Here in Australia we are hearing quite a bit about how bricks and mortar retailers are suffering due to many Australians choosing to shop online over visiting the shopping centre. But at the same time, I don’t see much change occurring in some of these retail stores to provide a better customer experience.
It’s not easy to sell a pair of shoes over the Internet when the customer cannot touch, feel or try on their size. Zappos made such a big business out of it, that online giant, Amazon, put a bid in for the company and now owns it. Online retailers have done such an amazing job at merchandising their products online and giving customers so much confidence in purchasing, that customers don’t even need to see the physical product until it arrives on their door step. I have bought about 10 pairs of shoes online and I haven’t had to return one pair and I have never gone to a store first to try them on before I bought online. I was confident with my purchase and I knew I could always return them for free if there was a problem.
So what can a bricks and mortar store learn from an online retailer? Online retailers have done a great job at pulling from traditional merchandising methods and translating them online. Brick retailers should do the same and translate online into their physical stores. How?
Take an example from my experience shopping in a department store today. As I strolled through the aisles, looking for a small blender, I found one that peaked my interest. The outside of the box had a pretty good picture of the product and all the components inside. However, there were so many extra components I was confused about what it actually did or how easy it would be to use. I looked around the other sides of the box and didn’t get much more of a feel of how it worked. It was also on special so I wondered about the quality and reliability of the product. Two thoughts sprung to mind – video and reviews. A video would easily show me how the product worked and possibly how easy it was to operate and clean. Reviews would help me decide on the quality of the product.
Wouldn’t it be great if I could view a video of the product in the store, as well as see any customer reviews from people who previously purchased it and have experience using it? I’ve seen versions of this in the past in store where there is a video screen with speakers and some merchandising surrounding the product on the shelves. But it is rare and usually only a focal point for one product when it needs to be for many. I can already hear the naysayers harping up about the cost of implementing and maintaining such a system across a hundred stores and thousands more SKUs, along with the resources required to support the hardware and software components, and not to mention possible vandalism of the digital video screens used. This is the kind of thinking that is thwarting the progress of retail in this country.
What about utilising a mobile app or QR codes? There are more people in this country with a mobile phone than there are with a home Internet connection. Why not setup QR codes next to products so customers can click and view product videos and reviews straight to their mobile? With a dedicated mobile app, you could also start a relationship with your customers and understand more about them and build loyalty with them. I’m not suggesting anything ground breaking here. Companies like Best Buy in the US, already have a feature in their stores, where customers can use their mobile to click the barcode in store and search for product reviews from the Best Buy website. It’s actually helpful to the customer’s decision making process.
To evolve, I think the questions that retailers should be asking themselves, are ‘how’ and ‘when’, not ‘why’ and ‘what!?’.
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