Retail Automation – 5 Retail Innovation Traps To Avoid

Excelling in today’s redefined retail industry means putting equal weight on avoiding problems and finding solutions.

Source: www.innovativeretailtechnologies.com

1. Adding Tech For Tech’s Sake
   Just because augmented reality, or robotics, or drones, or lasers and smoke-machines are hyped doesn’t mean they add value to your customer experience. Always ask yourself the question: What customer pain point does this solve?
2. Failing To Get Store Associates On Board
   If the store associates don’t love it, then it will fail.
3. Failing To Align Organizational Owners
   Easier said than done, but it’s vital that everyone on your retail innovation project team works towards a shared vision of success. It can’t just be the digital team. It’s got to be store operations, and merchandising, and IT, and more.
4. Forgetting About The Basics, Like Infrastructure
   One example is connectivity, where everything from network configuration and firewalls to quality of Wi-Fi can make or break your solution.
5. Limiting Investments Of Time And Focus Beyond V1
   Phew! You’ve finally launched your tech! It was tough. Securing budget, assembling a team, creating a steering committee, validating, customer-testing, piloting — it feels like you could have started an entire business in the real world. Well, remember this is the beginning. Launch is exciting but you have to treat your in-store tech like a first version.

Are some of these super-obvious? Oh yeah. But almost all of these common points of failure tend to be forgotten when in the thick of developing a project. So, hold to your principles.