Trends in the Future of Enterprise Mobility

Trends in the Future of Enterprise Mobility

5G is more than just another network upgrade. While current network technologies work great for improving the customer experience, 5G will take the benefits of enterprise mobility to a new level.

5G’s lightning-fast speed will enable retailers to use new, innovative technologies faster and more reliably. Retailers will be able to gather and analyze more data to build long-lasting customer relationships, improve the customer experience and uncover more opportunities to cut costs and maximize sales.

How is 5G changing how retail operates with mobile devices?

5G will be a game changer for enterprise mobility. It is expected to be 10 times faster than 4G and LTE speeds, which will reduce latency so everything works faster. Communication will be lightning fast. Network speeds will no longer slow down associates’ ability to interact with their mobile devices. 5G will also enable software developers to design apps to take advantage of this speed. So look for more powerful tools as the technology is introduced.

The advantages of 5G speed will motivate businesses to adopt the new technology at a fast rate. According to a forecast by Globenewswire, “5G connections will exceed 500 million by 2022 and reach 1.3 billion connections by the end of 2023.” In other words, 5G will be the new standard for mobile communications.

What this means for retailers is that the ability to personalize the shopping experience will increase, which will help attract younger buyers who will have high expectations for the in-store customer experience.

How 5G will Impact Retail Mobility

These improved experiences will be driven by data. A faster network means more data can be processed, which will provide more information on more customers to help make nearly every shopping experience stellar.

According to a recent retail tech study, Wake Up Call for Digital Transformation, Alex Gefrides of Intel is quoted saying, “In-store analytics are being applied to every phase of the retail process by determining retail trends, predicting where the demand will be for products, optimizing pricing for a competitive edge, identifying consumer purchasing patterns and behaviors, and other insights for immediate decisions.” So, the benefits of 5G enterprise mobility will go beyond the shopping experience to provide actionable insight on business factors that can boost profitability.

5G speed will also make emerging technologies more practical and useful, such as:

• Personalized digital signage
• Augmented reality
• Virtual reality
• Video and pattern recognition of shoppers
• Interactive mobile apps

And, 5G will provide businesses with more flexibility. IoT and connected devices will offer more data with business value, cloud services will be more accessible and apps will faster and more smoothly. Remote working will also be faster, allowing business owners more flexibility to work from anywhere.

How 5G will Allow Enterprise Mobility to Move Forward

Clearly, upgrading to a 5G mobility solution is going to be mission critical with moving your company forward. According to a recent article from Jeff Starks at Zebra Technologies, we haven’t quite reached the crossover point from 4G to 5G yet on a mass scale. In the near future though, 5G will enable several capabilities that store owners can use to enhance the customer experience.

Dressing rooms — Future dressing rooms can feature an interactive “magic mirror” that uses RFID tags to recognize the product a customer is trying on and recommend accessories or shoes to complete the look.

“Out of stock” instances — When an in-demand item is out of stock, you’re losing sales and customer loyalty. Smart shelves provide proactive stock monitoring, so if something runs low, the technology can see if the items are in the warehouse or in transit, and if not, create an automated order. This way, your ordering can keep up with demand. This is a lot of data to wrangle, but 5G for enterprise mobility can handle it.

Improvements for hospitality —  A recent study called the IBM Hotel 2020: The Personalization Paradox, reports that more than 70 percent of hotel guests had a positive experience with personalization, which can improve customer loyalty and return guests. Increased 5G speeds will allow guests to use their smartphones to provide keyless entry into their rooms. Not only will guests never lose their key, but hotels will use less plastic, a boon for cost savings and the environment. To help guests get cozy inside the room, they can use their phone or tablet to control temperature, window shades, lighting and other environmental characteristics. Deploying a 5G network in your hotel can make these features possible.

Will 5G remove the human connection that’s so important with in-store retail? Implemented correctly, 5G enabled technologies should help retailers make a deeper and lasting personal connection with each customer.

Using 5G to create a better experience, build loyalty and save money will require a partner with experience in network connectivity and mobile productivity.

Getting the right mobile solution for your company starts with a simple conversation. Contact DecisionPoint today.