Last year we saw customer experience innovations led by brands such as Burberry and Apple. This year was all about measurement and big data analyses integration. Progress appoints 2017 as a year to put those skills to good use. The wealth of data and interconnected solutions will further enhance adoptive customer experience, the core of the sales growth. Here are seven use cases we are most excited about:

1  Intelligent Displays

eCommerce is rising and getting more and more complex. However, it is way too soon to tell that it will overcome classic shopping. Over 80% of the current retail revenue is still generated in the confines of a physical store. [source https://www.atkearney.com/documents/10192/4683364/On+Solid+Ground.pdf/f96d82ce-e40c-450d-97bb-884b017f4cd7] And it is difficult to overestimate the impact of the store experience on the future online sales.

Intelligent Displays are here to make shopping easy and fun. It is probably the most straightforward and visual technology for the interactive navigation these days. Turning virtually any surface into a dynamic picture, it engages with triggers that are relevant to customers around. Real-time data collected, managed, and applied to create a meaningful message that results in bigger sales or brand awareness.

Thanks to the audience analytic features, you know exactly which displays get the most attention and who is looking at them. This means you can target and optimize the message within a fraction of the time, compared to the classic print or even some internet advertising campaigns.

Solutions come in hardware of all shapes and sizes – LED, LCD, projection, and media players, that are controlled and fed with smart content remotely.

2  Magic mirrors

Another way to rejuvenate in-store marketing with targeted advertising is a Magic Mirror. A reflective screen with motion sensors that triggers a full-color picture when approached.

People are drawn to mirrors, and there are numerous ways to capitalize on this instinct. Starts from the mirrors in rest rooms to built-in augmented reality features.

This particularly useful in beauty or retail industry: customer can try on new makeup products, trendy clothes or beauty treatment.

Topshop has introduced a mirror for customers to try new outfits without physically putting them on. The device showing the look like a reflection on a screen.

Which brings us to the next tool.

3  Smart fitting rooms

Magic Mirror combined with the latest augmented reality technologies is the perfect solution for the next stage of the interactive and personalized fitting room experience.

Cubicle identifies the item with the radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. This means that the, if needed, sales assistants have all the needed information on hands too, with the data analyses behind the corner.

Smart Fitting room suggests items that will work together with the one customer already trying. It checks stock for the needed size or colour, alternates the light for different occasion wear, or shows the 360 degrees view for the outfit postable to the social media page.

Here is a digital novelty Ralph Lauren treated its clients this year with:

4  Pepper Robots

Perfect little shopping helper? Friendly Pepper Robot is here for you! The four-foot robot rides around and always happy to serve.

Like most of the robots, Pepper is designed to replace stuff for boring and dull tasks, for example showing where is the restroom dozens of times per day. Pepper does it with grace and aplomb, in multiple languages. No surprise, that there are over 10,000 Pepper robots serving in Japan and Europe.

Pepper is the first humanoid robot capable of reacting to the human emotions and adapt behavior to the mood of his opponent. He tracks movements, detects smiles and glares. You can talk to him or use a touchscreen on his chest to interact.

The future looks bright for Pepper with his learning abilities. “Pepper will learn from the people that the robot interacts with and evolve accordingly,” said Omar Abdelwahed, the Head of Studio at SoftBank Robotics America.

5  Smart Inventory Systems

There is a pool of read-to-use software solutions to make your busy Saturday shop floor work like a Swiss watch. Smart Inventory System could be this game-changer you were waited for too long now.

Coming in all shape and sized, the system provides actionable information in real time. The tool helps to track the stock, asses market trends, and prepare for the future turmoils. It can be accessible from your website or a multi-brand app, allowing the customer to do a quick stock check whenever they want.

While waiting time shortens for your clients, you can enjoy a revenue rise. The stuff will be there to approach individual customer needs, which is a proven sales booster technique. 

Talking about stuff allocation, lets move to the other modern invention.

6  Intelligent Rota Systems

Data analyses are in infancy in its victorious business takeover, yet it is already can provide a breakthrough solutions.

Intelligent Rota System is a software to study and suggest stuff allocation plan to make sure there is always enough staff at the right places.

Footfall measurements let to predict optimal staff levels on different time of the day and day of the week.

7  Smart Advertising Systems

A revolutionary step towards the organic and community-friendly communication. Become it can combine all of the above to make the communication flowing.

The tool that provides an advertising that is simply relevant to the people who sees or hears it. Better yet to come: the advertising is distributed among the vast city screen network, and not all of them are static.

The system gathers and analyses city’s real-time data form multiple sources: CCTV cameras, social media contexts, weather, transportation and many others. The message adapts to the environment, and everything is getting connected from bus displays, city billboards to taxi tops. Massages can be scheduled using automatic triggers, like weather, traffic, footfall or stock levels. The system constantly monitors your store and the city to uncover unique opportunities to promote your shop, your goods, and services.

This solution is fit for everyone, big or small. Have a look:

As you see, there are plenty of options to choose from. Which do you think are the best ones for you? Which one is going to take your business to the next step?