For a new generation of shoppers, the answer to calls of ‘May I help you?’ from retailers is increasingly an assured NO, The process of building their reputations is slowly graduating to the online realm in terms of customer service and grievance handling. Many stores and FMCG brands are embracing the Web wave by giving a new personal touch with gadgets, giving way to a doting sales team. Sample this:

• A shoe store of basketball star LeBron James located in Miami has iPads to detail its merchandise.
• Macy’s is testing brand-new cosmetics stations for tablets to offer product tips and reviews.
• At C. Wonder, prospects employ a touchpad so as to personalize the music and lighting in dressing rooms.
• Bobbi Brown has touch-screen TVs for demonstrating the perfect smoky eye, once only the makeup artists’ exclusive domain.
• Nordstrom unveiled an app, which executives felt people would utilize remotely, for ordering items while walking on the streets or watching TV. Surprisingly though, many people used it while shopping instead of approaching the sales staff. It has added Wi-Fi to its stores, so the app will work better, and is also testing clusters of iPads and laptops.

Customers defining rules of the game

The president of stores for the company, Erik Nordstrom, explains: It’s to make our stores become relevant for people to be whether they are shopping from us or stopping to check the e-mail. How the customers are defining service and want it to be delivered is fast changing, largely driven by technology. Many of them like to touch and feel as well as try on the merchandise. However, they also want that information they get online.”

The self-service theme that started with checkout at groceries a few years ago has graduated to the level where you can navigate the whole store without having to utter, ‘Just looking. OK, thanks!” Consumer-driven brands and shopping chains are turning to user, friendly and feasible interface of tablets and touch-screens to increase conversions and boost their sales.

Loss of human touch to shopping upsets some

Stores don’t want to risk losing the prospective customers not content shopping online but still prefer Zappos reviews, Pinterest recommendations, and Fashism feedback to directly interacting with someone behind the store counter. Analyzing the trend, a news report in The New York Times reveals:

“The truth, some retail analysts state, is that businesses have no choice but to accommodate consumers trained to do research on their own, and prefer doing so. Some people worry about jobs, though stores mention they are not getting rid of employees for now to accommodate their digital counterparts.”

Professor Sherry Turkle associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believes shoppers are losing something very intrinsic to the core human experience when they skip salespeople. But retailers will continue adding gadgets, as shoppers seem more at ease with the technology.