They may not be smarter than the sales associate assisting them, but smartphone-wielding retail customers are likely to be better informed. What’s more, store associates and managers know it.
Customers with smartphones may be dissatisfied with salespeople who don't have the same up-to-the-minute info that they have.
In its annual holiday shopping survey, Motorola Solutions uncovered attitudes and opinions that represent yet another challenge for the retail industry, albeit one with a fairly simple solution.
More than half (55%) of retail associates — salespeople and managers — experienced holiday shoppers who were more knowledgeable than the retail store staff about product information, reviews and coupon availability. And almost all (87%) said smartphone users could easily find a better deal. Ouch.
Other key findings:
- 68% of retail associates would find it helpful to be able to scan bar codes to check inventory and availability of items in a small mobile device form factor that is deployed to every associate.
- 28% of shoppers said they left stores with an average of $132 unspent because they didn’t find the best deal, an item was not in stock, help was non-existent or unsatisfactory, or check out took too long.
- 39% of walk outs by shoppers with smartphones were influenced by info gleaned from their phone – 12% checked prices at other retailers online, 8% checked availability at other stores.
- Shoppers prefer that sales associates use a handheld phone or terminal for scanning and payment rather than using their own. Among shoppers, 24% would be very likely to take advantage of a sales associate using a handheld payment terminal for a payment transaction or an item scan, versus 9% who would be use their own mobile phone for those tasks.
The solution for retailers: Equip your sales folks with the appropriate mobile device. The ROI opportunity looks positive: four in ten (43%) of the shoppers who were assisted by a sales associate using a mobile device said it improved their shopping experience.
As Frank Riso, Motorola Solutions’ senior director of retail solutions puts it: “Retailers need to arm their mobile associates with access to real-time information to level the shopping playing field.”
Evidently there’s a reason Home Depot recently handed out 30,000 Motorola MC75′s to its sales associates….