As an emergent retail process technology, virtual buying processes usually involve the use of mobile devices in combination with custom-developed buying process apps. Companies that offer online buying alternatives have gone on from using websites to using retail apps so that they could freely make themselves accessible to another emergent consumer group — the mobile device user. What powers these mobile devices however is yet another technology that effectively connects the retail cycle to consumers: Cloud-based VoIP.
Perfect Combination
When mobile device technology gets matched up with cloud-based VoIP, the resulting retail business scenario becomes instantly rosy for companies and brands. These two technologies also happen to be convergent with many other online tech platforms such as websites, search engines, social media, blogs and even game tech.
So much so that in the retail business sense, a cloud-based tech baked mobile device culture could only have as much access to marketing information as it could provided there is a broadband access to be found. Cities without such infra are rare nowadays and more so — densely populated business centers.
Where business centers, commercial establishments, work commuters and telecommuter hubs abound, expect mobile use to be just as prevalent. Under cloud-based telecom premise then, brands and companies carrying brands could be expected to prosper via up-to-date retail methods that are mobile device-oriented. This is seen to overtake all other existing online access methods such as desktop PCs or laptops, and could even give traditional toll free number telecom considerable leverage to outdo conventional store sales.
Compelling Reasons
With the steady rise of mobile device use worldwide, there also emerges more compelling reasons why companies need to adapt to change in order to meet the retail cycle challenges of the future via mobile device-driven sales. Retail methods will adapt to this change because of the following reasons:
- The mobile revolution will change the way people shop. It will be a paradigm shift in the sense that the buyer’s question, after all the online inquiries, brand engagement and social media consultation with friends about products/services/brands — will change. What used to be “Will I buy this?” would hence become “Do I have to go to the store just to buy this?” A retail app does foster that question and then presents itself as the best solution: Just click on the buy button!
- Banking and payment systems will all be doable online. If it isn’t the norm right now globally, it will soon be. As tech makes business more interconnected, industries will be veering towards financial systems that enable quick, convenient and secure modes of cash transmissions and sales transactions. The retail cycle would not be an exception since all the infra necessary to make this a practical solution are already in existence. These are the Internet, the international banking system, and payment service providers.
- Wifi cities will be the norm. Business, financial, industrial and commercial centers the world over would soon be experiencing higher degrees of online connectivity that goes beyond personal broadband accounts or even business applications in private branch exchanges. As governments get enlightened about the role of online technologies in the growth of economies, wifi services in cities would become institutionalized to become the norm anywhere in the world.
It is thus up to companies and business owners therefore, to prepare themselves for the mobile economy by going cloud-based — right now.