The digital age offers great potential for supporting the customer journey. But the aspect of a sustainable conversion optimisation at the POS has been neglected. There is simply a lack of efficient tools to transfer the tools of e-commerce to the POS.
The Retail StartUp weview GmbH and xplace GmbH have designed a pilot project for the POS in order to develop solutions and a technological basis for this issue.
xplace provides the rollout expertise in the area of data integration, software development and data analysis plus comprehensive knowledge of the POS. With this expertise, xplace can make StartUp solutions such as the weview system ready for rollout. Through technological integration, the weView application transforms into a POS solution to sustainably optimises conversion.
GOALS:
Product reviews play an increasingly important role in the purchase decision. This is particularly true when it comes to expensive and frequently used products. However, consumers are not willing to look for a salesperson in the store or to wait for help. They rely more on the opinions and recommendations of other users than on the seller's information.
Compared to e-commerce, customers find fewer product information and recommendations at the POS that are instantly accessible than online. Thus, a central requirement of consumers is not met. As a result, purchase cancellations are more likely, and it gets harder to maintain customer loyalty.
In addition, the fun factor at the POS is missing. There are not enough tools that satisfy the desire for interaction and information when shopping. This reduces brand attractiveness for manufacturers and retail brands.
To achieve these goals, xplace has developed the touchpoint "Review Terminal" as an element of a comprehensive customer journey at the POS and integrates existing tools from e-commerce.
Instead of waiting for a sales assistant, customers get information about a product at the interactive review terminal. It provides all important product information, including personal opinions of users and tests. The review videos increase the fun factor and assist consumers in their decisions. Furthermore, additional information such as price and availability in the store is displayed.
In a first step, the smartphone product range is integrated. All relevant manufacturers, such as Apple, Samsung, Huawai, Sony, Blackberry and LG, are included.
Existing xplace applications provide a basis for further development of the solution. But consumers' own mobile devices can also be used to retrieve the information. The concept here is again to transfer the consumer habits of e-commerce to the POS to enable an overall online and offline shopping experience.
Customer loyalty is increased and consumers receive the same product information and interaction as in eCommerce. In addition, they can touch and inspect the product in the shop afterwards. The customer has the possibility to "play", to experience the product even more and then do a buying decision directly at the POS.
As a consequence, conversion at the POS increases. The churn rate to eCommerce is falling as consumers' requirements for a purchase and comprehensive product advice at the POS have been met.
Retailers and manufacturers benefit from DSGVO-compliant data on brand attractiveness, acceptance of content or customer behavior at the POS. The customer journey at the POS becomes transparent and the conversion can be targeted via the touchpoints online and offline.
