What is the future of the retail store associate? How do enhance the shopper experience and increase in-store productivity? Physical retailers need to differentiate themselves through superior in-store customer experiences and empowering associates with intelligent technology will likely result in competitive advantages

In-store technologies can help store associates solve common customer pain points faster, freeing up time to deliver a superior shopping experience by understanding shoppers, sharing detailed information, and thus, generating an increase in sales

Enhancing in-store experiences can drive material value in productivity and customer engagement, which has opened the door for innovation on two fronts: technology-enabled staffing platforms and in-store productivity enhancement

In addition to providing some insight into these two very pressing questions, our latest research on the in-store technology vertical also details our thoughts on:

• Costs and value of the in-store associate
• What legacy retailers are doing to produce a personalized cost-effective in-store experience
• How to combine online shopping with in-store experience in an omnichannel opportunity
• What are the latest in-store features that enrich customer experience and improve store performance (robots are helping store associates with repeatable, predictable, and manual tasks)
• The companies that are defining the future of this industry