Unfortunately, customer obsession is a hard balance to strike. You need to be there for customers, understanding their wants and needs as people, on each and every channel they choose to interact with. It’s the Nirvana of omnichannel, always being present and personal, while still putting your customers’ privacy and permissions first.

Right now, this level of customer obsession is something that only a handful of brands achieve. In fact, Forrester’s data shows that only 15% of businesses — not even one in five — are there right now.

Let’s talk about a couple of retail brands that have made the grade, and how they have managed to put customer obsession at the very heart of their businesses:

Reformation: Reformation started life as a company selling vintage clothes in a small Los Angeles storefront, but its customer obsessed attitude has seen it grow into a leading fashion brand. For Reformation, customer obsession means understanding how people used its original store. By having real insight into the in-store elements that shoppers already loved, Reformation was able to recreate these experiences online. Customers get the experiences they love, through the very best channels for them. Best of all, with the right technology, Reformation has empowered its marketers to manage all of these experiences from one place.

Replacements Ltd: From personal collectables to family silverware, Replacements Ltd understands the powerful emotional connection that people have with products. For this crystal and tableware brand, customer obsession means remembering that behind every spreadsheet and every screen is a human being. By connecting with these customers on a truly personal level, giving shoppers the same personal service and attention to detail they’d receive in a physical store, Replacements Ltd has created an experience that goes beyond ‘online’ or ‘in-store’ — a human-first experience.

With budgets back on the rise, now is the time for retail brands to invest in the empowerment of their marketing teams. That means giving them the tools needed to get to know their customers, escape the data silos, and ultimately, to build an obsessed approach.

The most significant need IoT can fulfill is modernizing the brick-and-mortar store experience. With IoT, it’s possible to mimic the high personalization and sophisticated care present during the online shopping experience.

The data generated by sensors and cameras capture the raw analytics of every facet of the physical store experience. IoT can then turn that data into insights that can be acted upon quickly—to streamline the checkout line, better place signage, and ease the workload for employees. The right IoT platform can also interconnect with e-commerce for a seamless shopping experience, boosting both the physical and digital storefront.

Retailers Already Have an IoT Head Start

Smart Retail and IoT in the Store

The first step to implementing IoT, or Smart Retail solutions, in-store is easier than retailers may think, as many have the foundation already set through existing hardware. One example of this is security cameras. Nearly all brick-and-mortar stores have cameras set up to monitor for theft and safeguard customers, but these cameras can be used for more than just security. They can also be retrofitted with an IoT “eye” to capture and formulate store operations as they are happening. This can help inform optimal store layout, monitor power position inventory like end caps, allow for more personalized digital signage, and better evaluate customer behavior. All of which level up to improved customer satisfaction and revenue growth.

To realize these business outcomes, retailers must consider how to act on the real-time information they collect from in-store data and connect it with historical customer information. Today retailers are making decisions that will impact future revenue and store operations based on historical buyer behavior – what you bought yesterday, last month, last year. As a result, they are making decisions by looking in the rearview mirror. The key to unlocking new, innovative ways to engage with customers is combining historical and real-time information to create a window of opportunity.

By investing in new Smart Retail solutions like IoT and greater IoT device management, brick-and-mortar retailers – from high-end fashion to furniture to grocery – can see significant, real-time improvement.

Fashion and furniture retailers have a similar sales set-up in that their associates are often commission-based. As a result, these associates need to manage any back-office tasks quickly and efficiently to be on the store floor closing deals.

By leveraging Smart Retail, retailers can streamline those administrative tasks to save associates time and collect critical metrics for store leadership to gain real-time visibility into operational efficiency and compliance.

Alternately, retailers such as grocers employ associates that are not commission based and work at an hourly rate. Leveraging Smart Retail and IoT can ensure they aren’t avoiding the storefront by taking on or spending too much time on unnecessary back-office tasks.

While the outcome may look different depending on the needs of the unique retailer, the key to successfully bridging the growing gap between the e-commerce and brick-and-mortar experience lies in transformative technologies and Smart Retail solutions, like IoT.