Many small and medium sized UK retailers are searching for the right ideas and business models to compete against the online giants and a market saturated with an unhealthy amount of discounting.
While it is easy to imagine why retailers think they need to compete on traditional dimensions such as price, assortment, transactional ease and logistics, that is not what always differentiates Amazon, ASOS and other big players from the competitive retail market landscape.
Standing out from the crowd and winning the hearts, minds and pennies of today’s savvy shoppers is all about the unique experiences your customers receive and the ability of you the retailer to anticipate true needs, inspire new ideas and think innovatively to create new and engaging ways to serve customers to meet their constantly changing demands and shopping habits.
Smart independent retailers are already fully aware that getting hung up on price matching and discounting will ultimately destroy them. They know their strength is the personal service that only an instore, local experience and expertise can bring.
Now is the time to focus on the total experience you deliver to your customers and the unique values you can embrace through thinking differently and harnessing new and simpler ways of operating and selling.
From ways to extend product offering, delivery choices, diversification and expansion into new lower cost and complimentary sales channels without the perceived financial and operational risks.
Based on some of our recent work helping retailers address these issues, below are five key ideas and approaches to think about to compete with the online giants and crazy world of retail discounting.
1. Know What Customers Really Want
Gaining insight into the experiences your customers are charmed to is central to creating and adapting your all round services and engagement approaches.
Standing back and looking at overall shopping and consumer trends within the wider retail and larger retailers than yourself, can give you a good vision of what you need to be considering in terms of giving your customers the values they are magnetized by to help expand and protect your business in the long and short term.
For example, service as a convenience is high on the agenda and being driven by the consumer whose expectations have been excelled to new heights as a result of Amazon’s disruptive retail model and slick distribution operation.
It’s now what customers want and what we in the retail market need to reflect into our values and offerings and look towards applying similar processes through IT system integration.
2. Click and Collect and Reserve
Like it or not, Click and Collect and Reserve are now increasingly standard customer expectations for many purchases – and a key influencer on which vendor to buy from. For retailers with an ecommerce website and stores, being able to offer Click and Collect/Reserve does not have be as complicated or draining on administration as many fear or experience.
As we move forward into the multi-channel retail world and the need for a high level of system integration across all customer touch points and back office, new all-in-one Cloud EPoS and retail management systems are paving the way forward to enable retailers of all sizes to adapt easily and efficiently to these changing times and shopping for convenience.
Once this is in place convenient services such as Click and Collect and Reserve become easy and cost efficient. F Hinds, a family run jewellers with 116 stores and an ecommerce website serving in the main Generation X, is well underway in introducing modern shopping expectation services including faster Click and Reserve services in just this way.
And they are not the only independent retailers to understand how important it is right now to rethink and invest in a new IT infrastructure to profitably and operationally meet the big changes happing in the values and services customers are demanding.
We’re seeing a whole host of retailers from one store up to 100 stores, branch out into new online channels and temporary outlets, change and adapt what they are doing in order to meet these new demanding expectations and shopping by convenience.
What they did, how they operated before and their legacy IT architecture are no longer always fit for purpose and new services such as Click and Collect and Reserve have been instrumental to them in retaining their market share and surviving the turbulent times of substantial consumer behaviour shifts.
3. Cross-Channel Promotion and Loyalty
As our customers distinguish less and less between which shopping channel they use, be it online, instore, mobile or pop-up, our Brand and how we unify every aspect of the customer experience becomes essential.
With big online giants beating hard on the door with price and incredibly rapid delivery, how we keep our customers loving us and sticky to our brand, what we represent and the unique values and experiences we wrap around our goods, becomes the oxygen of our success.
Seamlessly being able to deliver this across every channel we sell through and at every point we touch our customers is no longer an aspiration but a necessity in the battle for loyalty, trust, engagement – and survival.
The beauty of cross-channel promotional and loyalty programs is that you can communicate and personalize the promotional experience to your individual customers in a way they choose to shop and engage with you.
Not only that, but things like VIP clubs, multiple-reward promotions, online to instore events and much more, give you the keys to go the extra mile to encourage convenient online, impulsive spend, whilst bringing physical experiences to the online customer.
Importantly, you will also be giving your customers the convenience they crave by enabling them to use their promotions and loyalty cards online or offline … all part of their experience with your Brand regardless of the online and physical channels they choose at a given time to engage with you.
4. Maximising the Instore Experience
One thing the big boy online giants are still not equipped to do (well not yet!) is delivering the social and pleasurable aspect physical shopping will always play host to.
Enter the exclusive world of instore experiences, expertise and personal-assisted selling.
Something really powerful can happen when retailers can integrate their product expertise into every aspect of the customer experience. Take for example Mamas & Papas, a baby and toddler retailer and manufacturer.
Mamas & Papas understands that car seats and strollers are a highly involved purchase for expectant parents. Therefore, it focuses on supporting sales by dedicating space within the store for seat and stroller displays, providing employee education (including certified car seat installers), and having a blog specific for parents to be loaded with relevant and interesting advice, ideas and expertise.
Not only that but Mamas & Papas has its experience journey all mapped out which every point you touch them online or offline. With “Parents To Be” events promoted on the website and promotions to draw would be buyers instore with exclusive “advice, treats and discounts” the well know Brand and manufacturer is fighting the online discounting market with personal experiences at this life changing time for parents to be.
While parents to be will browse and research online, there is still a need for people to be able to talk to someone when they need help or have a special request.
These are the types of moments when a retail store can really shine and create a brand full of attraction and identification. Sometimes it is just that shoppers need confidence that they have found the right store. In those moments, it really helps to speak to a kind, live person who knows their merchandise.
5. Think beyond the transaction
Retailers need to think about opportunities to create value across all phases of the customer experience. They can use product education or events as a way to create traffic. Many independent bookstores have been able to stay relevant through author events and signings, as well as hand-selecting books based on what they know their customers might like.
The good news is there are many touch points to reach customers today. The key to choosing the effective ones: know your customers, and adapt as they or the business environment changes.
Why not download our helpful, short guide “Multi-channel Efficiency? What are you doing? Your guide to the right solution”
Multi-channel retailing, what are doing with EPoS and retail software to increase efficiency and profitability?
Rachel is passionate about retail and the ever-changing retail technology environment, with a keen eye for upcoming retail trends that are set to shake up the sector.
