INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Retailing the appropriate hardware into new handsets and by include You may make many purchases online to benefit from greater ing mobile payment software. convenience or lower prices, but you will likely set foot in a Further, many brick-and-mortar retailers have had to brick-and-mortar retail store at least occasionally, and you respond to the phenomenon of showrooming, in which, as may have noticed some changes brought by technology. A discussed earlier, customers examine products in person at few decades ago, large retail chains started introducing com- a store and then leave to order the same product online for puterized point-of-sale inventory systems consisting of check- less. Retailers invest billions to build and maintain their store- out computers and an inventory control system. A simple bar fronts, and online retailers can often undercut physical stores' code scan captures a sale, and the item is automatically prices; when a customer takes advantage of this, the brick- deducted from the store's inventory, allowing real-time track- and-mortar retailer cannot recoup the cost of the storefront. ing of purchases so that the retailer knows when to reorder merchandise or restock shelves. In addition to a speedier Some retailers like Best Buy-and Target are embracing this checkout process, such systems help to reduce stockouts, trend, however, by encouraging consumers to browse their increasing customer satisfaction. In many grocery stores, this shelves and compare prices online. By providing perks such system has been taken a step further, allowing the customers as superior, personal customer service and instituting price- to conduct the checkout process themselves, saving time and matching policies, these retailers prevent loss of customers labor costs. In Switzerland, grocery retailer Migros introduced due to price while benefiting by selling additional products a system that allows customers to scan items as they are Other new and exciting in-store technologies include smart placed into the shopping cart. At the checkout counter, all fitting rooms that use augmented reality technology to show the customer must do is use a credit card. how an item would look when worn or suggest comple- In the near future, many items may be equipped with mentary items. Finally, retail stores are increasingly using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags (see Chapter 8), Bluetooth-enabled sales beacons to provide customers with eliminating the need to scan each individual item, so that real-time promotional offers. the total price for a cart full of merchandise can be calcu- As you can see, information systems have had a huge lated within a second, saving even more time and adding impact on retailing, and many more changes are yet to hit convenience for the customer. Imagine the time you'll save the shelves. when all you have to do is pass with your cart through an RFID reader and swipe or tap your credit card. Amazon's Questions Amazon Go stores have taken this concept even further, 1. How can technology help brick-and-mortar retailers com- using technologies such as radar and computer vision to pete against e-tailers? detect if a customer takes an item off the shelf, eliminating 2. Privacy advocates criticize the use of RFID, as it allows the need for even using RFID tags. All a customer has to do better tracking of purchasing habits. How can brick-and- is tap a credit card to enter the store; once they've finished mortar retailers alleviate these concerns? shopping, the customer can just leave the store and con- 3. As you have read, part of the "human element" in retail- tinue with life. ing is being replaced by technology. How can brick-and- Payment systems are also rapidly changing, driven par- mortar stores avoid becoming too "sterile" when using tially by the adoption of more secure multi-factor author information systems to compete against e-tailers? rization payments (e.g., your card, phone, code, signature, Based on: fingerprint, or face), "chip" technology, and touchless pay- ment systems. NFC-based payments have become widely Rowan, L. (2020, May 6). How contactless payments work. Life- implemented with mobile phones and use a technology hacker. Retrieved June 12, 2020, from https://twocents.lifehacker called near-field communication (NFC-similar to Bluetooth). com/how-contactless-payments-work-1843266723 The customer's mobile phone communicates with the retail- Spaid, B.I., O'Neill, B.S., and Ow, T.T. (2017, October 28). The upside er's payment terminal, and the payment amount is automati- of showrooming: How online information creates positive spill-over cally charged to the stored payment method of choice (e.g. for the brick-and-mortar retailer. Journal of Organizational Comput- bank account, debit card, credit card). All major smartphone ing and Electronic Commerce. Retrieved June 12, 2 doi.org/10.1080/10919392.2019.1671738 a June 12 , 2020, from https / manufacturers such as Apple, Google, LG, Motorola, and Samsung actively support this new technology by integrating Walk-Morris, T. (2020, March 16). J.C. Penney unveils smart fitting room tech. Retail Dive. Retrieved June 12, 2020 12 , 2020 , from https / wWw .retaildive.comews/jc-penney-unveils-smart-fitting-room-tech/574091