4 Great Reasons to Choose Fibre For Retail

The retail sector has always been a good market indicator, requiring a fluid and fast-paced business ethos to stay ahead of the galloping competition. Logically, this would mean seizing new technical opportunities to grow their business – which is one of the reasons that fibre for retail has been adopted so readily.

Super-Fast Fibre is the Future

The days of dial-up were over as soon as ADSL connections became available. And for those of us in South Africa who now have access to a high-speed fibre connection, our trusty ADSL is being retired as we jump onto the information super-highway.

Why is everyone so excited about fibre? For those who aren’t technically minded, here is the low down on why you should grab fibre connectivity if it’s available to you:

• Unlike ADSL connections, the speed and reliability of your fibre connection are not dependent on the distance between the exchange and your premises.
• Fibre remains unaffected by electrical storms, copper cable theft or poorly maintained telecommunication infrastructure making it a reliable, always-up service.
• A fibre connection can be up to 50 times faster than an ADSL connection, with data travelling – quite literally – at the speed of light.

So now that we know what it is, what impact has it had on the retail sector?

The Key Benefits of Fibre For Retail

In most businesses, time is of the essence. Whether we’re referring to the time it takes to get information to a customer, our response time to queries or complaints, or how long it takes our valuable customers to access online information or shopping sites.

And really, it’s the speed of fibre which makes it the perfect business partner for retail.

Online Shopping

We’re all online, and we all love to browse or compare products from the comfort of our sofa. Statistics agree: “… data strongly indicates 88 percent of consumers pre-research their buys online before making a purchase either online or in-store.” (Source)

Retail websites rely heavily on imagery to sell their products, and as we know, high-quality images can take a while to load if you’re running on limited bandwidth. A fibre connection offers fast loading time of images and product information, and it makes the checkout process quick and seamless.

Reliable Connections

As mentioned above, fibre connections are not subject to the vandalism of equipment and theft of copper cables. The fine glass tubes are incredibly fragile and almost useless to anyone looking for a quick buck.

Being safely installed underground renders fibre connections immune to electrical interference and the occasional reckless driver taking out a few telephone poles on his way home at night.

There’s never a good time for your internet to go down, and as we know, downtime for an online store is the equivalent of your staff locking the front door and turning off the lights: not great for business.

Keeping Your Customers Happy

While it is certainly down to your team to offer great customer service, having the backing of a rapid connection with the ability to transmit and track orders, questions or complaints without delay is going to assist them to do their job that much better.

Staying online – the boom of forums and chat groups where your customers will be asking and answering questions about your product and service is a very public way of either winning online… or not.

A slow connection to your online assets, or a website which is frequently “undergoing maintenance” is going to be logged in these (rather forthright) groups. Make sure that your retail business is getting mentioned for all the right reasons.

Future-Proof

As it stands, a fibre connection is the heavy-weight champion of the internet world, capable of providing the speed and bandwidth that your business needs.

What happens if you experience a growth spurt, with the urgent and immediate requirement for peripheral devices such as additional card machines, printers or POS terminals? Perhaps you need more capacity to accommodate more VoIP phones?

Most ISPs can upgrade your fibre with a phone call and will be happy to oblige, which makes scaling your business a seamless affair. Depending on your area, there may be a possibility of getting a dedicated connection which gives your business all the bandwidth that you need, as well as an additional layer of security.

Fibre It Is

Considering all the positive elements of a fibre connection for retail, your question now should be, “Where do I sign?”

The Huge Connect team are connectivity geniuses and can guide you in making the best decisions for your business and choosing the very best fibre product. Call us, let’s connect.