Endless Aisle Archives - Veras Retail

Never lose a sale: Explore endless aisle for your retail business

April 21 2023

In today’s highly competitive retail environment, it’s essential for retailers to have a comprehensive omnichannel strategy and endless aisle has emerged as one of the popular solutions for making that happen in-store.

Sarah is a top associate at a higher-end fashion chain. While Sarah loves curating the latest trends for her customers, she often finds herself frustrated by the limitations of her physical stores. The chain can’t carry every size or color of every item in every store, and sometimes customers leave empty-handed because she doesn’t have exactly what they’re looking for.

One day, a customer came into Sarah’s store looking for a specific style and size of shoes that they had seen but couldn’t find in-store. The customer was disappointed and ready to leave when Sarah remembered that the store had recently implemented omnichannel inventory and endless aisle capabilities.

Sarah quickly pulled out her tablet and used the store’s inventory system to check if any of the other locations had the shoes in stock. Sure enough, there was a pair available at a different store. Sarah informed the customer that they could purchase the shoes and have them shipped directly to their home or to the store for pickup.

But Sarah didn’t stop there. She also checked the store’s endless aisle capabilities and found that they had an even wider selection of shoes available online. She showed the customer some similar styles and sizes that were available and offered to place an order for them right then and there. The customer could browse through a virtual catalog of products, complete with images, descriptions, and even customer reviews. From there, they could place an order for any item they wanted, which would then be shipped directly to their homes.

Better shopping experiences for customers

Her customers appreciated this integration too! Thanks to the store’s cross-store inventory and endless aisle capabilities, Sarah was able to save the sale and provide the customer with a great shopping experience. The customer left happy and satisfied, and Sarah felt proud of her ability to leverage the store’s technology to provide excellent customer service. They could now browse through a wider selection of products while conveniently ordering items directly at the store.

Endless aisle helps fulfill every order

The real benefit of using an endless aisle solution became apparent to Sarah when she noticed that she was never losing a sale. Even if a customer came into one of her stores looking for a specific item that she didn’t have in stock, she could still fulfill the order using this tool. This meant that customers were always able to find what they were looking for, which kept them coming back to the store again and again.

Cross-selling and upselling made easy

Sarah also noticed that the endless aisle was helping her boost sales in other ways. Because customers were able to browse through a wider selection of products, they were also discovering new items that they may not have otherwise seen. This meant that she was able to upsell and cross-sell more effectively, which led to higher average order values and increased revenue for the store.

This implementation not only helped Sarah never lose a sale but also improve the overall shopping experience for her customers while driving more revenue.

Sarah’s experience is not unique. Endless aisles have become increasingly popular among retailers of all sizes and industries and for good reason. By offering a wider selection of products to customers, retailers can improve the shopping experience, increase customer loyalty, and boost sales. Plus, with the rise of e-commerce and online shopping, it’s becoming more important than ever for retailers to offer customers a seamless omnichannel experience that combines the convenience of online shopping with the personal touch of in-store interactions.

Check out Veras Extend to explore the endless possibilities an endless aisle can offer. Ensure its smooth integration with features that further power your retail strategy- Search your entire global catalog, and even include vendor catalogs to expand availability, present relevant promotions, and recommend similar items to the customer in the aisle.

Endless Inventory Options with Endless Aisle

February 8, 2021

With the convergence of omni-commerce, real-time inventory visibility, fast fulfillment, and any number of ways to get products to the customer—endless aisle brings the best of these capabilities together to deliver an unbeatable customer experience.

If you’ve ever been in a store to browse through the merchandise or locate a particular product, chances are you’ve been approached by a retail associate. They probably asked, “Are you finding everything you need? Is there anything I can help you find?”… or something to that effect to help get what you want and deliver a great in-store experience.

Finding items in the store, depending on the retailer, is a much different experience today. What once was limited to inventory on the store shelves, in the back room, or available at a nearby store is now open to a sea of endless product options with endless aisle.

Endless aisle gives retail associates and shoppers in the store the ability to virtually browse and purchase a wide range of products. And for any out-of-stock items or products not sold in-store, the customer can have them shipped to the store or directly to their home.

Out-of-Stocks Add Up

While it’s hard to beat the convenience of online shopping, there are many reasons why consumers still go the store. They may want or need something immediately, enjoy seeing or trying on things in person, want to avoid delivery charges, or have questions on the products they’re about to purchase. But even with these drivers, physical retailers are still losing sales to out-of-stock items, which come with hefty losses.

According to 600 households surveyed by IHL Group, retailers are missing out on roughly $1 trillion in sales because they don’t have on hand what customers want to buy in their stores. Shoppers worldwide experience $984 billion worth of out-of-stocks and $144.9 billion in North America alone. And if the shopper happens to be an Amazon Prime member, they’re 52 percent more likely than other consumers to take out their phones and buy what they need online when faced with out-of-stocks.

Let’s take a closer look at the out-of-stock shopper breakdown:

32 percent faced empty shelves
16 percent failed to find staff to help
17 percent found staff, but not merchandise
18 percent noted the price in-store didn’t match an ad
17 percent didn’t get the product for other reasons

Endless aisle paired with real-time inventory visibility can help retailers avoid many of these missed-opportunity scenarios.

Advantages of Endless Aisle

With Veras Extend unified product search, associates can provide an endless aisle to customers by searching an endless number of SKUs across the entire retail chain. It consolidates the physical and virtual catalogs into a single friendly interface to show what’s available in-store or globally. Whether items are fulfilled through direct vendor ship, ecommerce, warehouse ship or sourced from another store, Veras Extend unified product search helps retailers create the ultimate merchandising and fulfillment strategy.

Endless aisle experiences increase conversions by allowing shoppers to review all available products without being limited to on-site selections through the global search icon.

Available on mobile devices, store associates can support customers anywhere in the store to:

Present an interactive digital experience often superior to what they can achieve by physically browsing items in-store
Easily toggle between products available in-store vs. products available globally
Search the entire retail catalog to present product availability, more product options, or similar items
View rich product details, images, videos, relevant promotions, and customer reviews
Ship-to-store, reserve at another store for fast pickup, or ship any out-of-stock items directly to the customer

And all of this rich product data isn’t limited to endless aisle. It’s leveraged across all retail applications on the Veras Extend platform to support clienteling, remote selling, mPOS, self-checkout and in-store kiosks.

Expanded Product Search

Veras Extend unified product search is unique in that it allows associates to search products in a more comprehensive manner. Traditional product searches are narrowly executed by color, type, SKU, price or key words. However, the engine behind our unified product search is broader, allowing for more complex requests that you would typically find in real-world scenarios to yield better results.

Take for instance a customer searching for a red sweater. Is it cardinal red, candy apple red, dark red, maroon, burgundy, or other variation? So many possibilities exist, which is why our endless aisle search makes ‘red’ an attribute that can be tied to a broader family of reds. The same logic applies to sizing or price—to search for a range of medium-sized items or price range—or any other attribute of a product.

The way people shop is evolving, and leading retailers are evolving to meet their needs. The good news is that retailers and consumers alike benefit from having a complete picture through real-time data and connected systems to deliver the best outcomes. So next time you step into a store, don’t be surprised when you’re approached by an associate, tablet in hand, ready to help you find something in the store (or elsewhere).

Make smart technology investments through Veras Extend’s mobile and kiosk applications like endless aisle without overhauling your entire retail operations.