The customer is a king. Despite being an old stock phrase it does not lose its relevancy for the retail industry. Today, customers expect a unique and seamless buying experience like never before. According to the Central European Initiative survey, 86% of consumers will pay for a better customer experience. The latest figures from Retail TouchPoints are also impressive: more than 80% of retailers report increasing their customer experience management spending for 2015.
Apart from retaining loyal customers, retailers are permanently engaged with appealing to new audiences. It is not easy: up to 90% of customers regularly research a product online before buying it. In other words, customers go into the buying process with high expectations; they want to communicate with retailers on their own conditions and at their own pace. Software development companies offer a solution to turn these physical and virtual spaces of the retail industry into one complex channel. Retail customer relationship management (CRM) software serves a principal function of this channel that aligns sales processes and manages customer data. Robust CRM technologies automate daily sales and allow retailers to track their efficiency.
Why is sales automation so important and why is retail CRM software development the right technology for it?
The first cornerstone, actually, has been mentioned above: customers are empowered in the buying process with lots of product information available via the web. Besides, according to Retail TouchPoints, 71% of customers go online first when they have a problem with a product. Retail CRM systems feature sales and marketing automation tools to nurture customer satisfaction, and to have well-organized business processes.
How does this work? Let’s go a little bit in depth. Retail CRM systems are a unified solution that reduces sales complexity for retailers. Thus, a retail CRM customer database combines with multiple contact management systems and schedulers to focus on the automation of cumbersome tasks, including gaining customer-related information and assisting retailers to keep in regular contact with valuable customers. In other words, CRM software targets retail customers so that retailers can benefit quickly and efficiently by making each interaction with a customer more productive. When communicating with a client, retail personnel can have trouble sorting through files while searching for necessary customer data. However, if a retailer has CRM software they can simply pull out the relevant data and see meetings, past agreements, discounts, purchases, and contracts attached. Another retail CRM feature includes quote management systems, which uses customer-related quotes that take into account the relationships of current customers as well as the benefits from promotions with new customers.
Strong CRM systems always ensure high real-time operational experiences. Software development companies back up retail CRM software with robust store modules to track product orders, layaways, back orders, and much more. Due to CRM, retailers can get a real-time view of their inventory and can manage their transportation logistics. When stores, head office, logisticians and financial systems are connected to a single system, retailers get more efficient people, smoother processes, saved costs, brand reputation, and happier customers. A cardinal trait of retail CRM is its analytics tools. Special modules analyze and interpret retail sales and generate statistics, items of future interest, trends to understand, and forecasts for a particular retail business. After the implementation of a retail CRM system, retailers precisely know when and how much they should replenish their warehouses. CRM is a good precondition for saving costs from fewer purchases of unpopular articles. Retail CRM analytics will also help to save existing clients using thoroughly calculated gift cards, promotions, and other loyalty rates management components. Retail TouchPoints reports that retailers who use these predictive capabilities have a 23% rise in revenue.
Sales tracking and order management systems use timely invoicing and billing processes to ensure the right price balance, optimize lead-to-cash cycle time, and speed up revenues.
Obviously, software development companies have an affordable sales automation solution in the form of retail CRM. When compared to the unforeseen costs of numerous marketing campaigns the total costs spent for retail CRM software continues to be a rising factor in efficient retail strategies and is a good way to bridge the gap between the retail industry as it stands today and customers‘ expectations.
Elinext Group CRM expertise:
CRM Software Development
CRM for Retail
CRM for Logistics and Transportation
CRM for Financial Services
CRM for Insurance
Industries and Technology Areas
Industries: retail
Technology Areas: software development, crm system
