What’s Bugging Retailers in our Post-Pandemic World?
June 9, 2022
Ecommerce saved retail’s collective butt during the pandemic. Ecommerce grew at double-digits (according to the National Retail Federation) as consumers stayed home and got savvy about online shopping. Now all businesses are investing in Digital-First strategies. Yet, this tectonic shift in retailing won't be easy. There are new obstacles that every retailer must confront in our post-pandemic world.
What are 2022's top 3 challenges?
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Labor shortages – More shoppers than staff strangles growth and might sink a business already trying to transition to ecommerce selling.
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Inflation – Consumers are experiencing price shocks everywhere. This forces a reprioritization of business needs with everyone looking hard at ROI. It’s hard to say if inflation is overdue from years of low interest rates or the war in the Ukraine. But, it is real and appears to be staying for the foreseeable future.
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Supply chain challenges – No product, no business. This started in the pandemic but continues as we exit it. Customers paying for something that keeps getting delayed is the worst CX in my book. (I’ve been burned several times on Amazon, including missing a birthday gift for a loved one.) This alone can sink ecommerce ambitions as shoppers find a new brand in a few clicks.
The good news is there are ways to combat these issues through superior communication services in the cloud.
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Self-service AI – The next generation of AI chat bots, called Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs), provide self-service at all hours and a fraction of the cost of regular staff. IVAs also save complicated conversations for your staff.
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Omni-channel conversation management – Shoppers expect personalized engagement on every channel that is made available by the business. By this, through cloud-based services (also known as "contact center as a service" aka CCaaS), conversations can be managed by remote workers, which permit finding the right talent at the right price from anywhere with high-speed internet.
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Workflow Automation (WFA) – There is a surge of conversation traffic happening right now between suppliers and retailers. Most of it mundane and can be easily answered by IVAs, which can also route necessary calls to the right people.
