Some determined that they simply couldn’t compete in today’s marketplace. Companies such as Pier 1 Imports, Modell’s Sporting Goods, and A.C. Moore closed their doors for good. However, most brick-and-mortar retailers are rallying with new strategies to adapt their models to meet the demands of a digital world.

Adapting to Competition From E-Commerce

The key to reigniting consumer passion for in-store shopping is to match the perks of online shopping and create an exceptional in-person experience. Today’s shoppers enter brick-and-mortar establishments with high expectations. The baseline includes digitally rich, convenient and pleasant interactions. Anything less gets a failing mark.

Consumers are also sensitive to continuity between online and in-person promotions and brand messages. They expect consistency, and they want a seamless transition between channels. Brick-and-mortar retailers who don’t deliver on these basic elements are likely to lose customers to e-commerce.

In the current marketplace, shoppers are loyal to how an interaction makes them feel, rather than to specific brands. After all, if they just want to make a purchase, online is more convenient. They visit brick-and-mortar establishments to touch and test products firsthand before making a purchase decision.

If the in-store experience doesn’t meet or exceed their expectations, they will shop elsewhere. Brick-and-mortar businesses that want to stay open must look beyond strategies that rely on pricing and raise the bar when it comes to the consumer experience.

Special Challenges for Wireless Carriers

Wireless carriers face special challenges in attracting and engaging in-person shoppers. These consumers tend to be comfortable with digital technology, and they already conduct much of their business online.

Buying a new phone or other device still drives consumers to wireless carriers’ retail stores. In a recent survey by Smith Micro, 75 percent of respondents stated this is the No. 1 reason for in-person visits. For perspective, only 14 percent named the second-most prevalent reason — customer care — as their top reason for going to a brick-and-mortar wireless store.

The problem with this reason taking top billing is that people are waiting longer between upgrades. The sheer volume of smartphones in service, along with feature parity and high device prices, has many consumers delaying the purchase of a new device as long as they possibly can.

Researchers have noticed a substantial increase in the length of time between smartphone replacements over the past eight years. Until 2014, consumers waited less than 20 months before turning in their old devices. By 2018, that period was up to 27.9 months.

In 2019, consumers held onto their phones even longer, averaging 32.9 months across all demographics. Baby Boomers delayed replacement the longest, keeping their devices up to 39.7 months before trading them in for the latest and greatest. ⁽³⁾

Mobile has always been a hyper-competitive industry, but in the current environment, it is more competitive than ever before. All the major carriers regularly offer aggressive promotions in an effort to persuade consumers to switch. Basically, the strategy is to compete on price for a commoditized service, which is made all the more difficult by non-traditional players.

Prepaid brands, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), XFINITY mobile, and Google Fi are gaining market share, which adds to the pressure traditional mobile carriers face. Combined, the impact of these market forces comes down to low customer loyalty and high subscriber churn.

The Solution: Differentiate Offerings by Enhancing the Customer Experience

Success in the current environment requires more than pricing promotions. The only way to meet the challenge of competitive pressures is for wireless carriers to differentiate their offerings through an exceptional customer experience. Because retail stores are the main physical brand touchpoint, they play a central role in the effort to attract and keep customers.

The fact is that most people in the market for a new smartphone tend to make their purchase decision in a brick-and-mortar store. Providing the best possible in-store experience — one that exceeds the expectations of digital-first consumers — is essential to retaining the loyalty and the revenue of mobile subscribers. That’s where Smith Micro software comes in.

Creating Exceptional Customer Experiences With ViewSpot

Engaging customers and creating exceptional, memorable experiences begins with your display. Smith Micro’s ViewSpot is designed to encourage positive interactions with mobile devices on the sales floor.

ViewSpot enables wireless carriers and other smartphone retailers to transform in-store demo devices into digital sales associates. Curated content keeps these devices on message, ensuring continuity between online and in-store promotions and brand voice.

ViewSpot makes demo devices come to life with interactive experiences, phone and plan pricing information, and details on relevant promotions. Through Smith Micro’s proprietary behavior-based analytics tools, carriers can measure the performance of in-store campaigns and promotions and make real-time adjustments to optimize retail operations.

The “brain” behind ViewSpot is a backend management component known as ViewSpot Studio. This software streamlines in-store content management for wireless carriers by digitizing inefficient paper-based signage. Changes are made centrally, and all devices are updated in seconds. That means instead of spending time posting and updating signs and tags, store team members can focus on customer care.

ViewSpot Touchless — Technology Meets Safety

The COVID-19 pandemic decimated in-store sales, even for those businesses that remained open. Consumers are still feeling cautious about high-touch surfaces, no matter how careful retailers are with cleaning and disinfecting. In fact, in a recent survey by Smith Micro, nearly half of all respondents said they would only feel comfortable touching a demo device if they knew for sure that it was sanitized beforehand.

In response to these concerns, Smith Micro introduced new touchless functionality for ViewSpot. This feature was developed to support wireless carriers in adapting their retail environments to the unique consumer demands brought on by the pandemic.

The smart retail platform uses facial detection features already available on mobile devices to recognize customers’ presence and begin an interaction. The technology works whether customers have facial coverings or not, which ensures visitors can engage with the device while observing masking protocols.

Among other information, ViewSpot Touchless presents customers with pricing and product specs. Better still, ViewSpot Touchless supports enhanced sanitation practices. Devices display a notification that the item has been sanitized. Once it is handled, the notification must be reset by a retail associate after cleaning. This works to ensure consumers feel confident in their safety throughout their visit to the store.

Streamlining Retail Operations With ViewSpot Studio’s Dynamic Pricing Portal

ViewSpot Studio’s Dynamic Pricing Portal makes paper-based price cards and signs a thing of the past. Wireless carriers can streamline and optimize brick-and-mortar operations by managing pricing and promotions from a central location.

Real-time updates eliminate the lag time associated with updating paper-based price tags and in-store promotions. This feature allows wireless carriers to flex and adapt as market conditions change without risking customer frustration due to the errors and omissions that inevitably occur when busy associates are responsible for manual price changes.

Leveraging Behavior-Based Analytics to Meet Customer Expectations

Even the most consumer-centric promotions and campaigns will fail when they are based on incomplete information. Success depends on a clear and accurate understanding of what customers want. Keep in mind that this isn’t necessarily the same as what customers say they want. Research shows inconsistencies between customer browsing behaviors and purchasing decisions.

ViewSpot Analytics takes the guesswork out of identifying and meeting consumer expectations through comprehensive behavior-based analytics. The platform collects data on how customers engage with demo products, then it reports out so wireless carriers can take action.

The system is capable of answering these critical questions based on in-store interactions:

• Which devices attract the most attention?
• Which on-device promotions encourage customer engagement?
• Does the time of day matter when it comes to whether and how customers engage with certain products?
• Do some areas of the store see increased engagement while others have little or no traffic?
• Which stores and regions drive the most in-store engagement?
• Which stores and regions drive the least in-store engagement?
• Is there a geographic or demographic component to device popularity?
• Are customers actually buying in-store, or are they just browsing?

When this level of detail is available, it is far easier to adapt and improve retail environments in a customized fashion to meet the customer expectations and deliver a superior customer experience.

Cutting-Edge Technology That Deepens Wireless Subscribers’ Relationships With Carriers

Smith Micro is a leading provider of cutting-edge technology that maximizes the power of digital tools. Developers are focused on creating innovative solutions to the most difficult challenges presented by today’s digital lifestyle. Through advanced enterprise and consumer-level products, Smith Micro is changing how businesses and consumers interact, both with each other and with the world around them.

In response to mounting family safety concerns, Smith Micro’s popular SafePath^® platform helps wireless carriers streamline digital parenting for mobile subscribers. It includes a comprehensive menu of features such as user-friendly parental controls and child location services. SafePath^® has been shown to boost subscriber loyalty and increase average revenue per user (ARPU).

In an effort to modernize and monetize voicemail Smith Micro’s CommSuite^® transforms voice messaging. The service enables wireless carriers to retire outdated voicemail offerings in favor of the new features consumers have come to expect. Among other advantages, CommSuite’s smartphone-centric services include visual voicemail and voice-to-text transcription — both of which are considered must-haves by today’s smartphone users.

While these three products are diverse in their use cases, application and customers, they share a common trait. They help wireless carriers provide the kinds of services and digital experiences that improve the day-to-day lives of mobile subscribers, which in turn deepens relationships and boosts subscriber loyalty.

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