Most of the retailers (87%) surveyed in July 2018 by Retail Systems Research (RSR) thought the physical store would not lose importance in the future, regardless of the barrage of recent closings. Fully 63% of retail "winners" (those with an average annual sales growth rate of 4.5% or more) expected the store to become just one of many ways for consumers to shop their brand.
The biggest opportunity to most improve stores was borrowing from what consumers like about online shopping and translating it in-store, cited by 60% of retailers. And if money were not an issue, rolling out new technologies to stores would be retailers' top choice for making stores more relevant.
Which tech do these retailers currently use and are happy with? Hardly any. One of the most satisfactory consumer-facing solutions cited (29%) was mobile app checkout, which aligns with consumer expectations in the RIS study. More "winners" (34%) had implemented mobile app checkout well, and 65% of these retailers ranked this option highest for potential value.
2018 has seen a lot of interest in "scan and go" checkout, especially among grocers who have already acclimated shoppers to self-checkout. But it's not always a win for retailers. To wit, Walmart ended its Scan & Go pilot earlier this year.