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2024 is a year of rapid retail expansion for some prepaid telecom brands and their store operations, with thousands of prepaid locations opening across the US this year. Agents are grabbing onto that business and rapidly scaling door counts to meet the demand, but that path is marked with the pitfalls of steep growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are five common pitfalls and mistakes we\u2019re seeing in the prepaid retail sector, along with tips to get your new operations right first time, so every store and retail channel is set up for long-term success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In the rapidly evolving prepaid space, it can be tempting to take the \u201cquick and dirty\u201d selling approach in order to stand up as many new stores as possible. After all, prepaid retail doesn\u2019t need a credit check, record check, a contract, or financing\u2014just a phone, a record of its IMEI, and a network. What\u2019s more, customers don\u2019t even have to give prepaid wireless retailers any truthful information about themselves. When revenue growth and resource optimization are of the essence, why should these retailers put effort into tracking the kind of information that is only required in the postpaid space, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This approach, however, is a false economy. As prepaid grows, the dearth of information about customers and sales patterns has started to create significant problems. \u201cThe lack of data businesses have around prepaid is the biggest obstacle to their long-term success,\u201d explained Kelly Jardine, Director of Enterprise Client Experience at iQmetrix. Without data about who their customers are, prepaid wireless retailers are unable to make informed decisions about their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the newer prepaid brands entering the market are tackling this problem by requiring more data from customers, offering discounts for additional customer data, and implementing robust reporting and analytics software that scales effortlessly as the business grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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With so many players in the prepaid space, from carrier brands to primary agents to sub agents, and then when you throw in in activation portals such as VIDAPAY, and more besides, there are myriad technology systems that must plug into each other for every transaction and activation to succeed. This has created a spaghetti bowl of technologies that is nothing short of chaotic, and rife with clunky and onerous processes for your employees. This, in turn, takes away from engagement and upselling time with customers, and damages the customer experience and their loyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, there are software solutions such as Interconnected Commerce that can untangle this technological mess and integrate all players\u2019 systems, including activations portals like VIDAPAY, creating a frictionless experience for prepaid retail operators, employees, and customers. Additionally, having a superior integration with VIDAPAY that pulls detailed customer information into your retail management system dramatically helps with the data and reporting issue mentioned above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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There\u2019s no doubt that fraud is an issue in prepaid wireless retail. Retailers are standing up new stores at a rapid pace, very often in geodemographic markets that are lower on the socioeconomic scale, and bringing in pools of new and untested employees within those markets. The above-mentioned gaps in system integrations can create opportunities that are ripe for internal fraud, in which unscrupulous employees exploit transactional loopholes for their own gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kirby Loeck, VP of National Sales at Victra, a Total by Verizon authorized retailer, told iQmetrix, \u201cWith all these systems, there\u2019s often no checks and balances. You won\u2019t even see you have an issue until it\u2019s, say, a month or so later when you’re trying to reconcile payments, and then you have to play catch-up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, the risk factors from external fraud perpetrated by customers are also higher in the markets where prepaid stores are largely popping up, exponentially increasing the retailer\u2019s vulnerability. Loeck added, \u201cOur asset-protection risk scores, between our prepaid stores compared with our postpaid stores, are vastly different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retailers operating in this high-exposure space must prioritize using systems and solutions that mitigate security and fraud risks, and work with technology partners to identify and tackle unique challenges in this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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When you\u2019re running just a few locations, inventory isn\u2019t too hard to keep track of using simple solutions. But, as your retail business takes on rapid growth of prepaid stores, your inventory management needs change just as quickly. As agents open multiple stores in a short space of time, and grapple with a radically more complex supply chain system and store-to-store transfers, many previously functional inventory management systems and practices no longer hold up. This creates a lack of product availability and obscured visibility into inventory across your stores and suppliers, ultimately damaging sales and the customer experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the more sophisticated prepaid retail agents know that efficient inventory management isn\u2019t an area that you can expect to take shortcuts and still succeed, and that adopting advanced inventory management solutions is essential to ensure they always have the right product in the right place at the right time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loeck said, \u201cAny dealer opening new stores needs have systems, tools, analytics, artificial intelligence, and so on, to tell them they need X amount of inventory at these stores and why. As a dealer, I can\u2019t spend time doing this myself, I need to focus on revenue growth. So those tools are critically valuable and not just in telling me what I need, but then also giving me data and guidance to help me place the orders and route them to the right location.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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With so many new prepaid stores opening, creating demand and getting customers into those new stores is no small feat. And once you do get them, with no contracts in place, how do you keep them from drifting away?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loeck said, \u201cHow you market to those customers, how do you keep them in your pipeline, and how do you get them back into your store? In the prepaid space there is a residual component, so how do you keep getting the residual off that customer, month after month after month? You need systems and processes to help with that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of this comes back to the processes discussed earlier, as well as the data and reporting that is so essential to informing how to create future demand. \u201cWe might not get that customer data in the carrier integration side, so let\u2019s change the behavior of our sales base to capture that information and use this to help drive future traffic and future transactions,\u201d added Loeck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And let\u2019s not forget, customer loyalty is often fostered by good experiences in the purchasing process itself. Today\u2019s wireless consumer is smart, savvy, and unforgiving of sub-par retail experiences. This means you need well-trained associates and intelligent systems that work together to create space and offer targeted prompts for upselling add-ons, the latest accessories (that you may or may not stock in-store), and anything else the customer is looking for\u2014and then ensuring they are taken care of after they\u2019ve left the store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To have a successful retail operation that will keep customers returning, your prepaid business needs to level up in all these areas. This means implementing a comprehensive end-to-end customer journey using a wide range of point-of-sale technology integrations, from initial marketing to retail analysis to point-of-sale integrations, all the way through to after-care, that will ensure you attract, engage, and retain your customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Learn more about how iQmetrix\u2019s Interconnected Commerce solutions can support your prepaid business growth, at <\/strong>www.iqmetrix.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here are the key mistakes we\u2019re seeing in the prepaid retail sector, along with tips to get your new operations right first time 2024 is a year of rapid retail expansion for some prepaid telecom brands and their store operations, with thousands of prepaid locations opening across the US this year. Agents are grabbing onto<\/p>\n