Professor Steven King shares a preview of his upcoming keynote on the ICX Summit in Charlotte on the way forward for retail. ICX Summit will likely be hosted by Networld Media Group from September Sept. 11.
The retail expertise is altering as quick because the tech underpinning it, each for operators and prospects.
Synthetic intelligence, digital actuality, blockchain, wirelessly-powered shows, holograms, and extra improvements are taking the procuring expertise to new heights. However how can the typical retailer faucet into tech to raise the client expertise with out breaking the financial institution?
That is the topic of an upcoming keynote on the Interactive Buyer Expertise Summit. Registration is now open for the occasion, which will likely be hosted by Networld Media Group in Charlotte from September Sept. 11. The keynote handle is to be delivered by Steven King, affiliate professor of innovation and rising applied sciences at UNC.
We reached out to King to be taught extra by way of e-mail interview.
Q&A with Steven King
Q: What are the highest rising applied sciences altering the retail panorama at present?
King: The important thing macro rising applied sciences clearly embody AI and AR however in my speak, we are going to dig into usable and useful AI and AR instruments which might be altering the retail panorama via how customers interact and the way ship merchandise.
Q: What are the professionals and cons of AI within the retail area, and the way ought to operators leverage it successfully?
King: AI is pervasive all through all industries and retail isn’t any exception. Operators should leverage AI to compete with the massive retailers who’re optimizing ever click on and each cargo. Some are selecting to construct their very own options whereas others are leveraging third social gathering distributors. Every are precious and every have considerations which we are going to talk about in individual.
Q: Augmented Actuality is comparatively new on this area; what are the highest purposes, and do you suppose it’s going to develop in coming years?
King: When Apple unveiled Augmented Actuality natively on their telephones in 2017, they selected an espresso machine to exhibit the ability of AR as a result of Apple knew this know-how will likely be big for retail. There are new instruments and integrations that make this a lot simpler for retailers than again in 2017, but it surely has been a lot slower than I anticipated. Within the subsequent couple of years, customers will anticipate AR of their on-line procuring expertise in the identical means they anticipate buyer opinions or detailed photographs.
Q: For individuals who do not know, are you able to clarify blockchain know-how in a nutshell, together with its worth in retail and procuring settings?
King: There was lots of good and dangerous printed about block chain. Blockchain is a digital know-how that securely data transactions throughout a number of computer systems, making it almost not possible to change or hack. Consider it as a digital ledger the place each sale, cost, or stock change is completely recorded and shared with everybody within the community. For retailers, this implies extra transparency, higher safety, and doubtlessly decrease prices in managing funds or provide chains, because it removes the necessity for middlemen.
Q: Is there a distinction between how we should always apply rising tech within the brick-and-mortar area versus on-line areas?
King: I feel this dichotomy of brick-and-mortar vs on-line retailers is a harmful paradigm and one that’s damaged within the shopper’s minds. Leveraging rising applied sciences would require retailers to disregard this historic separations and use the know-how to interact customers in all facets of their lives together with in bodily and digital areas.
Q: What’s the greatest mistake you see at present in making use of (or failing to use) rising tech in retail?
King:Manufacturers should experiment and check out new issues, however they have to be fixing an issue after they do it. Do not constructed one thing for know-how’s sake, however construct one thing that leverages new applied sciences to resolve an outdated downside.
Q: You are the skilled! Any closing ideas you’d wish to share with our readers?
King: After we work with manufacturers, we leverage human-centered design, and we personalize that to model with guest-centered design or fan-centered design. Leveraging rising applied sciences require you to know your viewers and the way they’ll really use the know-how not the way you suppose they may use it. This requires getting exterior the company atmosphere and speaking with actual prospects all through each facet of the method.
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