Getting into the minds—and wallets—of distracted, disinterested consumers is harder than ever. While the old way of doing things can still work, don’t overlook the possibility that there is a newer—and maybe better way—of doing things.
New technologies and cross-channel strategies have produced innovative ways to connect with customers, ensuring your messaging is targeted and consistent across all channels. You now have a number of creative channels available to interact with customers who themselves are embracing new innovations and who in turn expect retailers to create compelling, efficient and personalised shopping experiences. Online is such a channel.
Just because online retail is nothing new, doesn’t mean that it’s not constantly evolving to meet the enhanced demands of customers.
There’s evidence that successful retailers are doing this, and online consumer satisfaction with retail sites has reached an all time high according to the latest eRetail Benchmark study.
Yes, flashy websites sound fine in principle, but in practice you need to excite customers without confusing them and complicating the sales transaction.
Successfully combining new marketing tools—including social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter—with enhanced loyalty programs and an improved shopping experience can let you breakthrough the competitive clutter.
Yet as you embrace these new channels, you must ensure robust search, slick ease of use and reliable order processing and fulfillment, as well consistency across products, service and messaging. You also need to effectively and securely manage your customer data and intellectual property, then analyse this business information to discern what your customers actually want.
Experimentation leads to innovation, and innovation in channels can help to surpass both your customers’ needs and that of your own business. That is to say – the click of the mouse leads to the ringing of the cash register.
