By Ruth Richter • October 02, 2019
It used to be the big holiday shopping day was Black Friday. Customers got up early the day after Thanksgiving to storm stores for that holiday season’s hot ticket item, willingly standing in long lines to make sure they got exactly what they wanted.
Now Cyber Monday—the first day back in the office after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend—is steadily rising in popularity and, in some cases, becoming bigger than Black Friday. Whether you’re hiding your web browser window from your boss and shopping on the sly during a meeting, or filling your cart while sitting on your couch in pajamas, ecommerce provides the convenience of shopping anytime you wish, without the biggest headache of all: waiting in line to check out.
That’s where frictionless checkout comes in.
How Frictionless Is Frictionless Checkout?
In 2016, Amazon opened the door to its first cashierless stores, Amazon Go, providing a frictionless checkout—a collection of technologies and processes to make shopping faster and easier for customers. Now, others are giving it a go. Frictionless checkout systems use everything from scanning apps customers download to their phones to cameras and other tech that track products as they move through the store and out the door. Some scanning apps then require customers to stop at a kiosk to pay.
Frictionless checkout is all about making the purchasing process as painless, fast, and convenient as possible. However, the lack of friction may be in the eye of the beholder. That is, the customer. Naturally, any customers wishing to pay cash will have a hard time with the cashless, frictionless checkout. Adoption is not likely to catch on with older generations who do not use mobile devices or digital technology to interact with stores, but that shouldn’t stop you from starting to explore the possibilities.
Other Frictionless Options
For stores that are just starting to explore frictionless checkout, easier first steps could be an ecommerce option that allows customers to shop and pay online, then pick up in store. Options to return online orders in store also improve the customer experience.
Other preparatory actions include updating network and IT infrastructures so that Wi-Fi, sensor systems, IoT applications, mobile apps, and more don’t overload systems. Make sure any technology you invest in is scalable for the next wave of frictionless checkout improvements. Trying to stay on the leading edge of ecommerce and retail technology gets more difficult with legacy infrastructure that is incapable of handling growth.
Frictionless Integration With IN-SYNCH®
Your business can have its own frictionless experience when you add the right partner into your frictionless checkout experience. Full-service tech partners can handle everything from your network design, implementation, and technical support. Additionally, you can rely on them for maintenance and management tools so they can handle the tech side while you focus on the core retail business.
Advances in frictionless checkout are best supported by partners with deep expertise to help navigate and manage the transition. Partnering with ROI Consulting provides access to Sage 100 integration solutions via IN-SYNCH that can map real-time information seamlessly between systems. Whether you’re syncing inventory data based on a frictionless checkout app or filling an online order for your customer to pick up in store, IN-SYNCH automatically connects incoming information to keep your business up-to-date and your customers happy.
See how IN-SYNCH integration can help you get on board with frictionless checkout. Talk to one of our experts now.
