June Felix, Verifone Europe: "Aspiring omnichannel merchants need to be more confident when investing in new technologies"

How would you describe the anatomy of a fully functional omnichannel end-user experience?

Omnichannel is about creating a seamless customer experience. It transcends in-store and online shopping to encompass all channels— the Web, in-store (brick and mortar), social and mobile. It strives to provide the same enjoyable, speedy and smooth shopping experience whether the customer is paying in the aisle on a mobile point of sale (mPOS), at the counter on a traditional payment terminal, online or with their smartphone.

One of the fundamentals of omnichannel experience is identification. Identifying and recognising shoppers, their individual shopping habits and preferences are key elements to providing a great, personalised and integrated omnichannel experience.

What are the best routes for B2B companies to safely navigate the omnichannel buying deep waters?

When it comes to omnichannel, integration is key. B2B brands need to take this into consideration when making purchasing decisions. Systems and services need to be compatible and able to talk to each other, so that consumers do not have to reenter all the details when they are making a purchase on a different device or via a new channel. Therefore, whether a company is upgrading its retail POS terminals for PCI compliance, is taking on a new functionality such as mobile retailing, or is looking to completely revamp their systems, they need to ensure that the technology they choose will easily integrate with their existing capabilities. In addition, cross-border functionality should also be taken into consideration for brands that operate internationally.

What are the main challenges that aspiring omnichannel merchants face?

One of the biggest challenges faced by aspiring omnichannel merchants is the in-store experience. Clearly, today’s retailers find it increasingly hard to compete with the online world. While the online experience is not without its problems, it offers a number of perks to consumers, including seamless delivery, quick checkout, smart recommendations, and other services that brick-and-mortar stores simply can’t compete with. In order to provide a true omnichannel service to consumers, merchants need to be able to offer check-out and in-store experiences that are equal or even better than the online ones.

Up until now, this has been difficult to achieve. Consumers used to be skeptical about sharing personal details with merchants in brick-and-mortar stores, but are now starting to open up and appreciate the perks that come with sharing an email address when making an in-store purchase or allowing beacons to integrate with their mobile phones to get personalised discounts.

While the technological challenges that come with integrating information stored online into a physical environment are still there, the time is ripe for merchants to start taking advantage of these new technological features.

How could merchants address these challenges in order to provide the best of both worlds (brick-and-mortar and ecommerce) to its customers?

Merchants need to be more confident when investing in new technologies. A survey conducted by Verifone earlier in 2015 has shown that consumers want retailers to embrace new technologies in order to offer better services. Better sales promotions or discounts are now expected by 35 % of respondents in exchange for their loyalty, and 32 % expect to be treated consistently across all payment methods, marketing channels and whether shopping in-store or online.

Investing in the right tech, such as beacons, and developing the right loyalty programmes can go a long way to improving customer satisfaction. Verifone’s survey shows that loyalty card schemes play a huge part in meeting consumer needs, with 78 % rating them as important in improving the way they shop.

Cost and concern about data rights are also major hurdles standing in the way of upgrading the in-store experience. By leveraging existing payment infrastructure that provides such services, merchants can upgrade their experience quickly and budget-friendly, without any concern about data security.

What are the value added services that Verifone Engage brings to merchants and what issues will it solve?

Verifone Engage will enable a more connected shopping experience through the App Marketplace, where merchants can browse and download applications that best suit both their needs and their customers’ needs.

Via applications such as dynamic currency conversion, integration with multiple loyalty and points programmes, seamless charity donations, and by allowing consumers to rate their in-store experience, the Engage platform will give merchants a bargaining chip in their competition with the online channels and offer a truly connected shopping experience.

These value-added services are only the start of a very exciting journey for retailers, consumers, app developers and Verifone. As the App Marketplace develops and matures, retailers will be able to take advantage of applications that are specific to their specialty and stock, in order to further improve the in-store experience.

About June Yee Felix

As Verifones President of Europe and member of Verifone’s Management Committee, Ms. Felix is responsible for implementing regional and country deployments of terminals, payments as a service, and commerce enablement solutions throughout Europe.

A proven global leader, Ms. Felix has held various executive management positions at multi-national companies, including Citibank, IBM, JP Morgan Chase and Booz-Allen & Hamilton. Prior to joining Verifone, Ms. Felix served as Managing Director of Citi Enterprise Payments, where she led a global business focused on creating consumer-centric mobile healthcare payments.

 About Verifone

Verifone is transforming everyday transactions into opportunities for connected commerce. We are connecting more than 27 million payment devices to the cloud - merging the online and in-store shopping experience and creating the next generation of digital engagement between merchants and consumers. We are built on a 30-year history of uncompromised security. Our people are known as trusted experts that work with our clients and partners, helping to solve their most complex payments challenges. Our company has clients and partners in more than 150 countries, including the world’s best-known retail brands, financial institutions and payment providers.