By Dhiraj Jain, Director, Mahagun Group
With COVID-19 travel bans unprecedentedly affecting the retail market; the ‘phygital automation’ is the only way out of the current recession to boost sales and tide. Obscuring the lines between the online and offline worlds, the phygital model provides customers with a seamless shopping experience through a digital interface and removes the need for mall visits, particularly in the present times when the need for the hour is social distancing.
Depleting footfalls, declining sales, and empty malls post the COVID-19 outbreak have had a significant effect on commercial developers and retail operators’ balance sheets across the world. In the post-pandemic world, customer footfall in Indian malls has declined by more than 70 percent, while sales have plummeted by more than 60 percent in the last few months as compared to pre-COVID times. As the overall sentiment remains serious, it calls for some strategic, competent, and customer-friendly approaches through developers. There is a desperate need to develop and introduce cutting-edge technology to attract patrons who due to convenience and large options have migrated to e-commerce platforms. The changing dynamics of the market and the cut-throat rivalry make it important that developers have ‘phygital automation’ in their retail spaces. The model, an amalgamation of the physical and digital world, aims to increase the offline shopping experience and to provide customers with an online retail platform that adds to their overall convenience. From buying, picking, returning to exchanging a commodity, phygital automation ensures all at home, but without eroding the value of traditional and ever-popular brick and mortar shops.
Phygital retail uses Artificial Intelligence ( AI), Data Analytics, and Machine Learning to access shopping habits for consumers and exchange voluminous, granular, and informative data with retailers to develop valuable strategies that help drive transactions. It taps the actions of the customers as soon as they reach the premise of the store. The process starts with an open Wi-Fi connection that tracks the client’s footsteps right from the parking spot to wherever they visit the mall. It tracks their preferences for shopping, dining, and entertainment and shares useful data with retailers who use the information to build personalized deals and schemes that are ideally tailored to consumers. Many developers are also focusing on the concept of ‘block and shop’ to give clients a sense of protection and exclusivity. Block and shop allow the customer to pre-book a slot and shop exclusively in that store for themselves.
While the above process helps to access the valuable data, the customer is required to visit the nearby mall at least once. A few developers have come up with ‘shop from home’ options to remove this discomfort of stepping out, particularly in the current times, by actively putting the phygital interface to use. As the COVID-19 cases hit new heights each day, consumers hesitate to visit public places such as malls. Therefore, retail developers need to update and accept contemporary models such as home store, whatsapp video shopping, and free home delivery to stimulate sales in these difficult times. These options not only provide convenience for the customer and help people buy the desired product but also improve sales. Therefore, both the buyer and the retailers are in a win-win situation.
Training staff members to meet the requirements of buyers and helping them through the virtual board is also one of the crucial aspects that retail developers need to explore. In addition, the state-of-the-art contactless food ordering and payment apps at the food courts are also a move that developers may consider offering visitors a trouble-free dining experience.
Mall developers need to evolve and adapt to new developments, or they can ultimately perish. It’s important to realize that phygital automation is a facilitator and not a replacement for shopping malls. It will help retailers connect with clients and make each experience better than the last one. In addition, people are willing to adopt new technologies which make things convenient for them.
Ultimately, the future of phygital automation is promising as consumers’ burgeoning demands need more than just human interaction to provide exclusive and indelible retail experience. The hybrid development of malls will also help retailers target off-line and online customers, thus increasing consumer base.
Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)
