The Digital Shopper: 4 Retail Tech Trends That Will Stay Post-Pandemic

Retailers are perfectly poised to adapt with ease as we move into a post-pandemic world, having experienced such a necessary yet dizzying acceleration in digital transformations over the past year.

Covid-19 brought about disruptions to the retail industry that could only be solved efficiently by adapting at pace to trading restrictions and changes in consumer behaviors, ushering in the full-blown digital era a little ahead of its time.

And now, as the world of business opens back up in a physical sense, it's nevertheless unlikely that the retail industry will ever be the same again. Customer expectations and buying habits have changed significantly, but retailers have grown used to adapting of late, and embracing modern technologies to complement these shifts has also become second nature.

Here are four retail tech trends set to go the distance post-pandemic.

The enormous shift towards online shopping was the most significant trend to occur for the retail sector during the Covid-19 crisis. According to research, 43% of shoppers are now purchasing more items online than usual, with 65% expected to further increase their online purchasing habits over the next 12 months.

Retailers had to adapt quickly to stay afloat amidst the lockdowns. Closing up their brick-and-mortar stores in favor of adopting service offerings such as curbside pickup, ship-from-store deliveries, Buy Online and Pickup in Store (BOPIS) and Reserve Online and Pickup in Store (ROPIS) became commonplace.

Whilst some retail channels may return to traditional methods of operation post-Covid, it’s clear from the statistics that this monumental shift towards remote living is largely here to stay. Convenience leads the charge in today’s world, and now having experienced all of the benefits of shopping digitally, the majority of people will continue to expect these streamlined services into the future.

E-commerce giant Amazon continues to dominate online retail, with 55% of consumers reporting the intention to use the platform more in the coming year.

The colossal rise of e-commerce has brought with it an even fiercer competition between retailers, all vying for the attention of consumers who have every conceivable price or product information consideration at their fingertips. A staggering 93% of Millennial shoppers recently reported comparing competitor prices using their mobile phones while physically standing in stores as they decided upon purchases.

Using coupons to offer discounts and attract customers is nothing new, but the digital form of this tried and true marketing strategy has boomed since the pandemic forced shoppers online in their millions. In 2020, a massive 92% of online consumers reported that they regularly searched for a digital coupon for savings before making a purchase.

And these highly effective sales tools are highly flexible to implement, too. Shoppers can access them via direct marketing such as email campaigns, on store websites, through social media platforms, or they can easily source them through leading coupon deal sites.

In 2020, the conversion rate for customer-to-AR (augmented reality) engaged users soared by 90%, and the potential for its use in the retail sector can’t be ignored.

Virtual fitting rooms are an intriguing innovation, utilizing augmented reality to overcome the need to be physically present in order to ‘try before you buy’. Given the physical restrictions that have come with Covid, AR has been perfectly poised to make an impact on the industry.

Through its adoption of virtual fitting room technology, Sephora enjoyed great gains while many other retailers experienced painful losses. This new retail technology allowed customers to virtually try on their product ranges from jewelry and cosmetics, all on their smartphones. Other retailers, such as Etsy and Kendra Scott are also utilizing virtual fitting room technologies, and there will be many more to follow suit.

Social distancing will remain relevant to public health protection for some time to come, and so, contactless shopping and even staff-free stores are an important retail trend moving forwards. According to research results published by Bloomberg, 87% of consumers prefer stores with self-checkout and/or contactless payment options.

To achieve these goals, machine learning, computer vision systems, RFID tags, and facial recognition technologies are being utilized. Amazon’s Just Walk Out system, for example, took advantage of sensor fusion and computer vision, tracking what customers placed in their carts and automatically charging the credit card left on file as the shopper left the store. 

No one can accurately predict to what extent we will ever return to any recognizable former normalcy when it comes to social distancing and contactless shopping, but the stats suggest that to some extent, it is certainly a new normal that retailers and shoppers alike must adapt to.

The era of Covid-19 ushered in an accelerated transformation towards an increasingly digital world, and with it came a host of new consumer expectations. The retail sector at large managed tremendous feats of adaptation to facilitate new trends in behavior, and with such progressive outcomes, it seems unlikely that most will simply fade away as the pandemic does.