The Logic Group Blog

You may have seen our post last year on Apple snubbing NFC (near field communications) technology in its iPhone 5. This year, reports suggest that Apple is including NFC capabilities in its new iPhone design. This further fuels the speculation it will add payments to its Passbook allowing customers to pay, receive offers and collect loyalty points through their mobile device.

Retail Technology Business Expo (RBTE) this year was jam packed as ever, if not more. The technology for retail industry turned out to showcase the importance of successful omnichannel strategies and the role of new technologies in extending retail presence beyond the store.

Tourists love the UK shopping experience - so should you! Despite the UK’s economic status, the country can glory in the fact it’s the world’s most sought-after destination for tourists looking to splash their hard-earned cash. A recent study by VisitBritain indicates that the UK is still luring overseas shoppers to come and spend in its stores. Of the 18 million overseas visitors to the UK, 300,000 tourists only came to Britain for one reason – SHOPPING!

In this era of consumer fiscal austerity, customer retention and the encouragement of customer loyalty are two essentials in the survival tool kit for every company. One barrier to achieving this are those ‘promiscuous consumers’ who display no obvious loyalty to a store, instead choosing to shop around for the best bargains and, quite often, holding multiple loyalty scheme memberships. Assuming they are going to be profitable, can you tie them into the commitment of a (more) monogamous relationship with your company? The promiscuous customer is most likely to threaten shops and sectors in which loyalty is easily exchanged and in which innumerable confounding variables could explain why someone decides to switch their loyalty, if, indeed, it can be described as ‘loyalty’, elsewhere.

It’s unimaginable to envisage a supermarket with no customers, no check outs – manned or unmanned, gondola ends with tons of offers, and even the smell of freshly baked bread. But actually, Tesco has five and walk-in customers aren’t welcome. They’re not on the high street or even on retail parks. That’s because they are ‘dark stores’. They exist to serve the ever-growing needs for online shopping.

It’s ironic really: Tesco opened its latest ‘dark store’ in January and it created 700 jobs. In contrast, BlockBuster and HMV were slow to respond to the fast moving Internet-enabled business model, leading them into the red.

Technology has rapidly changed the high street...

A recent study by Deloitte found that in the hotel industry travellers’ purchasing decisions are being driven by having the best deal, with roughly 30% of hotel loyalty scheme members being “at risk” of switching their preferred brand for a better offer. This seems to be the case with an average of 50% of holiday makers’ annual hotel not being with their preferred brand.

This doesn’t come as a surprise when consumers are tightening their purse strings, as disposable incomes come under more pressure. As a result, hotels have been forced to consider discounting, couponing and throwing in freebies (four nights for the price of three, for instance) to retain and attract business. However, as seen in the retail industry, discounting is not a sustainable practice – and the hospitality industry also needs to explore long-term customer interaction strategies based on actionable insights.

At this time of year Valentine ’s Day is surrounding us all. But it’s not just on 14th February that you want your customers to love your business. Customers who positively value your business are more likely to spend more and return to you more regularly adding value back into your business. So, understanding what makes that happen is crucial to growth. Is Loyalty important?...

December retail sales have disappointed. British music industry loses the high street presence of HMV. Another few bite the dust. Britain gets a chilly welcome to 2013...

If you still need more evidence that the Internet has necessitated a rethink of customer engagement strategies, then you may as well shut shop and protect the few assets and cash-in-hand available to you. The onset of the Great Reinvention (as we’d like to refer to the economic depression that started in 2008), marked the beginnings of the evolutionary process that would be driven by the Internet and the shift to online business and shopping. To feign ignorance to the fact that we’re through the evolution phase (of four years) and are now stood at the chasm, would demonstrate poor judgement and a clear lack of understanding of the stark reality that faces us.

2012 has been a tough year for the high street, with retailers struggling to drive sales and many high street stores shutting their doors permanently. By contrast, the online high street saw resilient growth. In fact, the latest figures of the annual IMRG e-Retail Sales Index have revealed that online sales in November are up 18 per cent from last year, as the festive rush has encouraged consumers to reach into their digital pockets. So, 2012 was a year of “Bricks vs. Clicks”, but what will drive retail in 2013?

Here are some of my thoughts for starters, or perhaps predictions for 2013.

There has been a lot of momentum behind mobile payments, NFC-enabled PoS terminals and wallet services in 2012. Technology providers, retailers and merchants, as well as payment service providers are now quite openly supporting the case for multichannel customer experience management. Consumers too have shown some appetite for mobile payments and NFC-enabled cards, although they appear to have even bigger willingness to shop online.

However, for consumers to readily adopt and widely embrace the new technology-enabled payment and interaction experience, the retailer, merchant, technology and payment provider ecosystem needs to understand consumer expectations from multichannel customer interaction systems and instil the confidence to trust new payment technologies to protect their identity credentials in any environment.