Soon, we might be seeing these technologies as ultimate replacements for human workers in sales and deliveries. Let me explain why.
Approaching Customers Using Web Beacons
Just recently, a new technology is used by e-commerce enthusiasts to attract customers: web beacons. This is a very cost-effective way of urging customers to buy a business establishment’s products. By installing a very small device that consumes only very little electrical power, a notification will pop up into a potential customer’s phone nearby. When that happens, the customer will then be urged to walk into a store and check out the products, thereby increasing the rate of sales a particular store may gain.
Web beacon technology is considered as one of the smartest digital e-commerce innovations these days because aside from the mobility and portability it offers, it requires no additional programming or advanced technical skills on the part of the business owners.
By just installing the fist-size device on a wall or a desk, it will just siphon digital marketing tactics into the air among nearby customers that happen to walk near a store. Upon seeing those ads on their phones, the customers may then choose to walk into the store, or just ignore those notifications.
Web beacons are surprisingly affordable, easy to install, and can be easily configured. Another great thing about it is that it makes the jobs of cashiers much easier too. Using their own phones, the customers can just pay for the products they bought in that store.
Web beacons are actually a replacement for a real saleslady or salesman. They can approach any customer nearby even before they enter the store, and could even facilitate an onscreen payment system for the convenience of either the customer or the personnel inside the store. As such, products can already be checked out and paid for without any direct human interaction.
Delivering Packages With Flying Machines
The drones’ impact on the supply chain will be both monumental and revolutionary. Because it can reduce the cost of shipping and the constraints that traditional delivery gives, the concept of product order and delivery will greatly change.
This will reduce the need for human drivers and delivery personnel that will personally attend to the usual tasks of bringing the ordered products to the doorsteps of the customers. During the next few years and in the decades that follow, we could be seeing a product-purchasing system that happens much faster and more conveniently than ever.
Drones are foreseen as the ultimate delivery personnel
Because of the very promising concept of delivering products much faster to the customer and due to the cost-effectiveness of the drone service, many giant companies are doing their very best to get ahead of the game.
For instance, Walmart, one of the biggest retailing stores on the planet is asking the Federal Aviation Administration to allow the company to make its own research about drone delivery. Furthermore, other huge companies like Google and Microsoft are also conducting their own similar research endeavors so that they can explore the breakthroughs that unmanned flight delivery can offer to the field of commerce.
A CRM system must be uniquely implemented for a drone delivery system because this new concept is still in its experimental stages. A CRM system specifically tailored for this kind of service can make the communication between customers and business entities even though customers cannot really interact with a human delivery personnel face to face.
By implementing this online through apps and GPS locators, real-time communication can still take place. Should issues and problems arise, they can be immediately addressed because the drones are equipped with networking capabilities that allow them to tap into the internet as well as in phone wireless lines.
Re-invention and Disadvantages of Drone Delivery
BPR can uncover and resolve issues that might arise in the usage of delivery drones because it is the best means of addressing problems immediately especially if such issues are technology-related. If the delivery service offered by drones causes a lot of problems to people and society in general, they have to be re-engineered accordingly.
Accurate data must be gathered during the experimental and initial launches of the first drones and extensive surveys must be conducted to obtain customer feedback. By then, a much better way of re-inventing or improvising the drones could be facilitated so that the supply chain will continue and be reinforced.
The disadvantages of using drones for delivery could include a decrease in human employment. Obviously, human drivers who will operate vehicles and delivery personnel are not needed anymore as they will be replaced by automated flying machines. Another downside to it is that the products to be delivered or even the drones themselves could get destroyed during the aerial transit.
But there are great advantages too. The delivery time could be much faster, while road traffics could be greatly diminished because transport vehicles will be lesser on roads and streets. It could also be a means of solving the COVID pandemic delivery hassles because there would be lesser human interaction among delivery personnel and customers.
These sound promising. The beacon works only if your bluetooth is on, right? Drones do have potential. This surely works for small packages. However, it's still a long way here in the Philippines. Our internet is not that great especially outside the cities.