Many of us dread holiday shopping. Pushing through crowds that won’t budge and trying to get a sales associate’s attention can often lead to banging headaches. Some of those days are over thanks to online shopping, but e-commerce created other problems like lack of personalization or a product looking different in person than online. Shoppers demand a better experience, and if retailers don’t provide one, they’ll take their business elsewhere. To keep customers coming back and awed by the brand, retailers are taking a step back to think about what their shoppers need to have a better experience.

In fact, nine in 10 customers expect brand interaction to be consistent across touchpoints, so it’s important for retailers to create a seamless shopping experience, regardless of whether the customer is browsing in the store, on his/her phone or on a desktop. It’s clear consumer expectations have changed in the past five years. For example, now a customer who’s been searching for a wristwatch on a laptop might want the retailer’s mobile app to remember what’s already been clicked on and make better suggestions based on that information.

Retailers put customers first by innovating with mobile offerings

A Nielsen study commissioned by Google recently found that customers spend more than 15 hours a week researching on their smartphones and 93 percent complete a purchase after mobile research. Given that, it makes sense that retailers are focusing on designing a user-friendly mobile experience. Some are creating apps that register all of the interactions that a customer has with the brand, whether it’s clicking on a link in an email, browsing for a product on the web or completing a purchase in the store. For example, Best Buy bridges the gap between digital and in-store interactions by integrating cross-channel customer interactions on its mobile app, in store and on the website. That’s a great idea, as long as the customer knows what’s being tracked.With the holidays around the corner, Tesco, a multinational grocery and general merchandise chain, introduced an app to make gift finding a little less of a scavenger hunt. Its Secret Scan-ta app scans the people and organizations that the gift recipient follows on Twitter to find the perfect gift. Based on the Twitter data, the app makes suggestions for gifts available at Tesco, and the gift buyer can easily research the suggested products and seamlessly complete a purchase without having to open a new page or app. Tesco figured out that customers spend a lot of time researching gifts and looking for the best place to buy them, then designed an app to ease the pain.

Smart dressing rooms make in-store shopping personal and stress-free

While mobile sales are forecasted at $83.93 billion this year, many customers still prefer to shop in brick-and-mortar stores, especially when they want to see the product they’re getting in person or cut out the shipping process. Instead of having customers race around the store looking for a sales associate or stand in long checkout lines, several large retailers have introduced tablets in their dressing rooms to provide personalized recommendations and additional product information — and, in some cases, to let shoppers complete the purchase right then and there. About half of 25 to 34 year olds use their phone to shop online while in a store, according to Google’s research, so it’s no wonder that mobile is becoming part of the brick-and-mortar experience.

For example, Bloomingdale’s in California and New York mounted iPads in their dressing rooms so customers can easily browse the product catalog, read reviews and ask for a new size or color without opening the door. The tablet acts as a fashion assistant by recommending accessories and other pieces of clothing to complete an outfit.

One company that’s revolutionizing in-store shopping is Hointer, a men’s apparel store in Seattle. Using the Hointer app, customers can add items to a virtual shopping cart by scanning a QR code placed on each product, and those items will appear in their dressing room within 30 seconds. Each dressing room is outfitted with a tablet, so when a customer is ready to purchase a product, he can do so via the tablet, eliminating the need to wait in a long checkout line. In turn, sales associates can focus on providing customers with a valuable in-person interaction, something that technology isn’t yet able to do. Hointer strives to improve the shopping experience by collecting data about how customers most often use the tablets and mobile app — and about each customer’s buying habits and preferences.

As mobile and in-store experiences continue to merge, companies would do well to observe customers and truly listen to the feedback they get. For example, do customers always want their purchase data linked between in-store and mobile experiences — or are there some circumstances where it’s best to keep that separate? Where can technology add to the shopping experience, and does it ever detract from it? The companies mentioned above have found creative ways to innovate and better serve users while also driving sales, and we’re excited to see examples of a user-centered philosophy benefitting both shoppers and sellers.