Honeywell Scanning & Mobility’s white-paper library is a resource I refer to regularly in my effort to stay abreast of the rapidly evolving mobile computing and scanning industry. With so much data and frivolous opinion populating the Internet, it’s reassuring to know that Honeywell’s findings are based on proven data evaluated by industry leading experts. One such expert is Enzo Capobianco, Honeywell’s London-based Marketing Manager, who has contributed, among other resources, a white paper titled Retail 2D (Retail Today).
Capobianco presents a convincing case that the longstanding product-focused retail model – a strategy he describes as “a linear, push-based process, centered on the one dimensional (1D) EAN/UPC bar code” – is being disrupted by the phenomena of the “new connected shopper,” forcing a realignment of retailer focus away from the product and towards consumer expectations. Where Honeywell’s Mobile Marketing: Retail’s Next Frontier explored the new market dynamics occasioned by the proliferation of ever more capable mobile devices, Capobianco’s Retail 2D embraces the consumer who is using that device.
Capobianco defines the new connected shopper as one whose consumer behavior is increasingly influenced by a steady diet of web-based information, including that channeled through their online social networks. The new connected shopper is becoming a master of information filtering – a shopper whose increasing sophistication must not be ignored.
Capobianco cautions that, while the store remains the retailer’s primary channel, that channel must be responsive to the customer’s expectations. This is the difference in being focused on the customer, and upon services that are relevant to the customer, rather than focused simply on product sales.
But how is this done? Among other tactics, Capobianco recommends empowering retail staff with the tools required to expedite mundane, repetitive product-centric tasks, freeing them to focus more entirely on positive customer experiences. How many times have you waited for a salesclerk’s attention while he or she completed some mystery task in willful ignorance of your existence? The new connected shopper is accustomed to the free-flowing, uninterrupted pace of the online shopping experience and can be expected to have zero patience for in-store processes that aren’t equally customer-focused.
The retail team’s task can be significantly aided by targeted distribution of personalized mobile (2D) barcodes. As Capobianco further explains, Honeywell has perfected 2D-based systems that enable the retailer to:
- Transform the Point-of-Sale into a Point-of-Service;
- Procure real-time, demand-based inventory; and
- Empower store associates with the technologies needed to fully engage their customers.
While I hope to explore each of these elements in more-ample detail in future posts, for now I encourage you to consider Capobianco’s analysis yourself. My guess is it’ll change your perspective on the traditional product-based retail model, just as it has mine.