The rise of ecommerce in recent years has challenged brick-and-mortar retailers to ramp up their in-store experience and offer incentives to shoppers that cannot be acquired online. Consumers today seek convenience, choice, and unique products.
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They also understand the trade-offs between online and offline. Cyber shopping offers convenience and flexibility… minus the intimacy of a traditional in-store experience.
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The notion of in-store customer experiences isn’t new, but consumer expectations of these experiences are rapidly evolving. It is no longer enough to greet your customers, offer personalized recommendations, and deliver a seamless checkout process. Today’s customers want more.
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Investing in data technologies and a high-quality customer relationship management and/or point-of-sale system is key to delivering a more personalized shopping experience. With accurate contact information, such as validated email addresses, you stand a better chance of reaching your customers in a timely fashion with news, promotions, and other valuable upsell opportunities.
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Tracking consumers’ purchase history lets you know what they are interested in, and the data collected over time allows for a lasting relationship as well as a more personalized service and shopping experience.
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Collecting data about your customers is great, but how do you determine what data is most valuable and how might you apply it to your business?
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What matters is right data
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The key here is that we don’t need big data – we need real data. Avoid being an “askhole” — in other words, don’t bother your customers with too many irrelevant questions and ensure that there is a purpose behind all the information that is collected. Your data is only as valuable as the actions you take based on the data.
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Ecommerce versus brick-and-mortar is no longer a battle in the retail world. The two are growing at similar rates and it is no longer enough to simply exist and sell via one channel. A hybrid shopping approach, blending in-store purchases with online shopping, however, brings its own wave of challenges.
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Retailers need to look for more innovative approaches to training and staff development to adapt to the evolving retail landscape. To be a salesperson isn’t enough — retail employees are ambassadors of the brand and integral to the human experience.
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Connect emotionally
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To consistently exceed customer expectations, brands must ensure that customer interactions are rooted in empathy, engagement, and emotional intelligence — areas that haven’t been talked about enough.
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Retail employers are waking up to the fact that beautiful stores also need to have switched-on, socially conscious, and empathically driven teams. Happy employees will lead to happy customers.
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To succeed, today’s retailers also need to embrace the challenge of relationships by leveraging technology to establish and maintain an omni-channel that will help connect with their customers effectively and serve their customers more efficiently. The goal is to remove friction from the customer’s purchase and fulfilment experience.
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Technology is great for driving the backend of the business. Up front, it is all about people connecting with other people.
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Today’s retail market is short on “distinct experience”; so, when you create one, you create an instant relationship with your customers.
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– Ishwar Chugani is Managing Director of Giordano Middle East.
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