The technology that helps stores go digital

From orders on WhatsApp to traffic moving from online to offline, here’s how some innovative startups and companies are reinventing the business of shops and physical stores.

WIRED.IT

New payment methods, new websites, new technologies to pique customers’ curiosity. But also renewed business models, leaner and more digitized internal processes. While uncertainty reigns supreme in this period, the world of commerce has had to gear up to stay competitive. Many retailers have found the strength to take the big, necessary step: going online, starting to sell over the internet. Others have sought out and adopted targeted strategies to become more attractive. Often, all these projects have involved innovative startups offering services for stores, able to help them deploy more resources to go digital and strengthen their presence on the web.

Indeed, 51% of Italians who have tried online shopping believe that traditional stores should use this moment of emergency to permanently reinvent themselves. This is highlighted by a recent study by Netcomm, the Italian e-commerce consortium, which points to the now central role of omnichannel, a topic that’s been discussed for many years. Today’s consumer wants a shopping experience that closes the gap between the digital world and the physical world. This means they look online for answers to their questions, of any kind – from store hours, to product pages, to item availability – and only once they have a clear picture do they proceed. That is, they go to the physical store to buy.

Bringing customers into the store

Correctly informing the user and directing them to the nearest store that has the product they’re looking for, whether it’s a directly-operated store, a franchisee or a multi-brand retailer. RetailTune is a company founded three years ago, based on an idea by Claudio Agazzi, and focused on local digital marketing. It works with companies, and its goal is to bring traffic into stores, govern all the digital touchpoints of stores, and provide detailed, up-to-date information to the end customer.

Thanks to precise geolocation, RetailTune reaches users in real time, engages them and guides them to the nearest store, also managing information such as addresses, hours and phone numbers for contact. This makes it easier for the store and the customer to communicate and offers an elevated shopping experience, including through Booking and Concierge services, both before and after stepping through the door of the physical store.

“We’ve rolled out effective tools, starting with geolocation and building a relationship with the nearest store”, explains Agazzi: “This relationship, in turn, lets us be proactive with tools like reserve in store, back in store if the item isn’t in stock, and e-store assistant to finalize a sale through chat, WhatsApp or similar tools”.

RetailTune has also created listening tools. “Today we’re able to know which products the audience of every store likes. We know the success rate if a user wanted to buy a given product at a specific store. We know how well a store’s stock matches local taste”, Agazzi continues.

The market’s starting point is fragmented and scattered. There are brands that sell a lot through multi-brand retailers but don’t tell users which stores these are, often out of fear of competition. RetailTune is instead trying to show its clients that these retailers are not a threat. “That’s why we have something new coming in the next few months”, says Agazzi: “A solution to support multi-brand retailers and help them benefit from the recognition of the brands in their portfolio”.

The second new development is “a new index able to measure the potential of each individual store relative to brand awareness. A refined tool that will also make it possible to measure the effectiveness of communication campaigns, offline included”.