The Internet of Things, popularly known for its acronym “IoT,” has been growing faster in recent years, and its quick growth is mainly attributed to how beneficial it is for people, even those that are just staying at home. However, IoT is particularly useful in the retail industry, as many businesses or companies can benefit greatly from the numerous features or perks that IoT offers. With retail IoT platforms like Vusion, you will have a faster time assessing what you need to enhance for your business in order to attract more customers. Here are the best ways that IoT can help manage your retail.
Improve Customer Experience
One of the benefits of IoT for businesses is that it can help in improving the customer experience. The improvement can be complex, but it is usually done after the feedback you will receive from customers through social media, which they access through their mobile devices.
The surveillance cameras or CCTVs that are installed in your business’s physical shop can also help in improving customer experience, as you will be able to monitor customer behavior, like what they see or touch first on the shelves of products.
Track Stocks or Inventory Better
If your business has a warehouse where you keep stocks of products, IoT will help you in tracking those stocks better. Of course, a good way to track stocks is by having a surveillance camera on the warehouse, but you can also have a smart system wherein you can digitally track the number of stocks in the warehouse and how many are actually sold and transferred out of the warehouse.
Keeping an eye on your business’s inventory is very important, especially if the business is expanding. Losing stocks in the inventory is quite common in businesses, so you can lessen the chances of losing stocks by simply applying IoT systems and devices in your warehouse and even in your retail stores.
Better Optimization of Product Prices
With the help of IoT, your business would have better optimization in terms of product prices. Due to inflation and other causes, the prices of your products can often fluctuate. So, for you to have better control of those prices, you should use an IoT system that calculates the supply and demand ratio, as well as other factors, to determine the correct price for your products.
Moreover, the IoT system will also make sure that the price tags for the same products in different stores are the same. So, you wouldn’t really have to worry about losing profits simply because one store forgot to increase the price of a specific product. Product optimization is essential for big businesses, and if your brand is growing in terms of customer base and reach, you should definitely use IoT to keep better track of product prices.
Use Tagging to Secure Products
Another great way that IoT can help your retail business is by simply adding tags to your products. These tags use radio frequency to alert you if someone is taking out a product from your store without paying. The door of your store would also have sensors that will be alerted if someone going outside is carrying an unpaid product.
The sensors or tags on the products would be disabled once the customer actually pays for the items. Almost any product can be tagged, so whatever you are selling in the store, you will be able to tag it to prevent theft or shoplifting. There are many different types of tags or sensors available today, although the most popular ones are circular cone-shaped plastic tags and square sticker sensors.
Enhance the Business’s Delivery Service
If your business has its own delivery service instead of relying on a third-party courier, you can improve the delivery of your products using retail IoT. The vehicles used by your delivery personnel can have GPS tracking so that you will know if they actually deliver the products and how quickly they deliver those items. You can also offer your customers a great tracking system so that they will check out where the ordered item is and how long it will take for the product to be at their doorstep.
The employees who will deliver the products can also benefit greatly from retail IoT, as they can rely on GPS to know which routes would provide them with the fastest time to deliver products. Furthermore, the employees will also have the ability to track the products they have delivered and have yet to deliver.
Improve Moving Merchandise from the Warehouse to Stores
In addition to delivering items to customers, you can also use IoT platforms or systems to keep track of the business’s merchandise while you are moving it from the warehouse to the stores. The GPS and route tracking system made for mobile devices and GPS trackers can be helpful tools so that the employees who ship the items will be able to transfer the merchandise on time and without any hassle.
While regular tracking devices are still useful for moving merchandise, IoT platforms give you a much more uniform system of merchandise shipping since the information can be sent to your devices, as well as the devices of those that are involved in the shipping process. The IoT system allows your business to have a uniform and concise platform for tracking and logistics.
Can Help in Figuring Out Issues in the Business
What’s also great about IoT platforms is that they will be able to help you in figuring out issues in the business and provide solutions to fix those issues. Through the tracking and monitoring features of IoT, you will have the chance to see problems and fix them before they get even bigger.
Without IoT, you will most likely have to maintain the business on your own, which means that you have to perform regular maintenance in the business to ensure that nothing will go wrong. However, regular maintenance can take a lot of time, money, and effort to do, so it would be much better if you had an IoT platform that could help make maintenance faster and hassle-free.
IoT platforms and systems have many benefits for people, and those benefits will be much more apparent once you actually apply them to your business. Try out an IoT platform and see if it does improve different aspects of the business or brand that you own or manage.