Casey Watson is the Marketing Communication Specialist for SuiteDynamics. She has a degree in journalism from Murray State University and over 10 years of experience researching and writing about various subjects, including insurance, nonprofit work, and healthcare. She has been covering NetSuite ERP systems for more than two years.
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How to Perfect In-Person Shopping with NetSuite SuiteCommerce InStore
A brick-and-mortar store can still thrive in today's retail economy. It just needs the right mix of digital and physical shopping experiences.
It’s easy to dub the brick-and-mortar store a dying breed when news outlets seem to run stories every week about retail giants closing locations. More than 2,000 U.S. stores are expected to close in 2024, according to Yahoo News, and malls stand empty across the country.
Yet customers aren’t completely abandoning physical locations; they just want the best of physical and digital shopping. They want to trade brick-and-mortar for click-and-mortar, which a company can accomplish with advanced software tools like NetSuite’s SuiteCommerce InStore.
A study from Oracle NetSuite reports that 97% of surveyed consumers believed physical stores are still necessary, and 70% said the most attractive ones offer features that streamline the shopping experience. SuiteCommerce InStore helps satisfy those demands by integrating web-based point-of-sale software with NetSuite’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, providing a wide range of tools to optimize in-store shopping.
SuiteDynamics works with NetSuite to customize and implement ERP systems. Our experts can answer your questions about InStore and help install the software if needed.
Read more about the rising click-and-mortar trend in our guide below and discover how InStore meets consumers' need for a digital experience in the physical world. Then, schedule a free consultation with our team to elevate your retail offerings and boost customer satisfaction.
Key Takeaways
- Physical Stores Are Still Relevant: Despite widespread store closures, 97% of consumers still believe physical stores are necessary, but they expect a seamless integration of digital and physical shopping experiences, or "click-and-mortar."
- Rising Click-and-Mortar Trend: Businesses that combine online and in-person shopping, like Best Buy and Walmart, see increased customer satisfaction. Many online-only retailers are also opening physical locations to enhance the customer experience.
- SuiteCommerce InStore Enhances Retail Operations: This tool integrates point-of-sale software with NetSuite's ERP, allowing retailers to streamline in-store and online transactions, manage inventory, and create personalized customer experiences.
- Increased Customer Satisfaction: Tools like SuiteCommerce InStore help sales staff assist customers with online wish lists, returns, and personalized shopping experiences, improving customer satisfaction and building stronger relationships.
- Operational Benefits for Businesses: Besides enhancing customer service, SuiteCommerce InStore offers inventory management, real-time analytics, and customer data integration, improving business efficiency and enabling data-driven decisions.
What Is Click and Mortar?
"Click and mortar" businesses combine the convenience of shopping online (the "click" part) with the hands-on quality found in brick-and-mortar stores (the "mortar" part).
According to the Corporate Finance Institute (CFI), this retail approach offers consumers more options and, therefore, creates more opportunities to make a sale.
“Customers gain the advantage of choosing whether to buy the products in person or enjoy the seamless online shopping experience,” CFI writes. “Either way, customers enjoy great flexibility, convenience, and more choices. The company also benefits from increased revenues since it can target online buyers using search engine ads and other marketing efforts.”
Companies like Best Buy or Walmart take this approach, allowing customers to order online and have their purchases shipped or picked up at the store. Shoppers seem to appreciate the options. A 2024 PYMNTS study reports that 65% of surveyed click-and-mortar customers in the U.S. experience increased satisfaction compared to those purchasing without digital assistance.
Another PYMNTS report says 39% of surveyed shoppers in seven countries identify as click-and-mortar shoppers. In fact, the click-and-mortar method is becoming so popular that online-only retailers want in on the action.
“While traditional businesses are integrating online stores into their model, some online-only retailers are setting up physical stores to enhance their customer experience,” CFI writes. “The main reason for integrating offline operations into their model is to provide the customers with an opportunity to see, touch, and test the products before buying.”
The EY Future Consumer Index reports that 57% of shoppers still want to touch and feel items before purchasing. In these cases, physical stores become showrooms where shoppers can explore the products they’ve found online.
What Is SuiteCommerce InStore?
SuiteCommerce InStore is a SuiteApp that helps companies meet the needs of customers who want the full click-and-mortar experience. This NetSuite tool helps retail stores provide store employees with access to the same information customers see online—but in a cloud-based, easy-to-use app.
Sales staff can use it to:
- Add items from customers’ carts or wish lists to their in-person transactions at the point of sale.
- Help customers add items they see in your store to their online wish lists or buy products in-store and ship them anywhere.
- Perform returns and exchanges for items purchased online or at other locations.
- Upsell and cross-sell using customer information like “bought also bought” patterns.
During your free consultation, the SuiteDynamics team can explain more about how this software empowers sales staff to connect with customers.
How Does InStore Impact Business as a Whole?
SuiteCommerce InStore is an excellent point-of-sale solution, but it also offers other benefits that improve overall business operations.
1. Unlimited Fulfillment Options
SuiteCommerce Instore allows businesses to track and manage inventory across multiple locations easily. Consequently, they can fill orders from stock located in other stores or warehouses. This capability ensures the right products are always in stock when customers need them. Therefore, the software helps reduce stockouts and increase sales while decreasing the risks of overstocking and wasting resources.
2. Safe, Organized, and Accessible Customer Information
InStore includes a robust point-of-sale system that natively connects with other NetSuite tools, such as CRM and e-commerce. This allows businesses to manage customer information and sales data smoothly and provide customers with a more personalized and efficient shopping experience.
3. Strong Customer Relationships
The SuiteApp’s customer management tools allow businesses to easily track and manage shopper information, including purchase history, loyalty program information, and contact information. This can help companies and sales staff build stronger customer relationships and increase repeat business.
4. Improved Operational Insight
Its wide range of analytics and reporting tools provide real-time data on everything from sales and inventory levels to customer behavior and purchasing patterns. Your company can use this information to make data-driven decisions that improve the in-store shopping experience and increase sales.
Schedule your free consultation with SuiteDynamics to discover more about SuiteCommerce InStore and how it boosts the click-and-mortar experience. Our team will ensure you have the right tools to satisfy customers and create a faster, more efficient operation.
Keep Customers Coming Back
E-commerce isn’t killing the brick-and-mortar store—but it is changing it. Retail companies are finding new ways to use click-and-mortar technologies, ease customer journeys, and offer the best digital and physical shopping experiences.
We understand how competitive the retail industry has grown, and we don’t want your business to miss out on sales. SuiteDynamics experts can help implement SuiteCommerce InStore for better and more profitable point-of-sale processes.
Schedule a consultation with our team today and discover how to make the shopping experience more convenient and impactful so your customers come back again and again.
We pull information from NetSuite material, SuiteDynamics experts, and other reliable sources to compose our blog posts and educational pieces. We ensure they are as accurate as possible at the time of writing. However, software evolves quickly, and although we work to maintain these posts, some details may fall out of date. Contact SuiteDynamics experts for the latest information on NetSuite ERP systems.
Disclosure: This article was developed with the assistance of Claude, an AI created by Anthropic. Our editorial team used Claude as a collaborative writing tool, carefully reviewing, editing, and fact-checking all AI-generated content. The final text has been thoroughly vetted to ensure accuracy, clarity, and alignment with SuiteDynamics' editorial standards. We take full responsibility for the content presented in this article, maintaining our commitment to providing reliable and informative insights to our readers.
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