Today in retail, Walmart could take a step into the metaverse, while Peloton continues to test the theory that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Plus, retail bankruptcies were at their lowest level in a decade last year, dropping from 52 bankruptcies to 21.

Plagued by Problems, Peloton’s Latest Crisis Clouds Broader Health and Fitness Trend

Peloton’s rocky stretch started with a death, accidents and lawsuits, followed by a product recall after months of resistance, and, most recently, continued with reports of a reorganization that might include layoffs and production cuts of its core product.

Then came Peloton’s 25% drop in its stock price in a single day Thursday (Jan. 20), representing a $2 billion selloff. Add to that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s fair to wonder whether Peloton is still going through growing pains 27 months after it went public or if people are moving away from personal home fitness in their quest to return to fitness centers, gyms and other athletic activity.

Retail Bankruptcies Drop 60% to Lowest Level in a Decade

Retail bankruptcies fell in a big way, from 52 bankruptcies in 2020 to 21 last year, Axios reported Thursday (Jan. 20), citing research by S&P Global Market Intelligence, with the 2021 total matching the lowest number in the past 10 years, achieved in both 2013 and 2014.

The precipitous drop in bankruptcies in 2021 could signal the end of the decimation of the retail industry triggered by the ongoing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it certainly shouldn’t be taken as a sign that trouble is completely over in that sector, according to the report.

AMZN vs WMT Weekly: Dialing up the Digital, Working on the Warehouses

Walmart has reportedly filed more than a half-dozen trademarks and patents to protect its intellectual property in the metaverse, the cryptocurrency world and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

According to the filings, Walmart is looking to create “financial services, namely, providing a virtual currency for use by members of an online community via a global computer network,” that would facilitate virtual purchases with “virtual currency, in the field of nonfungible tokens (NFTs).” Last year, Walmart launched a 200-location pilot of bitcoin-enabled ATMs that it hopes to expand to thousands.

Perfect Corp. Teams With MAC Cosmetics, SoPost on AI Shade Matching, Product Sampling

Beauty tech platform Perfect Corp., beauty brand MAC Cosmetics and online product sampling platform SoPost are getting together on a personalized product sampling experience for MAC Cosmetics’ Studio Fix Fluid Foundation, according to a Thursday (Jan. 20) press release.

The collaboration brings together augmented reality virtual try-on and personalized artificial intelligence shade matching, along with physical product sampling, bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds and allowing shoppers to make better decisions.

——————————

NEW PYMNTS DATA: AUTHENTICATING IDENTITIES IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY – DECEMBER 2021

About:More than half of U.S. consumers think biometric authentication methods are faster, more convenient and more trustworthy than passwords or PINs — so why are less than 10% using them? PYMNTS, in collaboration with Mitek, surveyed more than 2,200 consumers to better define this perception versus use gap and identify ways businesses can boost usage.

Originally Appeared Here

Australian babywear retailer Purebaby has partnered with Cheetah Digital to transform its loyalty program growth.

Purebaby, Australia’s largest independent babywear brand has announced it is transforming its customer loyalty strategy with the power of cross-channel customer engagement solution Cheetah Digital.

Purebaby was on the hunt for a software solution that would enable them to send personalised email messages to their existing and prospective customer base and allow them to move away from ‘batch-and-blast’ customer emails.

“You have a database, you’re sending them one electronic direct marketing campaign (EDM), and that was it.” Sanjay Gill, CEO at Purebaby, says, “With the old platform, we were not getting what we needed in terms of segmentation and personalisation. It felt as if we were not using our database to its fullest potential, so we decided we needed a change.”

In July 2018, Purebaby turned to Cheetah Digital, they sat down and together, mapped out an entire customer journey to decide at exactly which touchpoints the retailer wished to interact with their customers.

“During those sessions, we mapped which touchpoints were especially sensitive and important to our customers, such as when they announce they’re having a baby, to having the baby,” Sanjay says.

From those sessions, Cheetah Digital helped create a bespoke number of “series,” which were personalised EDMs aimed at their customers’ experience at each critical touchpoint.

“Our loyalty program is data-driven, as you come into the store, you sign up and it’s offline and online. This means a customer could walk into our store or could go to the website, sign up, and the journey will be the same,” Sanjay adds.

Since implementing Cheetah Digital, Purebaby’s revenue has grown 47% compared to the prior year. Its email channel has become Purebaby’s second-highest revenue-driving channel.

Through engaging with Cheetah Digital, the “Purebaby welcome series” EDM has a 50% engagement rate; the “due date series” EDM campaign has a 70% open rate and 14% unique click rate and the “size-up program series” is performing on par with the “welcome series” at a 50% engagement rate.

Like many brands, Purebaby was concerned about the pandemic when it first hit Australian shores in March. Their retail sales halted and their digital sales took off. Sanjay says Purebaby was slowly undergoing digital transformation and COVID accelerated it for them.

“Within weeks, 90% of our sales were coming from digital, whereas previously only 10% of sales came from online retail,” Sanjay says. “Our retail versus online sales has now balanced to 50/50, the digital sales have not gone backwards, they are much higher, but the retail is standing on its own,” Sanjay says.

Cheetah’s VP, Go to Market APAC, Billy Loizou, says it’s exciting to partner with innovative brands like Purebaby that are leveraging innovative loyalty programs to transform customer experience at scale.

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with such a global retail leader that is revolutionising how brands unlock the value of their data to help build meaningful, long-term relationships with their customers. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Purebaby and are excited to see how the brand continues to evolve and grow.”

Purebaby has been running for more than 20 years and began as a wholesale brand selling to the likes of Myer and David Jones. Its founders, husband and wife team Sanjay Gill and Mirabai Winford, wanted to create a timeless, quality brand that was functional and fashionable to the market.

In 2010, the business started its transition into retail. The company now has 23 stores in Australia and distributes to more than seven countries worldwide, including the U.S., U.K., and the Middle East.

Originally Appeared Here

Did you miss a session from the Future of Work Summit? Head over to our Future of Work Summit on-demand library to stream.

As pandemic headwinds beset brands, they’ve had to deal with increasing customer service challenges ranging from providing a consistent experience during digital transformations to scaling service teams in response to influxes in support requests. Businesses are under pressure to perform — a Harvard Business Review report found that customers who had the best past experiences with a brand spend 140% more compared with those who had the poorest. Moreover, nearly three out of five consumers say that good customer service is vital for them to feel loyalty toward a brand.

Disorganization behind the scenes threatens to exacerbate the challenges in customer service, however. Forty-two percent of service agents told Aspect in a recent survey that they’re unable to efficiently resolve customer issues due to disconnected systems, archaic user interfaces, and multiple applications. Improvements to these call center systems is a logical solution — doing so can theoretically boost the productivity of agents. However, so is adding a self-service option. A separate study from Accenture found that companies like utilities, which see many requests a day about the same topics, could realize $1 million to $3 million in annual savings from adding self-service.

Innovations in self-service software — including applied AI — are making them a more attractive solution to enterprises than they have been in the past. For example, Cleverly.ai — which Zendesk acquired in August — finds answers to customer’s questions by creating a knowledge layer on top of applications. Meanwhile, Directly taps algorithms trained by subject-matter experts to strategically answer customer issues in a range of different messaging channels. Another vendor is Capacity, whose software learns from knowledge and interactions within a business to build a knowledge base for help desks. Capacity today announced that it raised $16 million, expanding its series C round to $27 million and its total capital raised to $62 million.

Automating customer service

CEO David Karandish cofounded Capacity with Chris Sims in 2017 as a part of Equity.com’s incubator program. After the $900 million exit of Answers.com, which Karandish cofounded, Karandish says he wanted to start a company to “address challenges in communication, processes, and workflows.”

“In today’s modern work environment, people waste large chunks of time searching for information. Team members are fed up with wasting valuable time looking for the right document or answer to help them finish their tasks,” Karandish told VentureBeat via email. “This nuisance inspired [me] to build a platform that filled this gap. Capacity was created to connect entire tech stacks so people can instantly access the right information they need, wherever it may live within an organization’s knowledge base — recovering wasted time and giving teams the opportunity to do their best work.”

Capacity helps to organize a company’s knowledge with folders and a drag-and-drop system, letting users set access permissions by department, role, geolocation, team, website visitor, and more. Existing documents and spreadsheets are knowledge-mined, and companies can connect to directories for convenience using a console to filter, organize, and respond to inbound customer service inquiries. Whenever multiple answers to a question are found within the knowledge base, Capacity provides alerts to verify which answer is correct and attempts to discern whether it’s relevant to particular customer agents.

Agents can reply to, forward, or dismiss any questions Capacity can’t automatically answer via a live chat or a support ticket. Karandish says over time, fewer and fewer questions will require human-in-the-loop intervention.

“Capacity supports a variety of use cases both internally and externally,” Karandish explained. “Externally, customer experience teams can use Capacity to relieve their contact centers and customer support teams by deflecting calls and using FAQs through [a chatbot] … Capacity can also help sales and marketing teams by providing measurable feedback and impressing prospects … Internally, teams can use Capacity to [empower] HR teams by providing up-to-date access to protocols, policies and changing circumstances. The platform can also help with newly onboarded or training team members by surfacing answers to their questions in real-time as they are learning the ropes of the organization.”

Growing market

The use of AI in customer service is growing. According to a Tata Consultancy Services survey, almost one-third of businesses already use AI as part of their customer strategy. That’s in large part because of the potential cost savings. Juniper Research anticipates that by 2022, businesses could cut a whopping $8 billion in customer support expenses thanks to chatbot and natural language processing technologies alone.

But 87-employee Capacity, which claims that annual recurring revenue increased 124% year-over-year, believes its focus on internal employee in addition to customer service use cases differentiates it from the competition.

“As organizations move to adopt a flexible work style as the new norm, IT teams are facing the brunt of changes to meet each team member’s needs, whether at home or in-office. This means IT teams will have higher pressure to provide a consistent and quality work environment,” Karandish continued. “With support automation tools, some of these pressures on IT teams can be relieved by putting the right tools straight into the hands of team members.”

Capacity’s existing backers, including Rice Park Capital Management, angel investors, and customers, contributed to the extended series C round. Karandish says it’ll be put toward “supporting new team members, enhancing product capabilities, and optimizing Capacity’s … platform.”

VentureBeat

VentureBeat’s mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative technology and transact.

Our site delivers essential information on data technologies and strategies to guide you as you lead your organizations. We invite you to become a member of our community, to access:

• up-to-date information on the subjects of interest to you
• our newsletters
• gated thought-leader content and discounted access to our prized events, such as Transform 2021: Learn More
• networking features, and more

Become a member
Originally Appeared Here

A year when shifting consumer behaviors and heightened expectations made the jobs of customer service (CS) teams a whole lot more difficult, 2021 illuminated the rising value of great CS for brands looking to pave a path towards success post-pandemic.

Navigating a historic increase in customer query volumes, dramatic operational reconfigurations, and intensifying pressure to make every customer interaction as frictionless as possible, CS professionals enabled their organizations to keep up with demand and keep their customers happy in undeniably challenging circumstances. However, organizations also had to reinvigorate their CS strategies in order to do so, most notably accelerating their digitization plans to meet their customers’ preferences for contactless technology — and to stay ahead of competition.

In fact, 95 percent of consumers across the U.S. and U.K. say they factor in the quality of a brand’s customer service when making a purchasing decision, according to new research from Stella Connect by Medallia. And as key brand differentiators become less product-centric and more CS- and CX-focused, all signs are pointing towards 2022 being a monumental year for brand-defining CS experiences.

Here are three customer service trends brands must prepare for in 2022 and beyond:

1. Dwindling Consumer Patience Stirring Up the Need for Speed

While brands’ consistent raising of the CS bar has ushered in a new era for exceptional customer interactions, it has also caused consumers’ expectations to skyrocket and, therefore, the costs of bad service to rise. Now, consumers across the globe are quitting their favorite brands with no warning, illustrating their waning patience and unwillingness to forgive and forget subpar experiences. This willingness to switch brands at a moment’s notice is a trend that’s ratcheting up the pressure on CS teams to deliver flawless service more frequently in 2022.

For example, Stella Connect’s recent Customer Service Trends for 2022: Preparing for the Future of Customer Service report found that 60 percent of U.S. and U.K. consumers say that they will stop buying from a brand after a poor customer service experience — a threat that certainly holds its weight, considering 53 percent say they did exactly this in the last year. This is a concerning reality for brands perhaps feeling the wrath of the labor shortage impacting many industries, but it also represents an opportunity for CS teams to deliver truly differentiating service experiences that keep customers coming back for more.

And as it turns out, speed is what consumers say will help organizations outpace competition in the new year. As they grow more accustomed to things like next-day delivery, one-click ordering, and 24/7 customer help lines, speed and convenience are quickly becoming the most important drivers of success today. Customers are no longer tolerating lengthy wait times, inefficient communication tools, and prolonged resolutions for their issues. In fact, response time is now more important to customers than even personalization, according to U.S. and U.K. shoppers, with more than a third (35 percent) of U.S. consumers and just under three in 10 U.K. consumers saying they would only wait up to five minutes for a response from customer service.

Indeed, as brands look to scale their CS capabilities in 2022 and keep their customer effort scores (CES) low, the key is to get to the root of their customers’ issues quickly.

2. Word-of-Mouth More Influential Than Ever

Mistakes are inevitable in the service industry. This is something every CS professional knows, and every customer understands to some extent. But when a mistake leads to a poor customer service interaction, it can have a detrimental effect on a brand’s reputation — especially today, when consumers are much more willing to share their experiences with their digital peers, particularly when these experiences fail to meet their expectations.

As such, organizations can expect word-of-mouth to become a more powerful marketing tool than ever before — and negative word-of-mouth to have a tremendous impact on their success and perception. After all, 40 percent of U.S. and U.K. consumers say that after a poor customer service experience, they will share that experience online. Meanwhile, just under half (49 percent) state that they’ll tell their family and friends to stop buying from the brand, a significant increase from the year prior when just 38 percent said they’d do so.

This illustrates just how confident consumers are becoming in their ability to both drive and deprive sales, a trend that’s inspiring them to become more vocal. Of course, the knock-on effect of this is that it’s compounding the pressure on CS teams, who are already working in an incredibly challenging environment. But with word-of-mouth pushing about $6 trillion in consumer spending every year, it’s something that brands can use to their advantage to drive meaningful bottom-line results.

3. The Power of Service Recovery Will Reach New Heights

Similar to how brands can take advantage of their customers’ trust in their own voices, they can also leverage those inevitable service mistakes as powerful opportunities to drive brand loyalty. This may seem like a contradictory statement — the idea that consumers would want to do more business with a brand after experiencing an issue — but it’s a proven growth strategy.

Indeed, the Service Recovery Paradox tells us that if a brand’s attempt to resolve a problem from a dissatisfied customer surpasses the customer’s original expectations, a paradox emerges where the customer actually becomes more loyal to the brand than if the initial mistake had never occurred. This paradox is something that Stella Connect’s new research supports, finding that a whopping 97 percent of consumers across the U.S. and U.K. say that if a brand turned a poor experience into a positive one by solving their problems immediately, they would do business with that brand again.

Also interesting is that more than a quarter (26 percent) agreed that they would be more likely to leave an online review about a poor experience turned into a positive one, than an excellent experience or even a poor experience. All of this data points to a truly unique opportunity for CS teams to form more human-focused relationships with their customers, and satisfy their needs more deeply, in 2022, as well as showcase their department’s unrivaled value and influence on their company’s bottom line.

Armed with new learnings from being on the front lines during COVID-19, and distinctive knowledge about what it takes to create brand-defining customer service experiences that raise their business above competition, CS professionals will undoubtedly leave an indelible mark on their organization’s growth in 2022. Of course, they’ll do this against a backdrop where consumers’ wants, needs and expectations will continue to fluctuate and cause them to be more adaptable and flexible than ever. However, as long as brands equip their CS teams with the right tools to ensure fast and convenient shopping experiences for buyers — and turn negative interactions into powerful growth opportunities — they’ll continue to rise to the occasion, no matter the environment.

Sarika Khanna is executive vice president and chief product officer at Medallia, a pioneer and market leader in customer, employee, citizen, and patient experience.

Originally Appeared Here:

Customer Service Trends for 2022 – Preparing for the Future of Customer Service – New Report by Stella Connect

Customer service is constantly changing.

As we look back on 2021 and ahead to 2022, we wanted to dig into how consumers have evolved their expectations for service and highlight the trends and challenges that will impact customer service teams in the year ahead and beyond.

To do so, we surveyed over 2,000 consumers across the U.S. and the UK to uncover how what customers want from support teams and how businesses like yours can meet their ever-changing customer expectations.

Sign up to our Customer Service Trends for 2022 report for data-backed insights on how your brand can continue to deliver great customer experiences in the new year and beyond

 

 

To download the Customer Service rends for 2022 Click Here

Stella Connect by Medallia is the customer feedback and quality management platform built specifically for customer experience teams.

Our intuitive platform makes it easy to harness agent- level customer feedback and deliver high impact coaching and QA programs, driving agent engagement and customer satisfaction.

Get visibility into agent performance, and empower your team to deliver exceptional customer experiences with Stella Connect by Medallia.

For additional information on Stella Connect by Medallia view their Company Profile

Originally Appeared Here:

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Digitalization is unquestionably the future — an engine for expanded growth, more sustainable models and virtually endless opportunities to surprise and delight clients — but there are a few critical things to consider when shifting a business to a digital format. 

1. Push boundaries, while being thoughtful of clients

It’s always good to disrupt the market, but remember to also hold out a hand to bring clients along with you. If you move too fast and leave them feeling confused or out of the loop, you will lose their trust, and business. For my private jet booking company Mirai Flights, we migrated a complex booking system into a single-click smartphone app. This was a significant change in format and functionality, and some clients naturally felt apprehensive. Suddenly, could they truly confirm all flight details in a single tap? To many, this seemed too good to be true, so we made sure to explain the process thoroughly and ease the transition over a period of time, rather than throwing customers in the deep end and trust that they’d keep up. 

This is true for any industry. When creating new solutions, don’t get so wrapped up in innovation that you forget the people you’re doing this for.

2. Anticipate clients’ needs, and address them collectively

Whenever possible, gather as many related services as you can onto a single platform. This level of convenience will set you apart from the competition. For instance, if you run a flower shop, think of what else customers might need in a digital sales space: calligraphed cards, chocolates, balloons, gift cards and rush delivery are all related products and services that would be convenient to include in a single shopping platform. Perhaps a special request box during checkout, or access to a 24/7 chatbot that helps put together gift selections? The key is to put yourself in the client’s shoes and think of anything you would want. For us, and for others in hospitality businesses (such as hotel booking sites), it’s common to have a chat window where clients can leave special requests or ask for personalized assistance. Such requests can range from transporting pets to accommodating food allergies, and team members are immediately connected to these customers to meet needs. 

Related: Reshaping Your Business to Meet the Digital Age 

3. Remember that personalization trumps digitalization

Transitioning to a digital model should make your business more personal and customer-centric, not less — digital access should be used as a tool to deepen relationships with clients. Many banks, for example, use it to provide varying levels of personalized customer service: Online banking apps allow clients to have as much (or as little) human interaction as they wish; they can complete routine tasks and discover new products or services tailored to their needs without ever leaving home, but can also access a human representative via the app if they need assistance but don’t want to wait in long lines at a branch. 

Regardless of your industry, never forget that digitalization needs to be a tool for providing better, more personalized services. 

4. Leverage information for better service optimization

There are many digital tools available that allow businesses to accumulate the valuable data that constitutes a customer profile, including stored preferences, answered questions and previous transactions. Leveraging data like this effectively allows you to develop ways of providing better service, and capitalize on them. This also means developing better omnichannel experiences — learning how to manage the customer’s journey through the digital landscape and actively seeking opportunities to create a more effective, optimized service. 

Related: Does Your Business Need a Digital Transformation? 

As an example, our app saves a detailed client profile. Whenever we are notified of an empty leg flight, we can immediately send notifications to customers who fit the profile of that flight. For instance, someone who is flexible with flight times and aircraft choices can be notified right away when a flight opens up. For Mirai, we combine the digitalization of operator systems and client data to create a streamlined, effective solution that benefits both the aviation industry and the client. Taxi companies and ride share businesses like Uber follow similar principles in matching people with the most efficient routes, passing along the resulting savings to clients. 

5. Apply a green business strategy

Digital tools are critical for creating a more sustainable model for businesses across virtually all industries, and are a key component in creating circular economies and reducing carbon emissions and overall waste. 

The UN Environment Programme has noted that we’re facing tandem planetary crises of climate change and pollution, and digital technologies are ways of addressing both. For Mirai, the goal was to eliminate the inefficiency of empty flights and encourage thoughtful consumption, while, say, the film industry’s move toward more digital copies of films resulted in reduced distribution waste. Many corporations, meanwhile, are moving toward digital-focused workspaces, in part to eliminate the need for paper, ink, staples and other single-use items that create massive amounts of refuse. 

Related: Examples of Environmentally-Friendly Business Ideas

Digitalization is a perfect strategy for companies that want to deliver a more optimized, personalized client experience. Not only will it help you reach a wider audience, it will also help you run a greener business and keep you competitive in today’s fast-paced market. 

Originally Appeared Here

Nearly 500 council house tenants in Edinburgh reported experiencing problems with damp and mould over a three month period last year, new figures reveal.

Around one in every 43 people living in a council-owned property flagged defects caused by excess moisture between August and November 2021 as the local authority implemented an “improved process” for managing dampness, mould and condensation in its housing.

The new approach was agreed by Edinburgh City Council’s Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Committee last June.

According to the council, it has been “designed around the customer journey”, with tenants given a point of contact and regular updates whilst their case is dealt with.

The revised process sees each case reported surveyed by a “qualified dampness surveyor to identify the issue, the cause and the steps required to remedy the issue”.

Read More

Related Articles

Read More

Related Articles

“In the short term, issues are addressed through responsive repairs and remedial works where appropriate, with action taken to remove any damp or mould from internal surfaces, and to treat or renew the affected areas and reinstate the property,” a report to councillors states.

A review of the new system’s first three months found the process “challenging to manage operationally” and said additional resources are needed to support the delivery. However, it noted “collective agreement that the principles and aims behind the process were correct”.

Reporting back to the committee, officers have revealed 495 complaints regarding dampness in Edinburgh’s council homes were received – averaging at five per day.

Most of these (230) came from people living in the north-west of the city whilst 81 came from the north-east, 95 from the south-east and 89 from the south-west.

The report states: “Almost half of these cases were received in the eight weeks prior to mid-November and were yet to be surveyed. A third of the total cases had completed surveys and 10 per cent of cases were closed off, with all necessary works and follow-on checks complete.”

Get all the latest news and headlines from Edinburgh, Fife and the Lothians sent straight to your inbox twice a day by signing up to our free newsletter.

From breaking news to the latest on the coronavirus crisis in Scotland, we’ll have you covered.

The morning newsletter arrives every day before 9am and the evening newsletter, manually curated by the team, is sent at 6.30pm, giving you a round up of the most important stories of the day.

To sign up, simply enter your email address into this link here and select Daily News.

In cases of damp and mould surveyed by the council, problems had predominantly arose due to defective or missing fans, with just under a quarter (31 households) reporting this issue.

21 of the 167 surveyed cases were due to lack of heating or ventilation whilst a further 21 were caused by a leak from above. Other sources included a roof leak (seven cases), a defective wet floor (six cases) and an external render (three cases).

The Homelessness and Fair Work Committee will meet on Thursday (January 20) to agree on recommendations for the new approach moving forward.

These include the recruitment of an additional qualified dampness surveyor, greater administrative support for officers managing cases, enhanced contract management to improve performance and productivity in cases and a review of training and support requirements for staff involved in dealing with cases of dampness, condensation and mould.

Read More

Related Articles

Read More

Related Articles

Originally Appeared Here

LOUISVILLE, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Doddle, a leading provider of first and last-mile ecommerce logistics technology, has partnered with KIOSK Information Systems (KIOSK), the largest custom self-service solution provider in North America, to introduce a new and fully automated in-store e-commerce returns platform. With the explosive growth of e-commerce, before and during the pandemic, the rate and cost of processing returns has put steep profit pressures on retailers who increasingly rely on online sales. KIOSK and Doddle are revolutionizing the way retailers manage digital returns to improve the customer journey, increase loyalty, reduce costs, and drive greater in-store foot traffic. KIOSK will be featuring the returns platform at the 2022 NRF Big Show in booth #5919.

The small footprint returns platform consists of a transaction kiosk integrated with a smart and secure package drop bin. The return bin is smaller than a traditional mailbox with internal sensors to signal associates to sweep parcels at the right interval. The footprint and price are a fraction of historical locker automation alternatives. A simple and intuitive UI guides the customer through a brief scan and return journey, ending with a return receipt. Returns reason, product ID, and anonymized shopper data are collected for the retailer on each transaction. Store associates are essentially removed from the process, freeing them up to serve and sell.

Doddle Chief Revenue Officer, Dan Nevin noted that “This platform transforms the e-commerce returns process from a substantial challenge into a competitive advantage. Providing a convenient in-store mechanism for customers to quickly process their returns drives significant incremental foot traffic, converting service opportunities to sales with minimal impact on store associates. Without question, frictionless returns strengthen brand loyalty and encourage new purchase confidence.”

KIOSK and Doddle can provide qualified retailers and/or carriers with a number of options to purchase or pilot self-service returns. KIOSK President, Kim Kenney, adds that “Adding field deployment services and KIOSK-led proactive IoT remote monitoring helps us to truly partner with the retailer to ensure exceptional field performance. By owning and acting on real-time system and component-level alerts, KIOSK can optimize performance and ensure an outstanding customer experience. We are very invested in the success of this exciting self-service category, and believe it is going to be truly beneficial to Retailers and their customer base.”

KIOSK and Doddle experts will be in NRF booth #5919 to illustrate the platform and consult on pilot opportunities.

About KIOSK Information Systems: KIOSK helps organizations digitally transform by enabling automation with self-service solutions to improve the customer experience, while increasing operational and cost efficiencies. With over 27 years of experience and 250,000+ kiosks deployed, KIOSK is the trusted partner of Top 100 Retailers and Fortune 500 clients; delivering proven expertise in design engineering and manufacturing, application development, integration, and comprehensive support services. We offer an innovative portfolio of kiosk solutions along with managed services and IoT capabilities to ensure a seamless user experience. Learn more at kiosk.com, 800.509.5471.

About Doddle: Doddle helps logistics and ecommerce companies around the world deliver experiences that engage, differentiate and foster customer loyalty for the delivery and return of ecommerce purchases. With years of fulfillment experience in the most advanced e-commerce markets around the world, Doddle helps logistics and e-commerce companies develop the most advanced fulfillment strategies in their markets to improve customer experience, drive sustainable solutions, and increase profitability and efficiency.

Doddle’s expertise and technology is used by some of the world’s leading retail and logistics companies, including ASOS, Amazon, United States Postal Service and Australia Post. Headquartered in London, the company has offices in the US, Australia, Europe and Japan. For more information, please visit doddle.com.

Originally Appeared Here

In just a few short days, from January 16th through the 18th, the National Retail Federation will launch Retail’s Big Show in the shopping capital of the world, New York City. As retail professionals know, NRF is a nonprofit and the world’s largest retail association intending to “connect people to an industry that’s a great place to start and a great place to grow.” But beyond its impact and resources for industry professionals, NRF’s annual trade show is also the singular place to get an accurate pulse on retail’s biggest challenges and opportunities. So what will this year’s show have to offer? There will be a plethora of big wig speakers, content on almost every topic imaginable, and session themes including how to work smarter, expediting experiences, how to stand out, investing in a team, and creating businesses of tomorrow.

To get prepared before the show, we sourced five retail experts from across various niche markets to clue us into what they see as the leading trends for this year’s event.

 

Elevating the Omnichannel Experience

One major industry change to watch out for at the show, which has been both a gradual change and one accelerated by the pandemic, is the shift from the traditional retail environment to the omnichannel experience, according to Daniel Binder, Managing Partner for Retail Strategy at Columbus Consulting.

“The shift to omnichannel has been swift and the industry has evolved from a traditional brick and mortar environment to ecommerce, then to multichannel, where shoppers shopped in distinct, but disconnected channels, to an omnichannel experience, which is now a fully integrated environment,” said Binder.

How have businesses like Columbus Consulting begun to integrate this omnichannel experience thoughtfully to the entire customer and B2B experience?

“We’re focused on what we call the LIST, which is the core foundation of what pulls together the omni experience and what we believe to be the most critical investments to build on that foundation,” said Binder. “It’s our acronym for logistics and supply chain, inventory, organizational structure, and smart technology,”

Binder added that these core components are examined cohesively by viewing the customer journey from an end-to-end scenario.

 

3D Product Models

3D product models should also be a sellout topic at the show. Ashley Crowder, Co-Founder & CEO of VNTANA, believes this is due to the changing nature of consumer shopping habits and the push toward experiential retail both online and in-store. Crowder explains that the amount of research people do before purchasing a product is only growing, and that increasing a business presence on Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram with 3D products will help significantly increase conversion rates. She says that 3D products have increased average cart size by 60 percent and have reduced returns by 40 percent.

“Study after study shows that people not only do research on social media, but also discover new products, and so you really want to make sure you have the best possible content across all of our social channels as well as your ecommerce site,” said Crowder. “3D is one of the best types of assets you can have because it gives people such an understanding of your product.”

What’s even more powerful about 3D product models is how they can shape the entire customer journey and integrate with other cutting edge tech. Naturally, Crowder explains, the more images and videos available on your brand’s site, the better.

“And of course, taking that one step further and actually having a 3D model on your website is huge, because it lets people see it from every angle. And then, you can have augmented reality built in so they can actually hold up their phone and see that product in their living room. Does that couch fit, or how big is that bag,” she said.

 

Al, Al, and More Al

Artificial intelligence will also run the ranks in retail trends this year. According to Pini Mandel, AI is something more retailers should explore and expand their usage of, considering its use cases have only scratched the surface of utility in the industry.

“We at Quicklizard have seen a massive shift in conversation toward algorithmic and AI machine learning. AI machine learning has been used in other areas of retail but is now changing the world of pricing,” said Mandel, CEO & Co-Founder of Quicklizard. “I feel like we’re just at the beginning of the journey,”

Yogesh Kulkarni, Co-CEO and Head of Merchandising and Marketing at antuit.ai, added that retailers already consider things like product recommendations on websites to fall under AI.

“But those are use cases that actually are at the beginning of the journey of AI adoption,” said Kulkarni.

Pini sees smart shelf labels as another AI trend that will dominate the Retails Big Show.

“Brick and mortar retailers are required to be more agile and competitive which accelerates adoption of technologies both for improving our why by integrating with price optimization platforms and to overcome staffing challenges,” said Pini.

AI adoption can be tough for retailers, not because there is lack of trust, but because AI is data-hungry, according to Mandel. Last year’s data is not as useful to retailers today, because in today’s world, volatility dominates.

“There are so many other factors—local events, demand destructions because of closures due to COVID—that all are driving demand very differently than they used to,” said Mandel.

 

Integrating Tech Thoughtfully for the Consumer Journey

So, it’s clear that 3D product models and AI will need to integrate within the omnichannel experience for retailers to keep up with industry trends in 2022. But how should they go about doing this? Melissa Gonzalez, Host of Retail Refined, vouches for capitalizing on flagship experiences.

“Consumers responded that they are 2.5 times more likely to purchase after visiting an experiential flagship, and that they find themselves having a deeper relationship with the brands that create those environments,” said Gonzalez.

Crowder believes augmented reality use in social media is another way for retailers to go.

“It’s not just for ecommerce sites and online, but social media platforms have now enabled features for you to leverage it across Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram,” said Crowder. “And even in store, you can only have so much inventory, it’s impossible to have every single color and every single version, but using augmented reality, you can actually display an infinite number because it’s digital.”

There’s clearly quite a bit in the cart for National Retail Federation’s 2022 Retails Big Show. So, how will attendees choose what to prioritize? Unfortunately, 3D models and AI won’t help “shop” for sessions and events in this case, but for now, visit NRF.com and marketscale.com for the latest updates.

Originally Appeared Here

December 17, 2021

To Whom It May Concern

Takachiho Koheki Co., Ltd.

Takanobu Ide (President and CEO)

Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section Code 2676 Contact person (job title) Masaya Iwamoto (General Manager of Administrative Department) TEL: 03-3355-1111

Notice Regarding Announcement of Next Medium-term Management Plan (Outline)

At the Board of Directors meeting held on December 10, 2021, the Company resolved to be listed on the “prime market.”

In order to be subject to the transitional measures related to the listing maintenance standards, we have prepared a plan to conform to the listing maintenance standards of the new market category.

As the key of the plan, we hereby inform you about the outline to the next medium-term management plan (from the fiscal year ending March 2023 to the fiscal year ending March 2025) as follows.

1. Outline of the next medium-term management plan

Our next medium-term management plan will start from the fiscal year ending March 2023 and the planning period will be three years until the fiscal year ending March 2025. Of the listing maintenance standards stipulated for the prime market, the Company did not satisfy the items of market capitalization of shares in circulation and average daily trading value but positioned the next medium-term management plan period as an improvement period to maximize corporate value. Specifically, we will aim to achieve an ROE of 10.0% with a minimum goal of 8.0% by promoting growth strategies and implementing capital policies that enhance capital efficiency.

The official version of the next medium-term management plan is scheduled to be announced at the same time as the financial results for the third quarter of February 2022.

2. Numerical targets

The following are set as the target values for the next medium-term management plan with the fiscal year ending March 2025 as the final year.

	Fiscal year ending March 2022	Fiscal year ending March 2025
	(forecast)
Ordinary profit	1,100 million yen	2,000 million yen
ROE	5.3%	8.0% Minimum/10.0% Goal

• ROE for the fiscal year ending March 2022 (forecast) is calculated from net assets at the end of September 2021 and net income of 770 million yen.

3. Next Medium-Term Management Plan

(1) Business strategy

i. Growth strategy for new business transformation

・ Promotion of loyal customer strategy to expand businesses with high profitability and growth potential among existing businesses

・ Growth of service business from “selling goods” to “selling things”

• Creation of future core businesses by launching new businesses and business models

1. A total of 3 billion yen for 3 years is set as the strategic investment limit for “creating new corporate value”
   ・ Strengthening the business foundation by aggressively investing in focused businesses and areas

• Creation of new businesses and business models

(2) Capital strategy

i. Promotion of balance sheet management with an awareness of optimal capital structure

1. Utilize interest-bearing debt for necessary growth investment to optimize cost of capital
2. Implementation of shareholder return with the intention of not accumulating equity capital

(3) Governance development

i. Establish an investment committee to improve the quality of discussions of the board of directors and the executive board by strengthening the supervisory/examination function for investment decisions, including M&A strategies

1. Strengthening the fairness, transparency and objectivity of procedures related to nominations and remuneration through voluntary nomination and remuneration committees
2. Promote management from the perspective of shareholders by newly adopting ROE as a KPI for performance-linked remuneration for Directors

(4) ESG/SDGs initiatives

i. Promote management that seriously addresses ESG issues based on our basic sustainability policy

4. Shareholder return policy

(1) Fiscal year ending March 2022 (forecast)

In addition to the ordinary dividend, a dividend of 15 yen will be paid to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the company’s founding (total annual dividend: 50 yen).

(2) From the fiscal year ending March 2023 to the fiscal year ending March 2025

Maintain a dividend payout ratio of 100% until the average ROE for three years exceeds 8%.

Originally Appeared Here