In the same way your dear Aunt Martha took to Facebook, you must realize new technologies may have cool applications to improve your business, no matter what your IT setup looks like.
While mobile applications may seem intimidating and potentially disruptive to the information systems and automation you spent a lot of money to build, the cost savings, efficiencies and energy you generate with customers and internal teams may far outweigh any tightly held apprehensions.
You’ll have steps to take, a learning curve to overcome and security issues to tackle, but as an industry, it’s a make-or-break moment that shouldn’t be squandered.
The c-store channel has come a long way in embracing technology, but we’re only in our infancy in truly using mobile technology. To complicate matters, we’re fragmented and disparate. Our enthusiasm for any one project ebbs and flows. We have bottlenecks up and down the supply chain and people who still use fax machines.
Opportunity Knocks
Let’s start by looking at what’s coming at us. Mobile apps are filtering into the channel in two distinct ways. The most obvious is as a tool to reach customers through mobile apps, loyalty programs and mobile payment. The other way is internally via apps that can help businesses become more efficient through operations and labor management.
As a link to customers, mobile technologies have great potential to draw people into your stores, enhance the value of your brand and ultimately sell more stuff . Retailers who jumped into apps early have already tried gaming, gas-price notification and store-location features. Some retailers have started offering digital coupons, a potential for not only increased traffic but also promotional dollars from consumer-packaged-goods manufacturers. Those with loyalty programs are also using apps for sign-up, checking status of rewards and scanning a loyalty bar code at the register.
Internally, apps can connect field personnel to centrally hosted data, improve labor scheduling and more efficiently validate store-level execution. Mobile phones already carry much of what’s needed built in, including cameras, word-processing and spreadsheet programs and access to the Web.
The Need for Integration
I don’t see a big challenge or obstacle with a lot of the apps out there today. Most operate through an independent infrastructure set up in the cloud. The app provider handles the service, so you can get started with little extra work except getting the provider configuration data, if that is a requirement.
C-stores already host a wide array of IT implementations that any mobile app may need to work with. Our IT infrastructure is mature enough to allow us to interact and integrate with other systems, which makes moving data easier. Let me also recognize the ongoing history of NACS and its technology department in Conexxus. Its efforts going back through the 1990s have built a framework for many standardized protocols and processes that allows new providers to integrate with greater ease.
That’s not to say we’re in the clear. There’s definitely a middle piece, a sweet spot where some apps reside today. These solutions are able to draw in data from one automated platform and rework it so another platform can take action. And if you need to directly integrate your solutions to your existing IT infrastructure, you have some work to do.
For instance, to take advantage of the growing interest in mobile payments, you need to make some changes to your POS infrastructure. That’s because the register needs to confirm a valid authorization “handshake” for the transaction to happen.
On the operational side, maybe you’re taking on an app that is a daily task list. It could integrate into your human resources system, which would need modification whether it’s feeding information to a third party or if it’s all happening in-house.
Speaking of third parties, we must talk about security. Everybody has to be protective of data. You want to think of your apps like any other system you’re directly responsible for. As we mature with the mobile-app model, we have to ask providers the right questions and assess the types of personal information we’re handling or handing over to others.
The Cat’s Meow
With those cautionary words said, let me bring you back to our Aunt Martha. The wonder behind all those cute photos of her pet cat is that she is invested in content flow. She is relentless about posting every quizzical look, paw shake or sleeping stretch her tabby does.
That’s where the real transformation happens. If you develop an app for the sole purpose of engaging customers, you can’t put it out there and say it’s done. You have to change it up. Keep it fresh so people want to come back and use your app. So don’t just put your toe in the water—be creative, establish a personality and nurture those newfound connections.
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