In today’s retail landscape, everything is becoming more personalised and the way we shop is no exception. The proof of concept for personalisation has already been created in online stores. Big players such as Amazon are leading the way with personalised product recommendations and targeted ads to create a truly unique shopping experience.
Customer analytics sit at the heart of this and online space continues to transform the customer experience. By using analytics, retailers are able to make data-driven decisions to adapt for best in-store sales performance and increase customer loyalty. A key part of this is online conversion, looking at how much these targeted and personalised services create sales. In the last decade, we have seen the birth of many different solutions to understand the value of each marketing technique, including email, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and digital marketing, and the resulting sales leads. But what does this mean for the physical bricks-and-mortar store?
Traditionally the high-street has lagged behind online services when it comes to personalisation and targeted advertising. Retailers have been using technologies like door counters, Electronic Point of Sale data (EPOS) or cameras to gauge a little understanding of the relationship between advertising and the store. But these technologies have tended to be expensive and inaccurate and have left the physical stores blindfolded when trying to understand what actually happens during a customer’s visit. However, the high-street “dinosaur” is now biting back, through the use of the smartphone and in-store analytics.
Through the anonymous tracking of Wi-Fi signals emitted from smartphones, retailers have the ability to understand what happens to their customers in-store – where they go, what they look at, how long they engage with a product and if it ultimately results in a sale. All of this data is far more valuable than simply knowing how many people enter a store.
While some may argue that driving footfall to an outlet through advertising is clear evidence of success, this is very old school thinking. Technology now allows retailers to understand which brands are advertising online, what this means for the footfall to certain products in-store, the online journey – what customers did before and after they looked at particular products, the percentage of people who looked at a product and then bought it, and what other factors drove traffic in-store. And gain a more detailed and accurate picture of the landscape.
By looking at both online and offline media, retailers will be able to:
1. Improve the shopping experience – enabling retailers to rapidly learn from their actions and to perfect their store layouts and displays to achieve an optimal customer experience.
2. Understand how the in-store experience impacts conversion – retailers will gain deeper insight into customer behaviour within the store. The tracking of shopping patterns and dwell times opens up countless possibilities for both shopping malls as well as individual stores for optimising in-store operations, such as store locations and store layout.
3. Tailor in-store advertising – data analytics allow retailers to understand customers’ habits and behaviour in-store, helping businesses tailor in-store advertising to individuals and focus on the best opportunities that bring in the highest return on investment.
As the use of both online and offline media continues to grow, retailers need to embrace the offline data benefits and be smart about how they use in-store advertising to accurately deliver conversions at the till, creating a truly personalised customer experience. This will only become more important as retailers continue to adapt their customer-facing operations. As high street stores face an increasingly challenging environment, it is vital that they fight back now and merge online and offline data to create new monetisation opportunities, as well as an enhanced in-store experience for all.
By Adrian James, UK Managing Director at Walkbase.
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