Integrated Multi Channel Retail Enhance the consumer mindshare
Consumers today have changed the way they interact with businesses. Prime among them is the means by which they purchase products, services or offerings. The consumer has adapted to multiple channels and moves easily across channels to search for products, decide on the best product through discussions with peers, search for the best prices and promotions, finalize a store/web-store and finally make a purchase. Retailers need to understand this need to service the customers through various channels, while presenting an integrated view of the business.
In the world of retail where product differentiation is minimal and consumers tend to be price sensitive, there is a need to provide differentiation by creating a consistent experience when consumers move across channels and create incremental mind share through personalized experience. This consumer experience is not created by just deploying channels, since these often tend to function in silos without complementing and in a worst case cannibalizing each other. The failure to synchronize the channels may lead to loss of sales and customer loyalty. The retailer has to strategize on how to capitalize the various channels to increase market share while retaining the existing customers. A proper framework is needed to understand all the facets of operations and technology which need to be deployed to deliver on the expectations.
Introduction
The retail industry has evolved through multiple stages where it was initialized by a primitive barter system to commerce with monetary transactions to street vendors and your friendly neighborhood mom-and-pop stores. With the advent of organized retail, the business felt the need to reach out to a wider spectrum of consumers to increase their market share. This brought in the various marketing channels and mediums through which the retailers communicated with the consumer (for example, catalogue promotions, teleshopping and mailers). While the business has evolved so has the consumer. The retention span of the consumer for a brand recall has reduced, which calls for retailers to increase the consumer mindshare by providing exemplary customer service through multiple touch points and becoming the preferred brand for any need that may arise in a consumer’s mind.
Retailers today deploy multiple channels to reach out and engage the consumer through the complete life cycle from an enquiry to after sales. When used effectively and optimally without overdoing it, these channels can be a favorable way for retailers to promote their products and services.
Consumers use multiple channels such as stores, web, calls, and wireless devices (mobiles and so on) to perform multiple tasks. The retailer has to take an initiative to reach out to these consumer segments and leverage this presence. Satisfying the consumers’ needs when it arises and creating a mental from a consumer are the two important factors to expand market share.
To understand how the multiple channels act cohesively and provide a rich environment of consumer interaction and consumer behavior let us take a scenario where the consumer goes through a sales cycle using multiple channels.
The consumer is first engaged through a series of promotions and campaigns using channels like the web, kiosks, phone and so on. The consumer then transacts with the retailer through a brick and mortar store front where an intelligent sales staff greets him using new technologies and provides a great shopping experience. The retailer delivers the promised goods by leveraging a strong supply chain and delivery mechanism which keeps the consumer informed about the status of his order and makes him feel cared for. Finally the sales cycle is not complete if it does not have an efficient after sales service as well. This is again accomplished through the effective use of the emails, Short Message Services (SMS), phones and online communications.
It is imperative to note that during all these interactions while the consumer may swiftly move across channels, the retailer has to provide a seamless unified and personalized experience to the consumer to differentiate from the crowd. When a consumer is recognized and provided personalized promotions, there is a brand recall that is instantly attached to the retailer.
To maintain a unified view of the business across all these channels it is important for the retailer that the channels complement each other and increase sales overall. While the above sounds like an ideal retail scenario which may be easy to deploy, it has its fair share of challenges around technology and business processes which needs to be addressed. We try to demystify these challenges and look at ways that the retailer can deploy multiple channels to enhance the business.
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