CloudTags overview of what to expect in retail for 2016.

1. 4 Retail Trends We're
Expecting in 2016
What’s In Store for the New Year?

2. Is 2016 The Year of Beacons?
In 2015, retailers started (publicly and privately) testing the
waters with beacons and potential use cases on engaging
consumers in the store via their phones. This year, we're
expecting to see those tests rolled out into the mainstream.
We’ve seen mixed results from beacon testing, but 2016 shows
promise of growth once best practices for retailer beacon usage
have been adopted. With that being said, we expect many
retailers to push the boundaries of beacons being both actively
and passively integrated to the customer experience.
*Beacon-driven in-store sales are projected to grow to $44.1
billion in 2016.
*http://www.businessinsider.com/beacons-impact-billions-in-reail-sales-2015-2

3. Merging of Online and Offline Shopper
Profiles/Blending Online Targeting With Rich
In-Store Intent Data
Retailers and data providers are getting smarter about the ways they use
information and will learn better ways to put to use the data they collect from their
e-commerce sites.
The big opportunity for Omnichannel in 2016: In-Store Remarketing
In-Store Remarketing is online marketing displayed to customers who have browsed
in a physical store, but not purchased — a datapoint that is often lost to retailers.
This is a concept that, with in-store tech and proper customer identification,
becomes just as simple as the retargeting we see in digital marketing.
“With In-Store Remarketing, the physical store is able to properly show its influence
in a retailer’s omnichannel landscape.”
Privacy concerns still loom for retailers and should continue to be cautious with
their data collection process

4. Changing Role of the Sales
Associate
As customer’s continue to be well-informed before walking into a
store and technology being able to answer most of their
questions, employees will feel less pressure to push sales and
feel more inclined to create genuine connections with customers.
Taking a store associate and equipping them to become digitally
savvy and connect in a way that is relevant to today’s shopper is a
start towards a sustainable omnichannel strategy.
Store associates will still be necessary as technology can only
complement to a certain extent. A hybrid less of them, and their
role will change to be more like guides and educators instead of
sales.

5. More Creative In-Store
Experiences
Retailers are thinking more and more outside the box and using
smart technologies to interact with and delight customers in new
ways.
Think of some of the incredible in-store innovations we saw in
2015: Sephora's connected Flash store in Paris, Rockar's new car-
buying experience in the UK, Amazon opened a brick-and-mortar
bookstore, and Tesla took it's Model S on the road in mobile pop-
up stores to some of the wealthiest parts of the US.
We expect retailers will continue to challenge the status-quo to
create new and exciting in-store experiences. We’ll see more
smaller-format, localized, and connected stores.

6. Questions? Contact us at
holla@cloudtags.com