Your college store retail system is essential to your store. From back-office functions to your eCommerce site and POS efficiency, your system should empower associates and continue to evolve alongside your store. One way to ensure your store is getting the most out of its system is through practical training that is tailored for your store’s specific needs.
Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions (TGCS) Channel Sales Executive Lora Coggins opened her Forums 2019 session with a question of great import to campus retailers: Is brick and mortar here to stay?
A customer walks into your store, eyes glued to their phone. Barely acknowledging the employee’s greeting, they wander through the store briefly before leaving without making a purchase. This is common in retail. Consumers are distracted, and it is hard to get their attention. That’s where smart beacons can change the store’s interaction with the customer, making the experience better for both.
Topics: retail technology, business intelligence, Big data
In today’s technology-fueled world customer loyalty isn’t a given. If your store doesn’t have what someone is looking for, they can shop somewhere else with just a cell phone and a few taps on the screen. Customers expect stores to meet their needs without expressing what they want. On the surface, the problem looks impossible. You can’t read your customer’s mind—or can you?
You walk into a clothing store, but instead of racks of clothing in various sizes, there is only one piece of each product carefully displayed with holographic touchscreens next to each item that allow you to see the shirt, dress, jeans from all angles, in different colors and styles. With a few taps on the screen your selection will be made. Inside the dressing room, you open the wardrobe and your clothing is waiting for you, along with another screen where you can easily change sizes or colors. Again, the clothing you select appears in the closet like magic.
Topics: retail technology, mobile POS, college stores
Every store has to make sales. That’s the bottom line. Time is, in fact, money in a retail environment. There is rarely a day that it’s convenient to read an article expatiating on the 54 products your college store has to have to grow. It’s even less realistic to implement many of those ideas.
Think about when you go to a store. What do you enjoy? What parts do you dread? What if you could take out the experiences you don’t like — would you shop more or less? For over 20 years, Amazon has bet on the fact that if you can remove the areas that cause friction with consumers, they will shop more in your store. Looking at the current state of the retail market, they are right.
MBS Systems Sales Consultant, Patrick Cervenik sat down with us to discuss the changes happening in the retail industry, and how college stores can stay adaptable to the transitioning environment.
As a customer, the experience you have in stores, online and on social media reflects on the overall company. The customer experience isn’t about just mastering one of these channels, it is about providing information and support across the board. As a college store, your day-to-day interactions with students are about more than just ensuring they come back through. Positive student interactions reflect well on the entire campus community. Whether you have simplified picking up their textbooks or offer a friendly ear, you are improving the student’s overall college experience. That is what customer service is about.
Topics: college retail, retail technology
Admit it: It’s an enticing thought. A visit to the grocery store completely absent of all the usual irritations: customers clogging the Express Lane with — oops! — at least 40 items. Slow-movers fumbling through self-check-out. Grim cashiers shoving your heaviest items into a single bag that splits open before you reach the car. Amazon has nixed nearly all the pain-points we associate with shopping in a single swoop with the opening of its check-out free convenience store. It might seem like another dreaded retail disruptor. But how can it not inspire a shiver of excitement?
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