Professor Steve King shares a preview of his upcoming keynote at the ICX Summit in Charlotte on the future of retail. ICX Summit will be hosted by Networld Media Group from September 9-11.
The retail experience is changing as fast as the tech underpinning it, both for operators and customers.
Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, blockchain, wirelessly-powered displays, holograms, and more innovations are taking the shopping experience to new heights. But how can the average retailer tap into tech to elevate the customer experience without breaking the bank?
This is the subject of an upcoming keynote at the Interactive Customer Experience Summit, hosted by Networld Media Group in Charlotte from September 11-13, to be delivered by Steve King, associate professor of innovation and emerging technologies at UNC.
We reached out to King to learn more via email interview.
Q&A with Steve KingQ: What are the top emerging technologies changing the retail landscape today?
King: The key macro emerging technologies obviously include AI and AR but in my talk, we will dig into usable and helpful AI and AR tools that are changing the retail landscape through how consumers engage and how deliver products.
Q: What are the pros and cons of AI in the retail space, and how should operators leverage it effectively?
King: AI is pervasive throughout all industries and retail is no exception. Operators must leverage AI to compete with the large retailers who are optimizing ever click and every shipment. Some are choosing to build their own solutions while others are leveraging 3rd party vendors. Each are valuable and each have concerns which we will discuss in person.
Q: Augmented Reality is relatively new in this space; what are the top applications, and do you think it will grow in coming years?
King: When Apple unveiled Augmented Reality natively on their phones in 2017, they chose an espresso machine to demonstrate the power of AR because Apple knew this technology will be huge for retail. There are new tools and integrations that make this much easier for retailers than back in 2017, but it has been much slower than I expected. In the next couple of years, consumers will expect AR in their online shopping experience in the same way they expect customer reviews or detailed photos.
Q: For those who don’t know, can you explain blockchain technology in a nutshell, along with its value in retail and shopping settings?
King: There has been a lot of good and bad published about block chain. Blockchain is a digital technology that securely records transactions across multiple computers, making it nearly impossible to alter or hack. Think of it as a digital ledger where every sale, payment, or inventory change is permanently recorded and shared with everyone in the network. For retailers, this means more transparency, better security, and potentially lower costs in managing payments or supply chains, as it removes the need for middlemen.
Q: Is there a difference between how we should apply emerging tech in the brick-and-mortar space as opposed to online spaces?
King: I think this dichotomy of brick-and-mortar vs online retailers is a dangerous paradigm and one that is broken in the consumer’s minds. Leveraging emerging technologies will require retailers to ignore this historical separations and use the technology to engage consumers in all aspects of their lives including in physical and virtual spaces.
Q: What is the biggest mistake you see today in applying (or failing to apply) emerging tech in retail?
King:Brands must experiment and try new things, but they must be solving a problem when they do it. Don’t built something for technology’s sake, but build something that leverages new technologies to solve an old problem.
Q: You’re the expert! Any closing thoughts you’d like to share with our readers?
King: When we work with brands, we leverage human-centered design, and we personalize that to brand with guest-centered design or fan-centered design. Leveraging emerging technologies require you to understand your audience and how they will actually use the technology not how you think they might use it. This requires getting outside the corporate environment and talking with real customers throughout every aspect of the process.
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