Online, offline, mobile. e-commerce, m-commerce, brick and mortar; these things are beginning to blur more and more, because, really, only one thing matters: Your customers – and your customers are digital! It doesn’t matter if they’re in your store with phone in hand or browsing on a tablet from their couch. They want one seamless experience. So do you know your omni-channel customers well to provide them with that experience?
The retailers that will move ahead of the pack in the coming year are those that can deliver a consistent, clear, clean, simplified, and seamless message across all channels.
Retailers looking into the future can be sure that no matter what trends and technologies are coming, an omni-channel strategy that is propelled by data and streamlined by automation will lead the way. Keep an open mind about innovations in omni-channel technologies in the future.
The online world is nothing but a humungous super-complex web of connections that has made the communication process quick, easy and omni-dimensional. Social media has taken the process of communication through connection to the next level which is popularly referred to as engagement.
Social media is an integral part of people’s daily lives today. More and more people are getting onto various social media platforms each day to connect with their friends, peers and colleagues. In the last few years, people are also connecting with the brands they like and businesses that offer these brands through social media. Further, the usage is not just limited to connecting and communicating. Most people are also using it as a means to opine and review products or services and to express their thoughts, beliefs and experiences. In a way, these tools have given people a power to speak and be heard. As such, social media engagement has become a necessity in most customer facing businesses such as retail.
Retail today is more of a customer driven business. Most of the retailers and retail brands are aligning their business models and strategies to become more customer-centric by tailoring their products and services to suit the needs and demands of their customers. Those who haven’t done so, need to move in this direction swiftly or they will not be able to sustain and compete. However, this can only happen if the retailers know and understand their customers better. To gain these insights, retailers need to rely on appropriate technology. This is where social media can be leveraged to their benefit.
Retailers can use social media platforms to solicit feedback – both positive and negative, from customers. This provides valuable insights into the customers’ desires, enabling the retailers to better understand their customers’ expectations and try to exceed them through better customer experience and relationship management.
Retailers can not only listen to and monitor what their customers – both current and prospective, are talking about, but also they can engage directly using social media as a channel for establishing relationships with the customers. Furthermore, shoppers are increasingly using social media platforms to seek advice and recommendations about products to help them make better shopping decisions.
Retail brands and businesses can also make use of these platforms to pitch their products highlighting the features and benefits, to create awareness and provide essential information either through regular updates or advertisements on social media. Retailers can also plan customer-centric marketing campaigns and promote them on social media platforms to reach vast audiences in no time.
Nowadays, social media applications can also be used for shopping directly. With omni-channel retailing coming into play, social media becomes an essential channel for retailers to service customers. Yet, this is not all. Due to innovations in mobile technology, the rate at which people are getting onto social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and many others using handheld mobile devices is rising exponentially, making social media an extremely powerful medium.
Nike CEO Mark Parker talks about being the Goliath in a David market. “The last thing we want is to be a big dumb company that feels we can put a swoosh on something and people will buy that. Our management approach hasn’t come from studying and reading business books. It’s more intuitive, from the culture of sports. We’re constantly looking for ways to improve. How do you adapt to your environment and really focus on your potential? To really go after that, you have to embrace the reality that it is not going to slow down. And you have to look at that as half full, not half empty. Companies and people look at the pace of change as a challenge, an obstacle, a hurdle, we like to look at it as opportunity: Get on the offense.â€
Speaking on the changing landscape of retail, Macy’s Inc. CEO Terry Lundgren isn’t losing sleep over how he’s running a retail empire in an age of booming internet-based commerce. He says “A bifurcated view of the retail environment – one in which brick-and-mortar retailers fight against a rising tide of internet retailers – doesn’t paint an accurate picture of how the average retailer shops. Rather, at least for Macy’s, the two are complementary tools used by consumers. The customer starts with a device, then they want to touch the product or sit in the sofa. Afterwards, they might walk out of the store and buy it online.”
Omni-channel retailing has become the norm in the industry and customers expect access to retail brands through multiple channels as per their convenience. The physical and digital platforms are blending to create an ecosystem that delivers instant value, information, products, services, payment options, rewards, cash-back, discounts, recommendations and updates to the customer anytime, anywhere. Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon, elaborates further, “I want us to stop talking about digital and physical retail as if they’re two separate things. The customer doesn’t think of it that way, and we can’t either. One customer can shop with us in so many different ways – in stores, on their phones, at homes or a pick-up point. I get excited about what our technology team is now capable of. As we add new capabilities and join these unique assets together effectively, we’re going to have something special.”
