Studies reveal that around 10 percent of retail sales get lost because of products not in stock. Seventeen percent of customers do not hesitate in buying that product from a competitor’s website when they find out about it.
But now, customers can still purchase items that have run out of stock, thanks to the innovative solution known as endless aisle retail technology. Endless aisle solutions provide a world-class try-on experience of things like jewelry to customers.
After finalizing a product, customers can place an order and get it at their doorstep. It boosts customer engagement and allows retailers to achieve better sales.
The Definition of Endless Aisle
Endless aisle is the idea of enabling people in a store to look through and order various products that are sold out virtually. The customers can have these products shipped to their location. Often, in an endless aisle, in-stores kiosks are utilized.
This retail kiosk gives customers an exciting online customer experience. It’s much more sophisticated than the physical experience of looking through the products in the store.
Even brick-and-mortar eCommerce stores can set up endless aisle kiosks in the store after providing their buyers with a hands-on experience with their products.
The Various Benefits of Endless Aisle
Endless aisle provides a strikingly unlimited number of stock-keeping units or SKUs. It is accomplished when you partner with a fulfillment supplier.
The primary aim is to find the ability to compete with online product assortment in the store. It means that a client can enter and exit the store after buying precisely what they wanted, even if their product may come to the store a few days later.
In the jewelry domain, an endless aisle solution imparts the virtual feel of the design of jewelry to the client. Essentially, the endless aisle is heralding the practice of combining virtual and physical items, which in turn leads to the final merchandising strategy.
This technology doesn’t require it to be confined to only the particular item that clients cannot get in a store. It can also function as a recommended selling solution.
When you incorporate the product recommendation information, it becomes easy to cross-sell or up-sell related products that may pique customers’ curiosity.
Endless aisle options help retail businesses to modernize and extend the virtual experience. The exceptional multichannel in-store service enables clients to take advantage of endless shopping possibilities. They don’t need to think of exiting the store empty-handed.
Two Approaches of Endless Aisle
1. As order fulfillment or dropship
It is one of the basic techniques. Also called drop-ship, this practice entails providing a store’s sales associates with access to your eCommerce item and or third-party suppliers.
The associates can provide these options to the buyer while they are shopping. They can also present it to them if the buyer approaches them while searching for a product that’s sold out or generally not carried in-store. The sales rep can order the specific product and ship it to the customer.
2. As an interactive kiosk
This approach empowers customers to sift through find and buy all that they want by themselves. It uses interactive, customer-facing touchscreens that showcase the complete product catalog and your supplier’s product catalog.
With this method, buyers don’t remain dependent on interactions with the sales rep. Moreover, your reliance on the sales rep remembering to provide the virtually available item also gets removed.
This retail technology significantly expands customer engagement and enables brands to provide the most pleasing experiences to their buyers.
Endless aisle solutions powered by augmented reality allow retailers to open their digital stores and impart a personalized buying experience. It makes way for more informed purchasing decisions.