Firstly, wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and a Happy New Year! It is that time of the year again, when after an awesome Turkey dinner, we search for mouth-watering deals and get in lines early to grab a piece of that action. If you know what I am talking about, you are a part of the fading population that is energized for deal-fights on Black Friday. I am not here to prove fading interest on Black Friday is a reality or myth. We all know that sales figures have been disappointing for the last couple of years and shrinking consistently. There were several blogs written putting the blame onto the online retailers, cyber Mondays etc. A good retailer is the one that would prepare to safeguard itself from this shrinking phenomenon. A better retailer would prepare a strategy that goes above and beyond to safeguard stores from any adversities.
Retailers should ask themselves, what we should we do to prepare ourselves when environment variables make promotional fatigue a reality? There are several things that come to mind. A sane thought would suggest minimizing the exposure to this risk. That is- decrease dependency or understand the shift in consumer behavior and shift with it.
No, not doing a promotion when your competitions are doing it is not a solution. As long as the promotion is kicking, cost and upside is sane, it is a good idea to keep pursuing it. But more should be expected out of those promotions, it should not just be a selling/buying frenzy, inventory washout, but some more learning to help understand the shifting consumer behavior. And, the knowledge gained should be utilized to prepare for the change and minimize risk.
Buying and selling behavior has some emotional aspect to it. Promotions are no different, and have already convinced buyers to depart from their daily chores and visit retail outlets. So, we should use that consumer motivation as an opportunity to learn from them. This will not only help in understanding the effect of promotion but also help in identifying brand perception. A good Customer Experience Management plan could easily take a retailer in right direction.
Having following 5 strategies in place will surely help in extracting maximum out of any promotion marketing strategy or normal retail store experience:
QR Code equipped surveys: Regardless of promotions, have stores equipped with QR Code backed surveys and plot them at all possible visible locations to capture as much consumer experience as possible. Any intense buying experience could generate an exceptional lead into customer experience.
Signups for mailing lists for future learning and play: Have every possible opportunity to signup store visitors to mailing list for future deal letters. This will hook your customers for life. Now with QR Code and accompanying smartphones, it has become exceptionally simple to do it. A good mobile capable online widget could provide a connection between these signups and brick-mortar store. Captured emails could then be used for targeted promotions, future survey and learning.
Building a mobile strategy to assist store visitors: Yes, mobile strategy should be taken seriously (if not already in place). Many of the retailers use retail mobile strategy as the only strategy, but if you think deeply about it, it is not the same. A store visitor could use store application for a very different reason than someone scrolling through it at home or office. So, why should you have only one trick pony for all the acts? Retailer should develop mobile strategy especially catered to store experience. Yes, QR Code could come for rescue and build easily playable features passively helping in boosting store sales.
Better connected online and brick-mortar stores: As buyers start stepping in and crunching each other over deals, there is a highly likelihood that items of interest will move off the shelves quickly making people frustrated. It has been one of the primary reasons for violence in thanksgiving promotions. So, it is important for stores to provide a seamless connectivity between brick-mortar stores and online stores. QR Code based landing page could be used to deliver that. Imagine if any product is out of stock and customers are able to order that by scanning the relevant QR Code at the top of the shelf at that very moment. This will convert lots of lost business into new revenue leads.
Better data-play: Yes, it seems to be an important area that almost made it in every discussion around sane business practices. Retailers’ peg boat load of data and that data is nothing but waste if it is not utilized appropriately. Data could easily be the biggest asset any retailer will ever have. Every effort should be made to utilize every gathered insight for business decision-making. Such practice makes it easy for retailer to make smart predictions about promotions and prepare accordingly. On the same note, every effort should be made to capture substantial data points to learn from any promotions to see its impact. Yes, a good CEM program would throw some light for a smarter data play.
A good CEM strategy will go a long way in helping connect the dots for customer behavior, market trends, and brand positioning, financial and operational metrics. So, it is important to embrace a good CEM strategy. Retailers who invest their resources towards executing better customer experience management strategy tend to incline closely with customer improves customer loyalty, builds strong brand and improve bottom-lines.
So, better accessible surveys, online mobile friendly tools, good CEM strategy and better data-play could solve the riddle and help retailer position itself appropriately for the holiday season.
And now, here is something fun to watch:
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