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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

original question or rather another question: “When the often than reaching for the supermarket shelf. Once
devices ultimately order, who will get the smart or- standardized and automated, the comparison with com-
ders?” Well, the manufacturers are currently definitely peting products, but above all with alternative retailers,
in pole position since they are the ones that produce is almost eliminated. Assuming functioning logistics
and configure the IoT devices. processes, the (passive) customer or algorithm loyalty
ensures correspondingly long-term customer relation-
To give you an example: a manufacturer of printers not ships.
only sells them but makes sure that they are always
ready for use. And isn’t it a kind of a lucrative business Dealer must act – the door is still open
idea to usurp the aftermarket and knock out the middle-
men? From paper to cartridges in this case, the battle In other words, customer lifetime value meets automa-
for dealer margins is not raging between offline and tion, and therefore “smart ordering services” are not a
online, but for good reasons for the margin itself. “nice-to-have” but the future. Sooner or later, intelligent
devices will take over the ordering of consumables in
According to Statista, global sales in the printer and the household piece by piece.
copier segment in 2019 were more than 12 billion dol-
lars. At the same time, companies worldwide make Retailer still narrow-mindedly busy with offline vs.
over 85 billion dollars, seven times as much, with the online considerations will be missing the point that in
sale of printer cartridges. It is similar with coffee ma- the future customers will neither visit the store in per-
chines or dishwashers: the retailer sells the device son nor the web shop. Only retailers who succeed in
once, but the consumer goods anew week after week. docking with intelligent ordering systems can compen-
sate for the lack of “buy-it-yourself” customers. As I
Risks become opportunities said, it’s not about online vs. offline, rather buy vs. let
buy!
Nevertheless, retailers should not see the Internet of
Things and Smart Ordering Services as scenarios of Ultimately, smart ordering services increase the num-
the end of the world, but rather as an impetus in the ber of sales channels to customers since the days of
right direction, or to put it bluntly, when one door clos- supermarkets, catalogues, apps, online shops are num-
es, another opens. bered. With the help of a variety of ordering options
such as smart switches, by voice command or by using
If retailers manage to play a role in the new smart or- automatic orders via the IoT device itself, the dealers
dering world, they will benefit from product and brand are practically always on site with the customer. ◊
loyalty. Users configure the desired product and the
shop for the Smart Ordering Service once and if this By Daniela La Marca
setting works smoothly, they will certainly vary it less

14 October 2021: IoT in Marketing