Improving customer experience with IoT technologies

Faced with high consumer demands for quality, speed and transparency, the retail sector must constantly reinvent itself. Customer satisfaction is the key to a sustainable business. It’s with this in mind that we have developed UBI Retail Boost. A solution designed to optimize your sales staff’s actions and remove one of the customer’s main experience problems: waiting.

Based on IoT technologies and more specifically RFID, it allows you to manage all different items on the whole chain, from factories to stores. The deployed solution is provided with a software package to manage stocks of your sales point. What does our solution consist of? How can the customer experience be improved through IoT technologies?

Ubi Retail Boost : our innovative solution

Our UBI Retail Boost solution has been designed to simplify the management of stocks, with the aim of optimizing your processes and thus boosting your sales. The Retail Solution is a complete approach, ready to be deployed for your business.

How does our technical solution work?

To meet new challenges of the Retail sector, we have developed a Plug & Play software package that allows you to manage the stocks of your sales point:

• By identifying every product unit;

• By reducing the time needed to carry out stock and shop inventories;

• By implementing expected stock values;

• By interfacing our inventory solution with your Information System.
  
  

The article database is exported from your IS to our software package, allowing RFID chips encoded printing with the product’s references. Once affixed, they allow you to carry out a complete inventory in 30 minutes (approximately reading of 6,000 items).

In the SaaS application, you manage items number expected per references. If the actual value is lower than the one expected, an alert is sent to the manager in order to launch the replenishment and thus limit the shortage risks.

Deployment of the solution

RFID Tags printing:

The solution is based on self-adhesive RFID tags. They are easy to set up and cost-effective. All the information of a standard tag is printed on this chip.

The RFID printer is used in the shop or warehouse to print chips for existing items, pre-print tags for upcoming items or send pre-prepared tags to suppliers :

• On the application, you define the number of items in a reference. (article, colour, size, collection, gender) ;

• The printer encodes the RFID chips so that they trace the exact product reference.

In-store equipment

In stores, your staff can use a UHF RFID terminal, connected via Bluetooth to an Android smartphone, the chips can be read from up to 2 meters away. The reader's functionality is extensive:

• Product inventory;

• Specific reference research ;

• Stock and merchandise reception;

• Shelf placement;

• Shipping.

The application allows you to search for a product in seconds. By entering the article reference and the characteristics sought (model, size, colour...), the application displays the number of corresponding products, as well as the area where it’s available (in the shop or in the storage room).

Additional applications of the Retail Solutions

UBI Cloud application

UBI Retail Boost is delivered with the UBI Cloud web application which provides:

• Customized KPIs (indicators);

• Graphical or tabular dashboards and reports;

• Stock by shop;

• Stock variances by shop or by zone;

• Stock alerts that can be configured according to your needs;

• Sales lists, fittings...

• Start by batch, family, category...

• Average downtime per item.

 
Mobile application

The mobile application has been thought for the realization of a quantitative control during the store reception. It also allows you to carry out your inventory with stock deviations and prepare for shipment.

IoT and Retail Boost: use cases

Now that we’ve explained the theory behind our solution, discover in concrete terms how our retail solution is implemented in three different sectors.

Asset tracking from suppliers to sports stores

IoT solutions examples implemented from the supplier to a sporting goods store.

Application in a textile store

For our textile customers, our solution allows the installation of electronic labels on fashion items. The advantage is that these labels are refillable and therefore reusable: no more cardboard or plastic labels thrown away after customer purchase!

A gateway (a computer gateway that relays information) is installed in the store. It retrieves the information from the labels and transmits it to UBI Manager. In a textile shop, the retail solution is a solution that meets various needs:

Textile items are identified and located at each corner of the shop thanks to the gateway and labels ;

• All information (price, size or reference number) can be upgraded or modified via the remote system: employees no longer have to do it one by one;

• RFID tags trigger a theft alarm if the tag is not deactivated by the purchase beyond the door;

• Scheduling recalls to ensure goods are ready for display and easy to find;

• All items inventory achievable in seconds;

• Real-time asset monitoring and data retention in a history ;

• Alert mode immediately activates a notification in case of errors (pricing, promotion, etc.) ;

• Customization and download of vital reports for analysis such as stock, item discounts...

Automotive customer application

Example in the automotive sector. The deployment of our retail solution has optimized processes and strengthened customer loyalty through:  

• Tracking of used car fleets with RFID technology: better dissemination of purchase opportunities to consumers;

• Tracking and cost statistics of garage services;

• Online customer appointment scheduling: more speed and flexibility for customers;

• Integration into SAP;

• 73% improvement in time spent checking the vehicle: quicker vehicles return to customers;

• Lower services time: faster vehicules return to customers;

• Reduction of storage times from 40 days to 1.5 days;

• No more document errors thanks to RFID: fewer complaints to customer service.

What are the benefits of IoT on customer satisfaction?

Why should you choose our UBI Retail Boost solution? Like our customers, opting for a complete RFID solution would allow you to observe:

• A simplification of your processes;

• A faster checkout process;

• A reduction in your stock levels;

• A reduction in loss and theft;

• A quick search and identification of your product references in stores or warehouses;

• A better quality and a better follow-up of your stocks (inventory optimization);

• An increase in your turnover (consequences).

 ▶️ Also read : How to optimise the annual inventories of large groups with the IoT?

All these benefits ultimately have the benefit of dramatically improving the customer experience. With the use of IoT, you can satisfy and retain your consumers by eliminating some of the difficulties in their buying journey:

• No more stocks shortages: with automatic ordering, you can offeA simplification of your processes;

• Geolocation: you instantly guide the customer to his need in the shop. In e-commerce, you inform precisely about delivery times.

• Real-time label updates: no unpleasant surprises at checkout, the consumer knows the price and the potential promotion is applied.

• Reduction of delays: in the tourism sector, thanks to textile labels on linen, delays in room preparation are avoided. Find out more about customer loyalty with RFID in laundries on our website.

• Stocks and information automation: in store, your staff is relieved of some time-consuming tasks, and thus has more time to allocate to customer advice.

• Transparency: in the food sector, the IoT is a new tool for transparency and food safety, which is highly appreciated by consumers.

The IoT adapted to the retail sector allows you to carry out rapid inventories and to have access to all your stocks in real time. In addition to responding perfectly to the current problems of the sector, the solution reinforces and considerably improves the customer experience and their satisfaction.

Do you want to optimize your processes? UBI Retail Boost is the best IoT tracking solution. For more information about our products, please contact us to discuss them directly with our experts.