Customer Experience Grabs The Spotlight At European Retail Tech Shows

By Stephen Bergeron, APG Cash Drawer

If there was a prevailing trend discussed at the EuroCIS and RBTE retail tech trade shows this year, it was about making customer interaction easier. Everywhere you turned during the events, someone was talking about checkout solutions and business analytics that can help improve the customer experience.

EuroCIS took place in Dusseldorf, Germany, at the end of February, and we were among the 411 exhibitors from 29 countries that participated in the event. More than 10,000 visitors made it to the show, an 18 percent increase from last year. We also exhibited at RBTE (Retail Business Technology Expo), which happened about two weeks later in London, drawing 350 exhibitors and more than 15,000 visitors, 28 percent more than last year.

At EuroCIS, there was much discussion about how to implement omnichannel strategies to give shoppers a seamless buying experience across various devices, including smartphones, tablets and laptops, in addition to storefront locations.

The goal of omnichannel strategies is to improve the shopping experience, but the challenge is how mobile and online solutions support the staff at a physical store, and vice versa. In other words, if shoppers increasingly rely on web-based purchases, do the physical sites become more of a fulfillment center? Do sales staff shift to more of an information role?