Optimizing the In-Store Experience in Retail
With more and more people shopping online, retailers have had to change their strategies for physical stores. In-store shopping now increasingly centers on experiences. This can mean various things, from interactive displays and personalized customer service to sensory marketing and virtual reality.
Omnichannel strategies are another part of the response to shifting consumer habits. Retailers are striving to make the customer journey as seamless as possible, no matter how their customers choose to shop. Services like ‘click and collect’ and endless aisles, which allow in-store customers to order out-of-stock products via a kiosk, blur the lines between physical and digital experiences. They open up new ways to strengthen brand loyalty and boost sales.
For these strategies to be effective, retailers require rigorous testing throughout the customer journey: from search to purchase to return. But with so many moving parts and diverse touchpoints, this becomes very complex and difficult to scale. The key is to understand the testing requirements at each stage of the buying journey.
Changing approaches to the in-store experience
Brick-and-mortar stores have found a new purpose in recent years. While online shopping may win in terms of convenience, physical stores have two main levers to success. They need to offer experiences that online shops inherently cannot, while also bringing the best parts of ecommerce experiences to their physical space.
Physical stores offer tactile, real-world experiences that digital technology cannot replace. This has fueled trends such as experiential retail, where shopping moves beyond being transactional and focuses more on creating enjoyable, memorable moments. Take sportswear for example. It’s easy to buy a pair of running shoes online. But at a physical store, shoppers can have their gait analyzed, try on a pair and get their shoes customized to them. Some leading brands combine experiential retail concepts with mobile apps — for example, apps play a key role at Nike’s flagship House of Innovation stores. Features like ‘scan to learn’ and Nike Member Pass help personalize the in-store customer experience.
The strategy of enhancing physical stores with digital innovations is known as phygital retail. Amazon Go stores are a prime example of this. Using technology such as computer vision, smart shopping carts, RFID tags and deep learning, Amazon offers a checkout-free shopping experience that’s quick and simple for customers and efficient for retailers.
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Essential Guide to Creating Futureproof Retail Experiences
Walk through ways to ensure both digital and physical experiences live up to customer expectations: See how to design and test for immersion, intuitiveness, intelligence and integration.
Younger generations value experiences when shopping
According to Deloitte’s 2025 US Retail Industry Outlook, enhancing the in-store experience ranks as a top growth opportunity for more than one-third of executives. The in-store experience is particularly important to millennials, with over 70% reporting that it influences where they shop. More than any other generation, they are drawn to physical stores that reflect their values and offer a more personalized, social experience — such as trying on new clothing styles and interacting with staff.
Surprisingly, Gen Z is leading the comeback of in-store retail. A new study found that 64% prefer to shop in-store rather than online. At the same time, this generation won’t hesitate to change their shopping habits if their expectations aren’t met. A report by brand experience agency ChangeUp shows that 46% of Gen Zers say negative in-store experiences would push them to shop online instead. This makes it clear that brick-and-mortar stores must double down on in-store experiences if they want to attract and retain younger customers.
The benefits of immersive in-store experiences
By turning stores into engaging destinations rather than just places to buy things, retailers are creating compelling reasons for people to leave their homes and shop in person. It’s a win-win scenario with significant benefits for both shoppers and brands.
For customers:
- Enhanced shopping experience: Customers get more than just a product; they get an engaging and memorable experience that makes shopping more enjoyable.
- Higher confidence in purchase: The ability to physically interact with products, get expert advice and receive personalized services helps customers make the right decisions and reduces the chance of buyer’s remorse.
- Discovering something new: Through live demonstrations or product samples, customers are more likely to uncover new products that they might not have risked purchasing online.
For retailers:
- Increased sales and conversion: Experiential retail encourages customers to spend more time in the store, increasing the likelihood of a purchase and often leading to higher transaction values.
- Stronger brand loyalty: Immersive in-store experiences help create emotional connections with customers, building a loyal customer base that is less likely to switch to competitors, even those with lower prices.
- Valuable data and feedback: The technology used in integrated, phygital retail experiences allow retailers to gather data on customer behavior, preferences and interests, which can be used to improve both in-store and online offerings.
Validating the entire retail customer journey
While omnichannel and phygital commerce open up a wealth of opportunities for retailers, they also introduce several challenges. As more technology is integrated into physical stores, there are more touchpoints with customers. All of these need to work seamlessly or else they risk harming the customer experience and impacting revenue. For example, checkout-free stores using Just Walk Out technology need to test a wide range of edge cases, such as checking whether a customer is charged if they change their mind and return an item to the shelf.
With thorough testing, retailers can validate the entire customer journey. There are many areas to consider, including:
- Omnichannel fulfillment: Omnichannel strategies, such as ‘buy online, pick up in store’ (BOPIS) and endless aisle, require smooth interactions between multiple systems. Retailers need to check that “ready to collect” notifications are sent to customers quickly and without errors and that store employees are able to locate and hand off the products. Endless aisle kiosks must be intuitive and accessible, making it easy for customers to find and order what they are looking for.
- Point of sales (POS) systems: At the point of sale, convenience is key. Retailers need to make the purchase process as quick and seamless as possible and cater to the ever-changing payment preferences of customers. This means testing local payment methods, digital wallets, mobile POS systems and self-checkout kiosks.
- Retail customer engagement: Retailers can use innovations like interactive signage, endless aisle kiosks, and augmented and virtual reality to make the in-store experience more engaging. These technologies all need regular functional testing.
- Loyalty programs and mobile apps: When tested properly, loyalty programs and brand apps can keep customers coming back for more. Retailers should check whether user registration, personalization, points accrual and application, and promo codes are working as intended.
Enhancing digital quality in physical stores
As more digital technology finds its way into brick-and-mortar stores, retailers need to step up their testing strategy. Ensuring a smooth experience across diverse customer journeys is a huge undertaking, requiring expertise in numerous testing disciplines and technologies. Retail stores often lack sufficient resources in these areas, however, making it extremely difficult to verify that everything is working as it should.
This is where Applause can help. Our global community of testers provides retailers with real-world insights into their customer journey. We can source in-market testers that match your customer profiles, people with disabilities to test for accessibility, and existing customers to test loyalty and rewards programs.
In addition, we enable you to test the checkout process with real payment instruments relevant to your market, including credit cards, digital wallets or your own in-app payment method. For example, for one multinational retailer, we recruited reliable in-store testers located near specific stores to validate a new payment process and identify friction points with BOPIS and home delivery. As a result of the findings, the retailer was able to identify and address parts of the customer experience that could be improved.
In another example, we tested in-store kiosks for a global fast food chain, identifying issues with payments and loyalty programs. Our recommendations helped the multinational chain to roll out 3,000 kiosks smoothly and drive kiosk adoption.
With Applause, you can quickly scale up your testing on demand to validate the entire customer journey — so you can roll out new in-store innovations with certainty.
Learn more about our in-store testing solutions.
Case Study
Multinational Retailer
Learn how a top global retailer rolled out a seamless new payment process and consistently improves the customer journey.
8 min