Tag: ETP Group

How Do You WOW Your Customers?

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– Ross Stokes

ETP Blog
[Image courtesy: Bain & Company]
 Ever since I’ve been spending my “pocket money” I’ve been a collector of retail stories and experiences.  There’s only 2 primary experiences that stick in the memory…  Both involve a WOW

WOW, that was awesome, I’m so happy!! … and I want to go back and experience that again and share it with my friends, orWOW, that was horrible and can’t believe I wasted my time and money!!! … and I never want to ever experience that again and I don’t want anyone else to have to experience it either.

What MEMORIES are being CREATED?
I remember going into my favourite sports store as a kid and being welcomed by the owner like his buddy. He knew what sports I played, always had a new racquet to show me and would give me the “secret” details of why this was the one to have. He made it his business to know me and what I liked.  That was over 40 years ago and I still remember those special days when I got to visit his store of sporting treasures with my savings to happily buy my next racquet.  He knew the value of caring enough and making a connection.10 years ago I visited the Louis Vuitton store in Paris with some friends.  What a WOW experience.  We were given a guided tour and a lot of attention while our group browsed and tried on shoes.  We were made to feel special in a store designed to evoke a feeling of WOW.

ETP Blog
[Image courtesy: highsnobiety.com]

I walked out of there with a new pair shoes, not the best value for money shoes I’ve bought but definitely the most memorable pair.

So did I buy just a pair of shoes OR did I buy an experience wrapped into a pair of shoes?   Even after 10 years when I put on those shoes on I still get reminded of my time in Paris and that LV store experience. Buying is an emotional experience.

We all have horror stories and memories from bad retail purchases and store experiences.

These experiences are the antithesis of building customer loyalty and have a negative impact on a retailers profitability, particularly in today’s connected world of social media where stories and experiences are shared instantly.
I believe a retailers return policy experience is usually a good insight into how they value our loyalty.  They can choose to make a WOW experience that has us coming back for more or saying “never again!”.  There is no excuse using today’s technology for this to be a negative experience.
All these WOW experiences and the mediocrity in between are the result of people.  When leaders are engaged at all levels of a retail business, magic can happen.

Bain has written an article “A Fresh Look At Store Labor”

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The article highlights “Winners adapt their store labor model to what matters most to customers, they zero-base their operations instead of relying on what worked for them in the past, and they are systematic in mobilizing store labor for the required changes in behaviors, activities and processes.”

They include 8 useful starter questions to help a retailer explore whether they are empowering their store operations.

Are Store Staff Enabled and Empowered?
When I go into a store I’m always interested to see who is more informed about the products…  the store staff or me.  The irony is that most store staff have the technology skills and often the devices to be well informed and educated so they can add value to the customer experience however its not the norm.  Often store staff are distracted on their smart phones or the POS browser and the customer isn’t their focus.
The essence of retailing hasn’t changed.   Give a customer a positive WOW experience and they will reciprocate with their loyalty and cash!  Online retailers have used technology to set new benchmarks in customer experience. Taking what is that essence, putting the customer at the center of their business and making it the best, most seamless buying experience possible.

Nothing new other than the enabling technology.

The right technology solution with training can turn stores into 
productive, profitable WOW experiences.  

This article has been written by:
Ross Stokes, Regional Director, ASEAN-ANZ, ETP Group

 

Ross brings a diverse corporate and personal set of experiences to his role of Regional Director, Asia Pacific, for ETP. His business experience aids in understanding the various challenges retail owners and executives experience while growing their business and successfully supporting their desire to improve retail management processes and systems to achieve optimal profitability.

ETP Group – Getting It Right In Retail

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In 2014, 50,000 retail associates used ETP Retail Software Solutions to serve 180,000,000 consumers, selling USD 15,000,000,000 of merchandise. Over 300 global brands in 20 countries, across 10 time-zones, in 200+ cities, at 25,000+ stores, in 5 languages, run on ETP. More than 500 enterprise software projects were successfully implemented for leading retailers throughout Asia Pacific.

Founded in 1988, ETP Group is a leading retail software solutions company headquartered in Singapore with a presence in 20 countries across Asia Pacific and the Middle East. ETP’s value proposition is its ability to create innovative retail software solutions, to deliver domain expertise through its  best practices knowledge base and expert team of consultants adding up to 1800 man years of retail expertise in various retail verticals: Apparel, Fashion Footwear, Sports Goods, Luggage and Hand Bags, Time Pieces, Luxury Goods, Mobile Phones and Accessories, Electronics and Multimedia Communications, Furniture and Home Furnishings, Jewelry and more.

ETP’s Retail Software Solution – ETP V5 is an enterprise class, scalable and secure platform for large to mid-sized retailers. ETP V5 includes forward looking innovations in omni channel store solutions, marketing campaigns and CRM, supply chain management and warehousing, merchandise planning, assortment planning and OTB with powerful analytics solutions. With a simple and user-friendly interface and a range of mobile, social media and web apps, it is tuned to the new generation of retail employees.

ETP’s 25 years in the retail space has resulted in ETP building a powerful and solid domain expertise, demonstrable through its renowned best practices templates, which are used during the implementation of the ETP V5 solution. Companies looking for advanced technology to improve their business efficiencies and a long term, stable partner find value in ETP.

International Retail Expansion In India

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India dominates the future plans of most CXOs of global enterprises around the world. This is especially due to the new pro-business government inclined to push past facial foreign engagement which was adopted most of the last decade. Serious steps and calibrated operations are put in place to create an internationally savvy, productive ecosystem for major industries like retail, technology, hospitality, manufacturing etc. Most international businesses are planning to accelerate existing operations or enter into fertile ventures in the country. As an emerging market strategy, India accounts for a large chunk of their capital allocation, largely due to the educated, abundant and young work force with proficient skill-sets from manufacturing, engineering to creative arts and life sciences.

“India is blessed with a greater degree of persistence than the average emerging market (EM) when it comes to portfolio inflows. During the market ‘taper tantrums’ last year and in the more recent October correction, India suffered outflows along with other EM equity and debt markets. But recovery in portfolio flows after each disruption has tended to come sooner and more convincingly in India’s case than for other emerging markets.” says Geoff Lewis, Executive Director-Global Market Strategist, JPMorgan AMC in Money Today – December 2014.

Indian Retail Sector is continuing to grow despite irregular global economic trends. A.T. Kearney, a global consultancy firm, has ranked India as the fourth most attractive nation for retail investment among 30 emerging markets. The Business Monitor International India Retail report has estimated that the total retail sales in India will grow from US$ 411 billion in 2011 to US$ 804 billion by 2015. Robust economic growth, high disposable income with the end-consumer and rapid construction of organized retail infrastructure are key factors behind the forecast.

A panel of retailers and market experts will discuss the challenges and growth opportunities for international retail in India at the Retail Congress Asia Pacific 2015. ETP Group is proud to be the  Key Partner  at the Retail Congress Asia Pacific 2015.

Why You Need To Be Pro-Phygital In Retail

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The term ‘Phygital’ is derived from the existing and emerging technology which employs the concept of bridging the gap between the physical and digital world, through convenient and interactive experiences.

In retail, phygital signifies the convergence of the physical and digital marketplace which helps brands and enterprises to engage customers on a broader spectrum and create a retail ecosystem which is truly seamless.

To cite a couple of examples, Tesco’s Homeplus pioneered the virtual supermarket where consumers scan the QR code of the product they’d like and the item is automatically added to an online shopping cart. Post payment through the secured mobile app, shoppers can continue towards home to find a bag of groceries on their doorstep. Brazilian fashion retailer C&A created a store with real-time “likes” counters on its clothes hangers. The like data was taken from C&A’s Facebook page where the clothes were listed for people to interact with, allowing customers at the store to see how many people online think that a particular product was a good buy.

The last couple of years have shown us the phygital marketplace is teeming with opportunities and retailers have just begun to explore and execute the same. In many ways, it is the organic evolution of the omni channel retail space with a multi-dimensional approach to not just increase customer reach and revenue but also create experiences that weave themselves perfectly into the customers’ lives.

Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” Shoppers today have adapted to change and traversed onto the interchangeable, interdependent and integrated multiple channels of retail.

Global leaders in retail will engage and exchange their perspective and ideas on the evolution of phygital retailing at the Retail Congress Asia Pacific 2015. ETP Group is proud to be the Key Partner at the Retail Congress Asia Pacific 2015.