From mobile phones to e-commerce sites and even interactive streaming advertisements, so much of the retail landscape has shifted to the digital world. Now, connections with consumers can happen at any time and any location.
This new realm of opportunity has allowed retailers to target audiences and engage with customers in innovative ways. But as the retail industry races to implement the latest digital engagement tools, it's easy to lose sight of the entire customer experience. While shoppers enjoy impactful savings, not every customer wants to be hounded by push notifications or emails, for example.
The trick to connecting with today's digital shopper is to provide them with personalized and seamless experiences that enrich their shopping journeys, whether that's online, in-store or most commonly, a mix of both. So much attention has been shifted to e-commerce and digital engagement that the traditional in-store experience can sometimes get left behind. However, it is still just as important for retailers to get right.
Digital and in-store touch points don't exist in silos, either. The retailers that blend the two experiences most effectively are set to establish genuine, long-term loyalty with today's shoppers. As the retail industry adapts to various digital engagement strategies, retailers must realize that what they communicate to shoppers through digital channels can also directly translate to and enhance the in-store experience.
On one hand, incorporating too many digital experiences at once can intimidate traditional retailers. A rushed approach with poor implementation is how brands end up with siloed digital and in-store experiences. Trying to blend the two afterward only compounds into a disjointed and clunky experience. To set a good foundation, retailers can utilize the latest engagement tools to reinvent their customer communications.
1. Enhance customer communications
The way that retailers communicate with shoppers sets the foundation for the entire relationship with a given customer. To effectively communicate with customers, retailers must understand each shopper on an individual level, allowing them to identify their personal preferences. Promotional emails, text messages and push notifications are often the starting point of a shopping trip, but these techniques are only effective engagement tools if they are tailored and personalized.
In the previous example of a shopper who prefers not to receive excessive push notifications and emails, retailers need to realize that a static approach is not going to get that shopper into the store. They're more likely to unsubscribe from alerts and emails, leaving the retailer back at square one.
With the right data-driven approach to personalization, a retailer can learn how often a shopper wishes to be communicated with and, more importantly, what specifically will get them to engage with the message. A retailer can also learn a shopper's preferred channel, providing communications that are unique to an omnichannel approach.
Targeted communications with promotions and offers on items that an individual customer is most likely to buy have been shown to increase customer engagement, frequency of visits and overall spending. Personalized customer communication doesn't just provide benefits to a retailer's bottom line, however. It also makes the customer feel like the store is fine-tuned to their individual needs, tastes and preferences.
Building unique customer profiles that track individual preferences allows retailers to build genuine relationships with shoppers, setting a firm foundation for the overall relationship. This level of personalized engagement inspires loyalty and brand awareness that keeps shoppers invested in a particular brand. From there, retailers can make use of more advanced digital engagement tools to really enhance the shopping experience.
2. Infuse digital experiences with in-store browsing
Unsurprisingly in today's digital age, nearly half of in-store shoppers used a smartphone to enhance their most recent shopping trip. Once retailers have engaged with a shopper via personalized outreach, they can provide more advanced tools like seamless curbside pickup, in-store mapping and even location-based promotional offers to foster efficient shopping trips.
The data that retailers gather from their personalization efforts can be used to enhance the in-store experiences that many shoppers still prefer. Many retailers do this through a branded app, designed to blend the digital realm with a streamlined in-store experience. Using a device's location or store location data gathered in a shopper's profile, the app can provide an interactive store map that directs shoppers to the aisles and areas of the store where they need to go.
Additionally, retailers can communicate with shoppers directly while they shop in the store to further enhance their trips. Personalized coupons can be sent via an app or text message while a customer shops, reminding them to utilize their unique savings. Even better, retailers can automatically apply these discounts at the checkout to ensure that customers always benefit from their savings.
3. Create next generation loyalty programs
The combination of enhanced customer communications and seamless digital experiences allows for the creation of next-level loyalty programs. Ultimately, customers will be loyal to the retailers that offer them the most impactful savings and the most efficient shopping experiences.
Since nearly every retailer has a loyalty program today, this battleground is ripe for innovation. For a retailer looking to begin their loyalty journey or enhance an existing rewards program, blending personalized customer engagement with the latest in-store digital tools in one place is the key to crafting a program that truly stands out.
The best loyalty programs that engage with customers in unique and tailored ways save a customer's time and money without inconveniencing them. This in turn reinforces a brand's commitment to the customer's individual needs and inspires true lifetime loyalty.
Building the right digital foundation
Just because retailers can engage with today's digital shoppers at any time of day doesn't mean they should.
Retailers need to provide unified and seamless experiences that keep the individual customer at the heart of the approach. Starting with a solid, personalized foundation allows retailers to add digital layers that enhance the overall experience and create true customer engagement that lasts.