In today’s rapidly evolving retail landscape, the ability to provide a seamless and consistent customer experience across all channels is paramount. Unified commerce, a strategic approach that integrates online and offline channels, offers a powerful solution to differentiate your business and outperform competitors. By breaking down silos and creating a cohesive customer journey, unified commerce enables retailers to deliver personalized experiences, enhance customer loyalty, and drive sales.
What is Unified Commerce?
Unified commerce strategy is more than just a technology solution; it’s a strategic mindset that prioritizes customer experience. It involves integrating various channels, such as e-commerce, brick-and-mortar stores, mobile apps, social media, and marketplaces, into a single, unified commerce platform. This integration allows retailers to offer a consistent and personalized experience across all touchpoints, regardless of where the customer chooses to interact with the brand.
Unified Retail Commerce: Key Benefits
Enhanced Customer Experience:
Seamless Omnichannel Shopping: Customers can easily transition between online and offline channels, such as browsing products online and picking them up in-store or returning items purchased online to a physical location.
Personalized Recommendations: By leveraging customer data from multiple channels, retailers can offer highly personalized product recommendations and marketing campaigns, increasing the likelihood of conversions.
Consistent Branding: A unified commerce approach ensures that customers experience consistent branding and messaging across all channels, reinforcing brand identity and loyalty.
Increased Operational Efficiency:
Streamlined Inventory Management: Unified commerce enables retailers to have a real-time view of inventory levels across all channels, reducing stockouts and overstocking.
Optimized Order Fulfillment: By integrating online and offline channels, retailers can leverage their entire network to fulfill orders efficiently, improving delivery times and reducing costs.
Simplified Returns: Customers can return products to any channel, regardless of where they were purchased, streamlining the returns process and enhancing customer satisfaction.
Improved Customer Loyalty:
Personalized Interactions: Unified retail commerce empowers retailers to deliver personalized experiences that resonate with individual customers, fostering a stronger emotional connection and increasing loyalty.
Consistent Customer Service: A unified view of customer data allows retailers to provide consistent and helpful customer service across all channels, building trust and loyalty.
Loyalty Program Integration: Unified commerce can seamlessly integrate with loyalty programs, offering personalized rewards and incentives to encourage repeat purchases.
Competitive Advantage:
Differentiation: By offering a superior customer experience through unified commerce, retailers can differentiate themselves from competitors and attract a larger customer base.
Increased Market Share: A unified commerce approach can help retailers expand their market reach and capture new customers by providing a more convenient and personalized shopping experience.
Enhanced Brand Reputation: A positive customer experience fueled by unified commerce can enhance a brand’s reputation and drive word-of-mouth marketing.
Implementing Unified Commerce: A Strategic Approach
To successfully provide unified commerce experience, retailers should follow a strategic approach:
Define Goals and Objectives: Clearly articulate the desired outcomes of unified commerce, such as improving customer satisfaction, increasing sales, or enhancing operational efficiency.
Assess Existing Infrastructure: Evaluate the current state of your technology infrastructure and identify areas that need to be upgraded or integrated to support unified commerce.
Choose the Right Technology Partner: Select a technology partner with expertise in unified commerce solutions that can provide the necessary tools and support.
Implement a Data Strategy: Develop a robust data strategy to collect, analyze, and leverage customer data across all channels.
Provide Employee Training: Ensure that employees are equipped with the knowledge and skills to effectively support unified commerce initiatives.
Continuously Monitor and Optimize: Regularly evaluate the performance of your unified commerce implementation and make necessary adjustments to optimize results.
By embracing unified commerce, retailers can create a more customer-centric, efficient, and profitable business. By breaking down silos, delivering personalized experiences, and enhancing operational efficiency, unified commerce offers a strategic advantage that can help businesses outperform their competitors and thrive in today’s competitive marketplace.
Contact ETP Group today to learn more about our unified commerce and how it can benefit your business.
The fashion retail landscape is undergoing a seismic shift. Gone are the days of passive consumers simply browsing racks and accepting whatever a brand offers. Today’s savvy shoppers are bombarded with choices, empowered by technology, and fiercely loyal to brands that prioritize them. This “Fashionably Loyal” article explores the transformative customer landscape, the high cost of customer churn, and the power of a customer-centric approach in this competitive environment. We’ll then delve into actionable strategies for creating exceptional customer experiences, building long-lasting relationships, and ultimately, winning hearts (and wallets) in the cutthroat world of fashion retail.
1. The Modern Transformative Shift in the Consumer Landscape
The rise of e-commerce, social media, and mobile technology has fundamentally reshaped how consumers discover, research, and purchase fashion items. Today’s shoppers are digitally-savvy researchers, often armed with smartphones and a wealth of information at their fingertips. They expect a seamless omnichannel experience, transitioning effortlessly between online and offline touchpoints (think browsing online reviews before stepping into a physical store). Social media influencers heavily influence purchase decisions, and customer expectations for personalized recommendations and loyalty programs have skyrocketed.
This shift in consumer behaviour demands a response from fashion retailers. Those clinging to traditional, siloed approaches risk losing ground in the ever-evolving landscape. ETP Group’s Unified Commerce Solutions bridge the gap between online and offline operations, providing retailers with a single, holistic view of their customer data. This empowers retailers to deliver consistent messaging and a seamless shopping journey across all touchpoints.
2. The High Cost of Customer Churn
Losing a customer isn’t just a missed sale; it’s a missed opportunity for future purchases, brand advocacy, and referrals. Studies by Bain & Company show that a mere 5% improvement in customer retention can lead to a profit increase of 75%. The cost of acquiring new customers can be five times greater than retaining existing ones.
Customer churn is a serious threat to a fashion retailer’s bottom line. It’s crucial to understand why customers leave and implement strategies to win them back. ETP Group’s Omni-channel Retail Solutions offer powerful analytics tools that help retailers gain insights into customer behaviour and identify potential churn factors. By proactively addressing customer concerns and creating personalized experiences, retailers can turn disengaged shoppers into loyal brand advocates.
3. Customer-centricity, a Competitive Advantage
In an environment of fierce competition, customer-centricity is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. Shifting the focus from selling products to building long-lasting customer relationships unlocks a multitude of benefits:
Customer Loyalty: By prioritizing customer needs and exceeding expectations, retailers foster trust and loyalty. Loyal customers are more likely to make repeat purchases, even at premium prices.
Referrals: Loyal customers become brand ambassadors, enthusiastically recommending the brand to friends and family. This organic word-of-mouth marketing is invaluable and cost-effective.
Resilience to Market Fluctuations: Loyal customers are less likely to be swayed by competitors’ promotions. They understand and appreciate the value proposition of their preferred brand, providing a buffer during economic downturns.
Building a customer-centric culture requires a strategic shift in thinking. It involves understanding your customers, their needs, and their preferences. It’s about creating personalized experiences that make them feel valued and appreciated.
4. Strategies for Delivering Exceptional Customer Experiences
Fashion retail success hinges on delivering exceptional customer experiences across all touchpoints. Here are a few key strategies:
Personalized greetings and recommendations: Train staff to greet customers by name and offer personalized recommendations based on past purchases and browsing history.
Streamlined checkout processes: Implement frictionless checkout options like self-service kiosks and mobile wallets to minimize wait times.
Engaging online experiences: Create a user-friendly website with high-quality product images, detailed descriptions, and easy-to-use navigation.
Omnichannel rewards programs: Offer a unified rewards program that allows customers to earn and redeem points across all channels, online and offline. ETP Group’s solutions facilitate the seamless integration of such programs, fostering a more rewarding customer journey.
By focusing on these strategies, fashion retailers can create an exceptional customer experience that fosters loyalty and drives revenue growth.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of “Fashionably Loyal,” where we’ll delve into the essential building blocks of customer-centricity – comprehensive customer understanding, data-driven personalization, and seamless omnichannel experiences.
Today’s shoppers are no longer confined to a single channel. They browse online, compare prices in-store, and expect a seamless experience no matter how they choose to interact with your brand. This omnichannel reality demands a retail approach that transcends the limitations of separate online and offline systems. Enter unified commerce: a revolutionary strategy that centralizes the data you’ve collected about customers and products on a single platform. These platforms can interconnect systems of e-commerce, mobile commerce, customer relationship management, order management systems, omnichannel order fulfilment, analytics, and more to help provide insights into how to improve the customer experience.
The goal of unified commerce is to promote personalized shopping experiences that meet consumer expectations. It is necessary to align all the sales channels to offer the same information that the customer expects, ensure there is a constant flow of information being shared, and reduce data silos on a given channel.
This blog delves into the 5 game-changing advantages unified commerce offers retailers.
But first, let’s discuss:
How does a unified commerce strategy differ from an omni-channel strategy?
Imagine shopping for a new jacket. You browse styles online, check for sizes in-store, and then decide to order it for home delivery. But what if the store says the jacket is out of stock online, even though you saw it on the website? Frustrating, right?
This is where a unified commerce platform comes in. It’s like having one big system for everything, instead of separate ones for online and in-store shopping. Here’s how it’s different from what most stores do now:
Regular stores: Think of them as islands. They might have different systems for online shopping and what happens in the store, and these systems don’t always talk to each other. This can lead to mistakes, like showing an item as out of stock when it’s actually on the shelf.
Unified commerce: It’s like a bridge connecting all the islands. This system keeps everything in sync, so you get the same information and experience no matter how you shop. You can see what’s in stock online and in-store, buy online and pick up at the store, or even return an online purchase in-store. It’s all smooth and connected.
In short, unified commerce gives you a single, seamless shopping experience across all channels, online or offline.
5 Game-Changing Advantages of Unified Commerce for Retailers
1. Enhanced Customer Experience
Unified commerce enables retailers to offer a seamless and personalized shopping experience to their customers across multiple channels, including online, mobile, social media, and physical stores.
By consolidating customer data from various touchpoints into a single, centralized platform, retailers gain a 360-degree view of their customer’s preferences, behaviors, and purchase histories. This allows retailers to deliver targeted promotions, recommendations, and personalized experiences that resonate with individual customers, driving greater satisfaction and loyalty.
2. Increased Operational Efficiency
By integrating disparate systems and processes into a unified commerce platform, retailers streamline their operations and eliminate the inefficiencies associated with managing multiple systems and databases.
Its solutions enable retailers to automate key processes such as inventory management, order fulfillment, and customer service, reducing manual errors and improving overall efficiency. This not only frees up valuable time and resources but also allows retailers to focus on strategic initiatives that drive growth and innovation.
3. Seamless Omnichannel Selling
Omnichannel retailing has become the new norm, with consumers expecting a consistent shopping experience across all channels. It enables retailers to seamlessly integrate their online and offline channels, allowing customers to browse, shop, and transact across multiple touchpoints with ease.
Whether it’s buying online and picking up in-store, browsing products on a mobile app, or engaging with a brand on social media, it ensures a frictionless experience for customers regardless of their preferred channel.
4. Real-time Inventory Visibility
Inventory management is a critical aspect of retail operations, and a lack of visibility into inventory levels leads to stockouts, overstocking, and lost sales opportunities. Its solutions provide retailers with real-time visibility into their inventory across all channels and locations.
Enabling them to optimize inventory levels, minimize stockouts, and fulfill orders more efficiently. This not only improves customer satisfaction by ensuring product availability but also helps retailers reduce carrying costs and improve inventory turnover rates.
ETP’s Unified Commerce Platform gives you a single, clear view of everything you have in stock across all your sales channels. No more scrambling to find the right product. The Unified Inventory Management System keeps everything organized to ensure you have the right items available at the right place and time, every time.
5. Data-Driven Insights and Decision-making
Its platforms generate a wealth of data from various customer interactions, transactions, and touchpoints, providing retailers with valuable insights into consumer behavior, market trends, and business performance. By leveraging advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, retailers gain actionable insights that drive informed decision-making and strategic planning.
Whether it’s identifying emerging trends, forecasting demand, or segmenting customers for targeted marketing campaigns, it empowers retailers to harness the power of data to drive growth and profitability.
In conclusion, it represents a paradigm shift in retailing, offering retailers a powerful and flexible platform. ETP offers an advanced Unified Commerce Strategy that empowers retailers to deliver seamless omnichannel experiences, streamline operations, and drive business growth.
With a focus on enhancing the customer experience, increasing operational efficiency, and leveraging data-driven insights, ETP helps retailers stay ahead of the curve in today’s rapidly evolving retail landscape. By partnering with ETP, retailers unlock the full potential of unified commerce and achieve sustained success in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
In the fast-paced world of retail, where transactions occur at lightning speed and customer data is constantly flowing, ensuring robust fraud detection and security measures has become imperative. With the rise of e-commerce and digital transactions, retailers face increasingly sophisticated threats from cybercriminals seeking to exploit vulnerabilities in their systems. In response to these challenges, many retailers are turning to cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) – also known as AI in Retail – and Machine Learning (ML) to strengthen their defenses and safeguard their businesses and customers.
What are ML and AI in Retail?
(Artificial Intelligence) AI for retailers involves using automation, data, and technologies like machine learning algorithms to provide consumers with personalized shopping experiences in both physical and digital stores. Whereas machine learning (ML) involves implementing self-learning computer algorithms that are intended to analyze large datasets, find pertinent metrics, patterns, anomalies, or cause-and-effect relationships between variables, and ultimately gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics that shape this sector and the environments in which retailers operate. These advancements highlight the critical role of innovative retail software solutionsin addressing the evolving security challenges faced by modern retailers.
Emergence of AI & ML as Powerful Tools
ML and AI in retail have emerged as powerful tools in the fight against fraud in the sector. By leveraging AI and ML algorithms, retailers can enhance their fraud detection capabilities and stay one step ahead of cybercriminals. Additionally, the implementation of AI and ML technologies within (Point-of-Sale) POS software systems further enhances retailers’ capabilities to detect and prevent fraudulent activities, ensuring secure transactions and protecting sensitive customer information
One of the key advantages of AI and ML in fraud detection is their ability to adapt and evolve over time. Traditional rule-based systems are limited by predefined criteria and may struggle to keep pace with rapidly changing fraud patterns. In contrast, AI and ML algorithms can continuously learn from new data, refine their models, and detect emerging threats more effectively. This adaptive approach enables retailers to detect and mitigate fraud more efficiently, reducing the risk of financial losses and reputational damage.
ML and AI in retail industry are also being used to enhance security measures across the retail ecosystem. From online payment gateways to point-of-sale systems, retailers are deploying AI-powered solutions to detect and prevent unauthorized access, data breaches, and other security threats. Advanced authentication methods such as biometric recognition and behavioral analysis are becoming increasingly common, providing an extra layer of protection against fraudsters.
In addition to detecting fraud and enhancing security, AI and ML technologies can also help retailers improve the overall customer experience. By analyzing customer data and transaction histories, retailers can gain valuable insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns. This data-driven approach enables retailers to personalize their marketing strategies, recommend relevant products, and offer targeted promotions, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, retailers may anticipate sales with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning by examining data on past sales, industry trends, and consumer behavior. This allows retailers to make well-informed business decisions and in planning their personnel and inventory levels.
Furthermore, AI and ML can play a crucial role in optimizing inventory management and supply chain operations, reducing the risk of fraud and theft within the retail environment. But how do you make your e-commerce business fraud-proof? This is where Ordazzle’s AI-powered Anomaly Detection function comes into play. Its proprietary Machine Learning algorithm helps you isolate the abnormal or deviant new orders to be later reviewed and released for execution or cancellation. This helps you avoid any outlier orders that might be fraudulent further improving your inventory for normal orders.
Want to know more about ETP’s anomaly detection functions?
Despite the numerous benefits of AI and ML in fraud detection and security, retailers must also be mindful of potential challenges and ethical considerations. As these technologies become increasingly integrated into retail operations, concerns around data privacy, algorithmic bias, and transparency have come to the forefront. Retailers must ensure that they adhere to strict data protection regulations, implement robust security measures, and conduct regular audits to maintain trust and credibility with their customers.
How can the Government support adoption of AI in retail?
While AI presents promising prospects for enhancing marketing and operational efficiency, it’s crucial to employ it ethically and transparently. This requires a supportive policy framework addressing data privacy, security, and ethical considerations while fostering innovation.
Governments can facilitate the adoption of AI for retailers by investing in vital infrastructure and digital connectivity, supporting research and development efforts, and fostering collaboration between industry and academia. Additionally, governments can offer incentives and offers to retailers for implementing AI, and promote AI education and training programs to upskill the workforce, enabling them to effectively collaborate with AI systems.
In conclusion, AI in retail industry and ML are revolutionizing fraud detection, empowering retailers to combat fraud, protect sensitive data, and enhance the overall customer experience. By leveraging the power of these advanced technologies, retailers can stay ahead of emerging threats, mitigate risks, and build a more secure and resilient business environment. Moreover, ETP’s retail solutions integrate seamlessly with AI and ML capabilities, providing retailers with comprehensive tools to streamline operations, enhance security, and optimize the customer journey in today’s rapidly evolving retail landscape. As the retail landscape continues to evolve, AI and ML will undoubtedly play an increasingly central role in shaping the future of fraud detection and security in the digital age.
If you are seeking a reliable retail software solution. ETP is undoubtedly the best choice for maximizing efficiency and ensuring success in your retail business ventures.
The retail industry is constantly changing, and to stay competitive, stores need to keep up with what customers want. With the rise of online shopping, people have become more used to shopping in a way that is convenient and tailored to their needs. So, retailers are turning to retail software to help them meet these expectations and improve the shopping experience for customers.
What is Retail Software?
Retail softwareis a type of business management software that is made for running a store. It has several applications and tools that help retailers manage their business processes, such as inventory management, point of sale (POS), customer relationship management (CRM), and e-commerce.
How Can Retail Software Improve Customer Experience?
Personalization
One of the best things about retail software is that it lets stores make their customers’ shopping experiences more enjoyable. Retailers can make targeted marketing campaigns and personalize promotions and offers by looking at customer data and how they shop. This can make customers feel more substantial and more loyal to the brand. For example, a store might use information about a customer’s past purchases to suggest products the customer is likely to be interested in.
Speed and Convenience
Retail software can also help stores make shopping for customers faster and more convenient. For example, a POS system can help stores reduce the time it takes to check out, making shopping more enjoyable for customers. E-commerce platforms can also make it easy for customers to shop from anywhere and anytime without going to a store.
Inventory Management
Retail software can also help stores better keep track of their stock. By tracking and analyzing their stock in real-time, retailers can ensure they always have the products their customers want. This can make shopping better for customers and help stores avoid running out of stock or having too much of it. For example, a store might use software to look at sales data and predict future demand, ensuring they have the right stock.
Omni Channel Retailing
Retail software can also help stores do shopping across multiple channels as smoothly as possible. With e-commerce and mobile shopping becoming more popular, retailers need to be able to offer the same shopping experience across all channels. This can be done with the help of retail software, which gives a single view of inventory and customer data across all channels. For example, a customer might start shopping on a store’s website, add items to their cart, and finish their in-store purchase.
Data Analysis
Retail software can also be used to look at customer data to learn more about how customers act and what they like. Retailers can learn more about their customers and make their products fit them better by looking at past purchases, browsing habits, and social media activity. For example, a store might use software to determine which products are most popular with their customers and then change their stock to match.
Retail software can improve the customer experience in several ways, including personalization, speed and convenience, inventory management, omnichannel retailing, and data analysis. Retailers who buy and use retail software well are more likely to meet their customers’ needs and build long-term relationships with them. As the retail industry changes, the stores that embrace technology and use it to their advantage will do their best.
Omni-channel retailing is becoming increasingly significant in the retail business as people look for more flexible and easy purchasing methods. With the development of e-commerce, companies must make sure that buying across all channels is the same. Technology is critical to improving omnichannel commerce because it lets merchants collect and analyze data from all channels, customize the shopping experience, and provide new services to consumers.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
A customer relationship management (CRM) system is one of the important ways to improve Omni channel retailing. This lets businesses keep track of how customers connect with them across all channels, such as social media, email, and visits to the shop. By doing this, businesses may learn how customers act, what they like, and what they require. This information may then be utilized to make targeted marketing campaigns, product suggestions, and customer support.
Robust Inventory Management System
A robust inventory management system is another critical technology for Omni channel retailing. This lets businesses maintain track of stock levels across all channels, preventing stockouts and ensuring consumers can find what they’re searching for. It also enables stores to provide services like “click-and-collect,” where consumers can buy things online and pick them up in-store.
AI and machine learning
In addition to these technologies, retailers are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning more and more to improve the omni-channel experience. For example, AI-powered chatbots may help consumers locate items and answer queries quickly, and machine-learning algorithms can look at customer data to uncover patterns and offer suggestions.
The Benefits of Enhancing Omni Channel Retailing with Technology
By using technology to improve Omni channel commerce, stores may get a lot of advantages. First, they can enhance the consumer experience by making individualized suggestions, delivering quick and accessible services, and making buying across all channels as smooth as possible. This may make customers more loyal and improve their worth in their lives.
Businesses may learn a lot about how customers act, what they like, and what they need by collecting and evaluating data from all channels. This may help them see patterns and better judge what products to sell, how much to charge, and how to advertise them.
Technology lets merchants provide new services and business models that need to be more feasible. Retailers may offer subscription services, virtual try-on, and mobile payments in-store, among other things.
The Future of Omni Channel Retailing
As technology improves, we expect to see even more creative ways to improve the Omni channel experience and help the retail business expand. For instance, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology might create immersive in-store experiences that blur the barrier between online and offline buying.
In addition, using block chain technology might clarify the supply chain and cut down on fraud in the retail sector. Merchants can ensure everyone can access the same information by keeping track of transactions in a shared ledger. This can cut down on disagreements and delays in the supply chain.
Technology has changed Omni channel retailing, allowing stores to provide consumers with a seamless and customized experience across all channels. By using technologies like CRM systems, inventory management systems, AI, machine learning, and mobile technology, retailers may enhance the customer experience, obtain necessary information, and provide new services and business models. We should expect to see much more as technology keeps getting better.
Raise your hand if you’d like to improve your retail store’s sales.
Whether you’re looking to build on the positive momentum or trying to fix a dip in sales, you’re in the right place.
We’ve curated a list of tried-and-true things they’ve done that had a measurable impact on their sales.
Let’s dive in!
Focus on the customer service
Prioritize your customers
Turn your store into a destination
Refresh your in-store displays
Reduce wait times
Generate more online awareness
Increase in-store foot traffic
Set up a customer loyalty program
Level up your staff training
Focus on upsells and cross-sells
1. Focus on the customer experience
Your employees are your store’s front line. They’re the ones interacting with customers, creating positive connections and actually selling your products, so it makes sense to invest in them. To get your staff to effectively drive in-store sales, it’s important to:
Hire passionate people: When a sales associate is passionate for the products they sell, it seeps into how they interact with customers and makes them more likely to create positive interactions.
Focus on the customer’s needs: While sales are certainly important, actively listening to customers is even more so. By listening to what the customer says, sales associates can identify their pain points and better find a way to solve them through the products they sell.
Emphasize the importance of personalized interactions: There’s no cookie-cutter way to work in sales. Actively listening to a customer’s wants and needs helps a sales associate find the product that’s right for them.
A retail store is a great touchpoint where you can engage with your customers directly and help them solve their problems. Offering great in-store customer service that simply can’t be replicated online is the key to more lifelong retail customers (and sales).
Make your customers your top priority. Which brings us to the next point…
2. Prioritize your customers
Being customer-centric is something that every retailer should aspire to be. It really comes down to understanding what your customers want and making their needs your top priority. That doesn’t just end at having the products they want in stock. It starts by making customers feel good.
If your sales associates treat the people that walk into your store like people, you’re heading in the right direction. Nobody likes being sold to, so enough with the pressure sales tactics. Just have a conversation with the customer, find out what they need and propose a few solutions that match their price point. If they like your service (and the product), they’ll come back.
If you don’t carry the product that your customer truly needs, don’t be afraid to recommend it to them anyway and tell them where they can buy it. They’ll appreciate the help and your sales associate will establish trust with the customer. When that customer comes back to your store, they’re far more likely to trust your sales associates as a result. Think long-term relationship-building, not short-term sales!
The most successful retailers are obsessed with their customers and making them happy. Are you?
3. Turn your store into a destination
Customers crave unique, creative and memorable in-store experiences. Not only does that include approachable, knowledgeable staff (that’s a given), it also means rethinking the way your store operates. People are so accustomed to the typical store setup: there are products, salespeople and a cash register—boring. Some companies have pioneered a new store format called experiential retail.
In a nutshell, what that means is that the store’s goal is more than just to sell products; it’s to create an immersive experience that focuses on customer engagement. And they achieve that with interactive product demos and fun activities that are related to the products they sell.
For example, a visionary mattress store has provided nap pods that people can rent for a 30-minute nap. They come fully-equipped with an original mattress, sheets, and pillows, along with a bathroom to freshen up after your nap. If people enjoy their nap, their perception of the brand’s products is positive and the probability that they will make a purchase and become brand evangelists is higher.
There’s science to back this up, too. When a person touches and interacts with a product, they’re more likely to develop an affinity for that product.
In an article published by Harvard Business Review, Lawrence Williams, a marketing professor at Leeds School of Business, says “Physically holding products can create a sense of psychological ownership, driving must-have purchase decisions. This idea may underlie the push to move inventory from display cases into customers’ hands, a trend seen in many electronics outlets such as the Apple Store.” Pretty cool, huh?
Experiential retail is blowing up and there are tons of ways you can apply the concept in your store. We teamed up with Cate Trotter, Founder of Insider Trends, to cover this topic in-depth—read her piece below!
4. Refresh your in-store merchandising
Assembling persuasive in-store merchandising is part art, part data.
You use data to pinpoint which products are typically bought together, and you use your creativity to make those products look irresistible.
Good in-store merchandising will have no clutter. The only things that your eyes are drawn to are their products. Displays that are too busy will just overwhelm your customers and make your store look cluttered and unkempt. The store planogram has to be well organized. Every product has its place. It’s easy for customers to find what they’re looking for faster, which contributes to a better overall shopping experience.
Related products are grouped together. Notice that pants and shirts from matching color palettes are next to one another. (Hint: if you want to see which of your products are typically bought together using ETP Omni-channel Analytics, just check out your Products Frequently Bought Together report.
Must-have, low-cost accessories are nearby. Odds are, if you’re buying stylish gym gear, you need a bag to carry it in, right? The store will therefore place their tote bags next to their gym gear for exactly that reason.
5. Reduce wait times
Long wait times to pay are a big turn-off for customers and can cripple your sales. Research shows that most customers will typically abandon a checkout line and leave a store after waiting just six to eight minutes before heading for the door. The best way to stop losing sales due to long checkout lineups? Eliminate them altogether.
Brick-and-mortar retailers need to “banish the wait in line, once and for all” to avoid losing sales. But how do you do that?
It starts with scheduling enough sales associates to serve customers quickly even during peak hours. In ETP Analytics, you can easily see when your peak business hours are in the Sales by Hour of Day report. Use that information to make sure you schedule enough workers to assure you’re promptly serving each customer.
Next, why not eliminate cash registers altogether?
Unlike traditional cash registers and in-premise point of sale (POS) systems, cloud-based POS systems and mobile POS systems enable sales associates to serve customers and ring up sales from anywhere in the store. Retail MPOS helps customers get in and out of your store as fast as possible, which is what most of them want anyway.
Ring up sales from anywhere – with ETP’s mPOS software – ETP Mobile Store, you can eliminate customer wait times and reduce lost sales, all while offering amazing service.
6. Generate more online awareness
‘Clicks and bricks’ isn’t just a catchy line; it’s literally how consumers shop now.
Last year, more than 80% of retail purchases were made by first using online search. Increasingly, people are researching what to buy and where to buy it online before ever setting foot in-store. When they get to the store, those multichannel shoppers spend an average of three times more than single-channel shoppers.
Of course, retailers should have an online presence, but that doesn’t just mean having a transactional website. Things like a Google My Business (GMB) profile, Facebook and Instagram are amazing tools to get discovered by more potential customers in your area.
With a little bit of work, you can make it easier for people to find your store online, research what products you offer and get directions. Your goal is to make it as easy as possible for customers to see that you have what they need.
Setting up a GMB profile and optimizing your Facebook and Instagram accounts for local online searches isn’t as hard as you may think.
7. Increase in-store foot traffic
What good is online awareness if nobody is actually visiting your brick-and-mortar store or buying online? It’s not worth very much.
Part of that is getting a transactional eCommerce store up and running; the other part is showing customers that your brick-and-mortar store has what customers are looking for.
There are several ways to incentivize customers who discover your store online to visit and make a purchase.
Organize in-store events. The benefit? If a customer is interested, they have to visit your store. Things like weekly clubs, workshops and hands-on events are a great way to build a community and generate more visits.
Run exclusive in-store offers. Nobody likes passing up a great deal. Try offering a free giveaway for in-store purchases, or featuring certain items available exclusively in-store.
Show inventory levels online. People are more likely to visit your store if they know you have what they’re looking for. With ETP Omni-channel Inventory Management solutions, you can show your brick-and-mortar inventory levels online in real-time at the click of a button.
Offer free in-store pickup. This option benefits both you and your customers. For them, they can avoid paying for shipping, while you save on shipping costs.
8. Set up a loyalty program
A loyalty program incentivizes customers to purchase more to unlock personalized rewards. It’s a super accessible way to increase customer lifetime value while rewarding your customer’s loyalty to your business. When customers can use their loyalty program points to discount future purchases, you can bet they’re going to take advantage.
9. Don’t treat product returns like a loss
Returns happen, and when they do, customers should get the same great service as when they bought the item. Put yourself in their shoes. The product didn’t work out; they’re disappointed, too.
Treat each return like a sale and serve them willingly and with a smile. It makes the customer feel like they’re valued for more than just their hard-earned money, which creates an emotional sense of loyalty.
If they appreciate your service, they’re more likely to make another purchase at your store. Make the process quick and painless, and most important of all: treat your customers with positive intent.
Of course, there are serial-returners out there who will try to take advantage, but a loyal customer base that consistently shops at your store because of great service more than makes up for that minority.
10. Focus on upsells and cross-sells
Upsells and cross-sales can add up; have you considered making them a part of your sales strategy? When done wrong, it can make your sales associates (and your store’s reputation) look dodgy and self-serving. But when done right, it’s just flat-out great customer service.
With upselling, you should train sales associates to use the rule of three. Take the item that the customer was initially interested in (for example, a pair of running shoes) and show the customer three different models at three different price points (entry-level, mid-level and high-end). This is the best way to upsell since it shows the customer that you understand their needs. You want to show them everything that’s available so that they can make the most informed decision possible. You’re not pressuring them; you’re informing them.
With cross-selling, you should apply a similar approach: don’t try and sell a customer something they don’t actually need. Going back to the shoe example, an illustration of an authentic cross-sell would be educating the shoe shopper on the various types of running socks: from expensive compression socks and moisture-wicking ones to the generic cotton socks. Educate them on the differences between the three and let them choose what’s best for them.
With cross-selling, another important factor is “does this purchase make sense?” For shoes, socks are pretty much a given, but sometimes it can be tricky. The best way to find out if a customer needs anything else is to simply ask, “Could I help you with anything else today?” After all, a sales associate’s job is to facilitate the customer’s needs and offer solutions. Suggestive selling is the most authentic way to do that without coming across as an overly-pushy, selfish salesperson.
Summing up, hopefully you can use the above tips and tricks to increase retail sales. Ultimately, it comes down to prioritizing your customers and understanding that you’re in the business of serving them.
From your staff to the systems you use to run your store, everything and everyone’s job should be to create more “wow” moments and earn their trust; the sales will naturally follow.
Want to create an efficient in-store experience that your customers will love? Talk to one of our retail experts today to see how ETP V5 can help!
While everyone is enjoying the festive season frenzy, and eagerly awaiting the New Year with hope and aspirations, it is time for businesses to retrospect and set objectives for the future. Retail businesses, specifically, are more consumer driven. Therefore, it becomes essential to be intuitively proactive in gearing up for what lies ahead while striving to outperform the previous year.
It’s a given that technology will continue to play a major role in the New Year as it did in 2018 and the years gone by. Being an enabler, and also a disruptor, technology will see itself getting strongly embedded into the very genes of retail businesses and will drive the engine. And this is perfectly evident in the prediction by Gartner analysts who say that retailers’ investment in technology will grow by 3.6% globally in 2019 as customer expectations will put pressure on them to perform.
Further, Gartner mentioned that software would be one of the fastest growing technology expenditures in the retail industry, especially platforms for analytics, mobile applications, digital marketing, e-commerce and Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly becoming areas of interest for retail CIOs. By these predictions it is clear that technology will be the driving force for retail businesses in 2019.
The next thing in retail that is set to make the waves in 2019 and the years following would be the rise of brick-and-mortar retailing. As global sales of physical retail went up by 4.8 in 2018 and there were more stores being opened than closed, the trend will seem to continue. Even large online players like Amazon have started their own physical stores or are buying out other stores. As physical stores are evolving and are becoming destinations for experiences and not just limited to transactions, customers will continue to flock to the stores to enjoy these curated experiences.
Eventually, retail is no more about the channel, but it is about the consumer. Ultimately, the integration of technology and the business in the right manner will ensure that customers get what they want while businesses achieve their goals in the New Year 2019.
The Christmas festive season is almost here, as is the end of another year and we look for the best in the New Year. The past 2 years have probably been one of the biggest testing times for the retail industry, especially for physical retail. In the wake of the last year, which seen many known retail brands going bankrupt or shuttering stores, debates on whether physical retail would witness an apocalypse because of the rise of online shopping have been happening across the industry; but it seems like the predictors of the doom of physical retail have been silenced, thanks to the reinvention of retail.
Malls still face a threat from e-commerce shopping due to rising number of consumers preferring to shop online. The major reasons being a wide range of options available online, more discounts on online purchases, convenience of shopping from home while avoiding crowds and even reducing the chances impulse shopping. One of the major debates were whether malls would survive the online shopping or e-commerce onslaught, but the numbers are in favor of shopping in a mall. A recent survey indicated that more than 60% of consumers would visit the mall for apparel shopping as opposed to shopping for clothing online, and another 39% prefer to go to the malls, not only to explore multiple retail brands in one location, but also try on and compare clothing options. Malls offer strategic advantages which are still a hit among consumers.
One of the biggest clicks for shoppers visiting malls is the tangibility of products. Brick-and-mortar retail has thrived on the ‘touch-and-feel’ feature that shoppers love when it comes to purchasing apparel, footwear and other items. Moreover, most retail brands would be present in malls and this allows shoppers a fair opportunity to explore different brands belonging to similar categories and then take a conscious decision on what to buy, from where. Another major advantage that malls offer is socializing. Consumers prefer shopping with family and friends or even interacting with store associates to help them find the right product, as they find it easier to seek opinions and then make a purchase. In addition to this, malls are a one stop destination for shopping, entertainment and eating, thus offering wholesome experiences to shoppers for their time and money.
The bottom line is that malls and e-commerce will continue to coexist as consumers will always look at multiple options to satisfy their shopping needs. However, the catch is to ensure customers get what they want and retail brands are able to do that no matter which channel they use.