Retail Store of Tomorrow . . . Today! | Networlding.
I reviewed a blog post today from Melissa Giovagnoli, the Founder & President of Networlding. I think she has really hit on something with her concept of a Networlding Genius Bar. With social media becoming much more pervasive and widely used around the globe, it is certainly a concept that is coming of age.
We have seen an explosion of User Generated Content, on-site product reviews and online survey tools over the past few years. The world is evolving to a new level of two way communication. It is no longer just about push and/or pull marketing, but a real and deeper relationship with your customers. In order to have that relationship, you must invite them to the conversation and allow them to say what they want, when they want, where they want. You cannot filter out the good from the bad, nor can you simply ignore the bad. Many consumers look for reviews on products, services and companies today before making their purchasing decision. Their decisions are rarely based on price alone anymore. It is more about the customer experience as they are seeking the whole package, including companies that understand them, treat them well, and obviously have what they are looking for. Please take note of the fact that I said customers above. There are many buyers who still purchase on price along, but they are mostly bottom feeders who you will not have a long term and profitable relationship with. The key is to get it right with the 20 percent of the customers who make up 80 percent of your revenue. If you get it right with them, through the use of word of mouth, they will invite others to the dance.
Now that you have read my pre-able, and hopefully read Melissa’s post from the attached link above, I am going to take a slightly different spin and focus on what senior retail executives should be locking themselves up in a conference room to begin white boarding to develop strategies for including social commerce and a 360 connected engagement with their customers into their marketing and brand strategies beginning immediately. It time more retailers of all sizes, shapes and types begin to not only embrace it, but use social media and commerce as a competitive advantage. We have never had access to so many robust tools that enable us to have a two way dialogue with our customers that can foster truly deep and meaningful relationships.
Apple has done a brilliant job engaging with their customers in a friendly and informative way through their overall retail experience and in particular the Genius Bar. They have created a cult following. The Apple store experience is superb and something others should take notice off. They continue to innovate from a product, store experience and distribution perspective. They have really mastered the art of bringing the brand alive in everything they do, through a consistent and high touch customer experience. Whether you are a buyer of an iPod, a MacBook Pro or an iPhone, you get a high touch experience within the Apple store and if you need help, the Genius Bar is on site to address most of your issues.
I submit to you, the new retail imperative is the need to introduce social networking and commerce into the shopping experience across all channels. You need to bring some of the new online social networking and engagement models into the store experience. This can pay dividends in that it deepens the relationship and engagement with customers, while also creating a community which enables the community members to connect with one another and generate their own content. This would be analogous to the developer communities that are so busy building app’s for the iPhone and other companies/devices. Connecting with your customers 24/7 in a 360 degree fashion will make you more relevant with your customers, by being there when they want you in a seamless and channel agnostic manner. This will lead to and re-enforce the deeply connected relationship you want with your customers.
Additionally, stores should leverage the data they have on their customers to help aid in the browsing and shopping experience even more. They can use predictive modeling to assist in suggestive selling based on profile data, purchase history and store visits. Shoppers should be able to use a devise, such as an iPhone, to log into their profile while in a store to “like’ items, as well as tracking items for future sale events, etc. This would give the retailer a better glimpse of the customers intent to buy. This data can then be used by the retailer to generate one-to-one communications and promotions for customers.
With GPS tracking being so pervasive today, why not use it to your advantage, as a retailer, to monitor shoppers and their browsing habits. Here is a wild idea, that I think could be a real differentiator:
As part of a loyalty program, create a community that allows customers to connect to one another, as well as to the retailer. Let them all have a conversation where they can ask each other for input on questions they have pertaining to a future purchase decision. They can get some of this today through online product reviews. Take it a step further and let them access this from within the store. Take that a step further and allow customers to be tracked when in your retail store with a home grown or licensed app like Loopt or Brightkite. You can have someone in command central within your store that is monitoring customers who are in the store and also tracking associates to see if they are helping the customers, because they will be tracked also. Each co-worker can have a handheld devise that enables them to see when customers from their loyalty program are in the store, click on their profile and review product recommendations within the section of the store they are shopping, based on category modeling that has already been done in the background and just waiting to be used when the customer enters the store. Just think how much brighter your sales associates would seem. You can also improve your modeling down the line by comparing the recommendations made to what the customer actually purchased.
Additionally, you can allow the customers to create something similar to a wedding register in which they can click on an item bar code to put it in their wish list for future purchases or to share with others as potential gift items. Associates would be able to see this the next time the customer comes to the store and do suggestive selling against it. You could ping customers with special one-to-one offers when they are near your store, or in your store, based on what they have “liked” or purchases in the past. Make it real, make it relevant and make it right now, with a strong call to action and limited time offer just for you! Use your customer data and your technology to create a one-to-one conversation that is highly relevant, rather than just being a recipient of a one-to-many saturation mailing to drive store traffic. The more you can make it about me, the more likely I am to feel connected.
GPS tracking within the store would also allow the store to see how much time customers spend in the store, where they go in the store, if and what they buy. This is essentially a brick and mortar retail version of Tea Leaf.
Lastly, with Facebook now having in excess of 200 million users, why not have your own Facebook page to create the community experience. Have a similar section on your website. Have store associates ask customers if they would like to friend your brand. Additionally, get them engaged with Twitter and have a team within your organization manage an effective and meaningful communications strategy across these and other social platforms. It is not just about being there, it is about being relevant, always on and engaging in the right way, based on the spirit and meaning of your brand.
Give this some thought and have some fun with it. I guarantee you that you will have to be here eventually. The social conversation is not a passing fad, it is a new way of being. Therefore, be bold, be early and be relevant.
Thanks for the reference to my blog post Fred. Your ideas are great and I know we will see retail stores start to incorporate soon a connection to online communities and social networking.
In the meantime the key component I see missing is the facilitator, aka store employee, who can be the key to changing the face of retail. This employee (notice I did not call this person a “clerk”) would actually be more like a customer service expert who would be able to educate customers to a more holistic set of offerings from the store.
In my innovation center I call these people “concierge” as they carry a depth and breadth of knowledge and resources. As we all know it is much more cost effective to grow and existing customer relationship than it is to acquire a new one so the concierge in my store becomes essential to the success of the store.
In my store I would be looking for people, for example, who had masters in library science. Why? Because they could provide information, knowledge and wisdom around the services and products people would want to find to grow their businesses or careers. By elevating that first potential customer connection to someone who is highly skilled in online search wouldn’t the store yield a much better, loyal customer? Take Stapes, for example, 30% or so of their customers yield 70% of their business.
When will companies really get that opportunity lies at their door step wrapped in a paradox that says things like, “Slow down to speed up.” In the case of the future of retail it is understanding that the new sales clerk must be someone who can not only sell the product that exists in the store, but even more importantly, the product that doesn’t exist yet . . . but will based upon the customer’s wants and needs now and in the future.
After all, this is the information age!
Comment by networlding — April 6, 2009 @ 7:10 am