The world of ecom is divided into two halves: some know everything about omnichannel up and down; others are still wondering how this technology can be useful for business. The former talk about how the Internet of Things (IoT) can shape a new approach to omnichannel. We have translated an article called The IoT Brings New Meaning to the Omnichannel Customer Experience and share the main points.
One of Ness Digital Engineering's hypotheses is that by 2020, user experience will be the deciding factor when choosing a product, bypassing properties such as price and the product itself. From this it follows that in order to attract customers and increase brand loyalty, companies should carefully study the customer journey (map of interaction between the client and the product), and determine the key messages of the brand in all communication channels. This is how you can form a "seamless" (seamless) contact with the client.
Barriers to IoT Omnichannel Evolution
The author of the article calls the connection of the Internet of things and omnichannel IoT omnichannel evolution. Obviously, the Internet of things will contribute to the creation of an improved customer journey. However, there is an open question regarding the processing of an array of data that appears when introducing IoT into a business model. How to create really valuable insights based on the analysis of an array of data? The author allocates 3P for this.
Proactive experience
As a rule, the interaction between the company and the buyer begins with the initiative of the buyer (purchase, use of the service). In the case of using IoT in a company, the situation can be reversed through continuous monitoring using IoT devices. For example, due to this, in production, the uptime and scheduled maintenance can be predicted. This will avoid unplanned costly downtime. Another example, sensors can warn customers about the failure of certain parts in a car or calculate the timing of a scheduled replacement.
predictive experience
IoT can predict and anticipate user actions by exchanging real-time data with cloud services that build action models based on the behavior of all users. Over time, in the future, IoT-like applications using data from surveillance cameras, radars and sensors in cars will make autonomous cars safer and drivers reduce the risk of traffic accidents.
Personalized experience
Content personalization, which is based on the behavioral scenarios of the client.
Personalization is possible through continuous monitoring and analysis of consumer behavior. For example, if a customer searched for a certain product on the Internet the day before, the store can offer him related products and accessories based on past search data using smart proximity marketing in an offline store. These are marketing offers that use both data from bluetooth sensors that analyze the client's offline movement, and data received from IoT devices: smart watches and other technical devices.
In conclusion, it should be noted that IoT is not a silver bullet for business. The question is open regarding the possibility and speed of processing big data, and so far only giants like Google, Amazon, Apple can cope with this technology. However, the author notes that you do not need to be a giant to use IoT, it is enough to be a smart company when it comes to strategy and customer journey mapping.
Source: habr.com