If there’s one thing that we learned in 2020, it is the fact that the world can still be very unpredictable. Who’d have thought that there will be a pandemic we had to go through widespread lockdowns that would drastically change consumer behaviors? While it’s true that predicting the future is quite tough in the current situation, it doesn’t hurt to think about what it may hold for the repair businesses.
By looking at existing trends and predictions, you can make educated guesses on what could happen in the next 12 months. So, let’s talk about them.
Contactless Payments Will Become the Standard
Certain pandemic behaviors will be here to stay for long. Everyone is concern about their safety. Customers have a heightened awareness of hygiene practices now. As a result, contactless payments have gained popularity and are expected to become standard in 2021.Â
Industry data shows that nearly one-third of US consumers became first-time users of contactless payments during the pandemic; and in March 2020, contactless payments grew by 25%. COVID-19 has accelerated technologies and services that allow customers to shop with as little contact as possible. That’s why RepairDesk has launched its online payments feature back in 2020. Customers who don’t want to physically visit the repair store and pay for the service can now pay online. To learn more about online payments, hit the link below.
Email Invoices & Get Paid Online
Most notably, buy online pickup in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup saw a surge in adoption in 2020. It is mainly because people were looking for ways to make purchases in the safest, most convenient ways possible. Online payments provided that.
What’s interesting, though, is that people will continue using these services long after the pandemic is over. We’ll likely see a similar trend in the world of contactless and mobile payments. Keep in mind, consumers won’t go back to their old shopping habits when COVID-19 dies down. That’s why you need to ensure that your repair store can accommodate these new behaviors.
Pay close attention to how your customers shopped during the pandemic, and use those observations and insights to determine the changes that you’ll have to make in your business in 2021 and beyond.
Adoption of PersonalizationÂ
Checking the stats that are trending towards personalizing the customer experience for quite a few years, and 2021 is finally going to see mainstream adoption of such technology. Localization and personalization will continue to accelerate in 2021. More and more retailers are looking to establish brand distinction through an enhanced and personalized in-store experience, bringing together the best of the digital and physical worlds along four key dimensions: openness, coordination, connectedness, and intelligence.
Omnichannel Approach
Shoppers these days are no longer using just one channel, and neither should you. In order to keep up, retailers must find ways to serve customers across all these channels and devices. This can be done by offering online to offline services such as click-and-collect, in-store pickups/returns, and more.
One way to do this is to measure any increase in online sales where you have a physical location. Look at your repair store reports and see how much traffic or revenues are generated from locations where you have a brick and mortar presence. In the new order of things, there will be no such thing as in-store sales or e-commerce; it will all just be commerce.
Which of the predictions will come to life in 2021?
Time will tell whether these predictions will take place in the coming year, but it never hurts to explore what might happen, so you can be ready. As 2020 comes to a close, we encourage you to take a deeper look at the data, trends, and behaviors, that you’re seeing in your business and community, then take steps to prepare for the future.
Good luck!
