With the pandemic still going, all the businesses have to adapt to the quickly changing requirements and market changes. Retail is one of the most thriving and lively categories, and to stay viable and profitable, you have to react to the new things around even quicker than others. I've gathered some of the trending technologies in retail that are about to stir the market in 2021 and the coming years.
Contactless Payments
Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay: all these contactless payment providers have been on the market for years, but many vendors still have not adapted to change. In 2020-2021, with a pandemic still going, many people switched from their credit cards to contactless. It's only natural: you carry your phone in your hand, and your watch in your hand at all times, and it's very easy to pay with it. Be sure to upgrade your tech to support NFC and all the providers listed above, it will only do you good.
Quick Delivery
There was no need for a lot of deliveries before 2020, and they didn't have to be quick. Today, almost everybody relies on them, and they have to be lightning fast! With quick delivery comes great responsibility: you have to get a good website with a great UX design. All of the products must be listed and updated live to minimize the number of calls when something goes out of stock and the customer orders it. If you don't offer quick delivery, you are definitely missing out on great sales opportunities.
Try Before You Buy
You may have seen those types of apps that allow you to see what the piece of furniture will look like in your room. It was a great tool even before the pandemic, but now it serves another purpose: preview something from home when the store is delivering only.
Click and Collect
Click and collect is a very simple process: it allows your customers to order something online, go to your store and pick it up there. It offers yet another choice when people feel like going somewhere or avoiding deliveries in general.
Cashierless Stores
With a demand to lessen human contact, these types of stores will probably shape the retail industry in the coming years. You have probably heard about Amazon's cashier-less stores where you just grab what you want and go: you will get your check later. These stores use a lot of smart tech in order not to miss anything: dozens of cameras, weight tracking on shelves, the list goes on and on. The easier thing to implement is to get more self-checkout machines for your store: but you'll still have to hire people to keep a lookout on everything, just in case.
Machine Learning Demand Forecasting
Thanks to ML getting more complicated and accurate every day, retail vendors can get themselves a new tool that will help them forecast which product is about to blow up and what should not be overstocked. It will minimize the logistics costs and have you updated on the next 'toilet paper' of a product.
Summary
With quickly changing market demands and requirements, more and more customers go online. It is up to you to adapt to those changes and use them to get more sales.
