Interest in home improvement and gardening spiked during the pandemic. And it’s here to stay. Retailers are capitalizing on this opportunity. They’re looking for ways to automate financial reconciliation and deliver premium cross-channel experiences to keep customers returning for more.
Make operational efficiency a breeze
The opportunity
Increasing efficiency has become a key priority for retailers that want to allocate their resources better. Retailers are looking at financial reconciliation and in-store operations as a way to do this while enhancing the customer experience.
Since many retailers reconcile payments across multiple locations, financial reconciliation becomes challenging, resulting in high overheads, complexity, and manual errors. By freeing up capacity from operational processes, retailers can spend more time on what's truly important: their customers.
Retailers often have more than five full-time employees (FTEs) working on reporting and reconciliation.
Since many retailers reconcile payments across multiple locations, financial reconciliation becomes challenging, resulting in high overheads, complexity, and manual errors. By freeing up capacity from operational processes, retailers can spend more time on what's truly important: their customers.
Another way to increase efficiency is by adding technology-enhanced experiences to stores. These solutions allow retailers to allocate their resources better, increase speed, and provide customers with cross-channel experiences. Here are some examples:
Endless aisles: Out-of-stock is never an option with endless aisles. If a product isn’t available in-store, customers can still pay for it and have it shipped to their house, supporting quick sales and reducing abandonment.
Self-service checkouts: Self-service checkouts allow retailers to enhance the experience by busting queues while increasing efficiency through reducing personnel in-store.
mPOS: With mobile point of sale (mPOS), employees can move around the store freely and accept payments anywhere when their customers are ready to buy. This is especially valuable for retailers that sell big products. Buying a desk or a sofa is easier when you don’t need to pass it through a cash register.
Click and collect: Emerging as a true cross-channel experience, click and collect allows customers to reserve products online and pick them up in store.
Our data shows
of consumers would be more loyal to a retailer if they could purchase an out-of-stock item and have it shipped directly to their home
of consumers used self-checkout services in 2023
of consumers claim they’d be more loyal to a retailer that allows them to shop online and finish in store, or vice versa
The solution
Automating financial reconciliation and offering these customer experiences is difficult for retailers that work with legacy tech infrastructure.
Working with a single provider that offers a unified payment solution allows retailers to reduce the errors associated with working with multiple providers. It also frees up time so retailers can focus on other core initiatives. This enables retailers to streamline operations, enhance financial workflows, and spend more time delivering seamless customer experiences.
With a unified reporting solution, Adyen enables you to reconcile and settle transactions across payment methods and channels, all in one place and in a standardized format, saving days on financial reconciliation.
Working with Adyen, retailers have reduced the FTEs working on reconciliation from 4 to 1, and 75% of team time has been freed from doing manual reconciliation and reporting.
"We opted for Adyen due to its superior reconciliation support. Previously, members of my team spent their days solely reconciling settlement files; now they could focus on what truly matters, serving our customers"
Consumers want cross-channel experiences
The opportunity
Customer behaviors and expectations are constantly changing. The hybrid setup that developed after the pandemic isn’t only impacting the way we work but also the way we shop. Customers want a combination of physical and digital experiences across all channels.
To offer these experiences, retailers need a comprehensive understanding of their customers. This can be challenging for those who work with legacy providers that use different tech infrastructures for in-store and online operations. These legacy systems often come with siloed data, making it difficult to do cross-channel customer behavior analysis, leading retailers to have poor insights into their customers.
Our data shows
of consumers would be more loyal to a retailer that provides cross-channel experiences
of consumers would be more loyal to a retailer that lets them buy things online and return in store
The solution
Consumer home focus is here to stay and providing shoppers with the experiences they expect is more important than ever. Retailers that want a competitive advantage must offer flexible cross-channel experiences.
To accomplish this, retailers need a partner that connects all their channels and operations in one unified commerce solution rather than disconnected systems and third-party providers. When data is collected in one place, retailers can get deeper insights into their customers and provide them the cross-channel experiences they expect.
Our data shows
of consumers claim that if they can't pay how they want for a product or service then they’ll leave the store
of home and garden retailers experienced increased sales from allowing shoppers to easily complete transactions across online and offline channels
of home and garden retailers sell through a unified commerce system
of home and garden retailers, globally, experienced revenue growth with sales through a unified commerce system
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Conclusion
Get ready to create unified shopping experiences
The home and gardening industry is here to stay. The decisions you make now will determine your success in the future. Finding the right partner that can help you increase efficiency and enhance the customer experience is key to gaining a competitive advantage, now and in the long run.