Olympics fever arrived with a rainy Friday night in Paris, as the XXXIII Olympiad kicked off with a boat trip down the River Seine for the athletes, an Eiffel Tower light show, and a long-awaited return for Celine Dion to close the opening ceremony.
As the world settled in to watch the best athletes on the planet compete over the following weeks, Paris, the fashion capital of the world, stood to benefit from the hype surrounding the 33rd Olympic Games. With the Games taking place in such a significant city for retail, the industry was expected to see a real lift from the summer's event.
An economic boost
According to the official Olympic website, the Paris Games were set to provide a significant boost to the local economy. Among a range of social and skills initiatives, the Games were expected to create an additional 181,000 jobs in the Paris metropolitan area, alongside growth of up to €11.1 billion in economic activity.
Paris is central to the fashion industry, and already a major tourist destination. The Olympics were expected to draw in an additional 1.5 million foreign visitors to France's capital over the summer. With that surge in tourist activity around the city, some retailers were already positioned to take advantage of the increased sales opportunity.
In the months leading up to the Games, brands including Hoka and Birkenstock opened their first Paris stores, while Levi's and Salomon opened flagship locations on the Champs-Élysées. Importantly, these were not pop-ups designed purely to capture Olympics traffic. They were long-term investments, using the summer of sport to launch a physical presence intended to carry through into a longer-term strategy.
Optimizing the opportunity
Few cities suit an influx of fashion brands staking a claim to physical retail success quite like Paris. France's capital has the economic strength, tourism interest, and fashion reputation to drive strong results for retailers. But any brand looking to capitalize on increased footfall in bricks-and-mortar stores has to be prepared to handle busy stores. An initiative that starts out as a way to increase sales can quickly turn negative, discouraging customers through long queues and out-of-stock products.
Limiting in-store wait times
More tourism means more people on the ground, especially in hotspots, and retailers need to be ready for heavy foot traffic when major events come to town. To minimize in-store queuing, retailers have to think about the role their point of sale technology plays in busting queues before they form:
- Mobile point of sale: Teamwork Commerce's mobile POS lets in-store associates complete transactions anywhere on the shop floor. Armed with a tablet that processes payments and calculates discounts and promotions, retailers can reduce queues while still delivering a strong customer experience.
- RFID-powered self-checkout: Teamwork Commerce's RFID-powered self-checkout completes transactions in 30 seconds or less. Shoppers place their basket in a designated area, RFID readers scan every item at once, and customers pay without the wait.
Reducing out-of-stock situations
Busy shop floors are a good problem to have, they signal consumer interest in a brand and typically translate to more sales. But they also create challenges. Keeping shelves stocked is difficult, and retailers have to stay on top of replenishment to keep maximizing those sales opportunities, since empty shelves send disappointed customers looking elsewhere.
The core challenge is visibility into stock levels. RFID can help retailers improve self-checkout speeds, but it plays just as important a role in inventory management. By tagging products at the item level, retailers can track stock levels accurately and in real time. Teamwork Commerce's RFID-powered Stock Counter App lets retailers quickly scan products at any stage of the supply chain to build a complete picture of stock on hand. When shop floor inventory runs low, retailers get an alert and can replenish specific shelves quickly. RFID ultimately helps retailers maintain inventory accuracy and protect sales opportunities, regardless of how busy the floor gets.
Vive la France
The Paris Olympics captivated the world for a few short weeks, but the fashion capital of the world will always be a home for retail. The brands that made the effort to capture the buzz in Paris this summer set out to attract the right customers with the right products. Technology plays a pivotal role in delivering that kind of experience. With the right approach, brands can turn short-term interest generated by a moment like the Olympics into long-term business growth.