in the United States or the United Kingdom and had at least 50 retail outlets as well as annual revenues of at least $1 billion for enterprises headquartered in the United States or £100 million ($127 million) for firms headquartered in the United Kingdom.
The study discovered a greenfield opportunity for third-party payment operations and innovations. Only around half of the merchants in the United States and the United Kingdom believe they have the right combination of digital tools to effectively service their customers. And the goals are high: 33% of US retailers want to offer real-time payments to customers in the near future.
However, a variety of unique payment systems and procedures will be scrutinized in the near future. According to the two tables below, more than a quarter of general merchants aim to create their loyalty programs with third-party suppliers’ assistance, and a roughly equivalent number of convenience stores and pharmacies intend to do the same.
