Here’s All You Need To Know About It
True personalization can boost sales and enhance customer relationships. The consumer of today is hooked on the personalization factor, and many online shoppers want that multichannel merchants should be aware of their offline purchases. For brands looking to flourish in today’s digital age, understanding the relationship between offline and online market is crucial to their success. With a majority of offline non-grocery sales influencing the internet, it is now more important for brands to create a seamless experience at every stage for the consumer, from store to web.
Many retailers feel that personalization is nothing but customization. The process works by asking consumers what they want and suggesting products that match their demands or offer a menu of options to pick from. The meaning of personalization is shifting from recommendation towards individualization. Online personalization is providing the customers with high-quality content, while in-store personalization is about customer experience. It is not about product recommendation but creating a personalized experience that is relevant to the consumer either offline or online.
Retailers strive to connect with their consumer purchase data, email data, and profile data to bridge the gap between offline and online market.
Here are some ways to bridge the online-offline personalization gap.
Use Data to Personalize the Experience
While developing an online store-to-web strategy, brands can use a number of key factors to link the offline to online market to enrich the customer experience and increase sales. Contextualized and personalized digital adverts can provide terrific consumer engagement early on in their purchase journey. A number of brands are vying for consumers’ attention, and delivering high-quality content which stands out from the crowd will define the success of advertising campaigns. By using geographical, behavioral, social, and demographic data to showcase personalized content to a consumer, multichannel companies can increase the chances of engaging with users and catch their interest.
For example, an apparel selling company which is suited to physical interaction with its consumers will face a significant challenge on the e-commerce platform. This is nothing compared to trying on clothes in-store, but to end this problem, you can determine the consumer’s personal interests before they even walk into the showroom. The company’s marketing team can use social data to track Instagram or Pinterest and identify which of their products are trending. With the help of this information, they can display the items in their warehouses as well as their websites which encourages shoppers to purchase the products.
Seamlessly Connect Online And Offline
The evolution of digital platforms have created a pathway for online stores to be an integral part of a customer’s journey, and it also has the potential to impact the offline sales. Store-to-web strategies seamlessly bridge the offline and online worlds and create huge benefits for retailers, while also personalizing the customer experience. Thus, it is imperative that brands understand the offline and online retail market and how they can supplement each other to maximize the outcome for both channels.
A smart POS (point of sale) such as VendHQ can help you bridge the store-to-web gap in customization by tracking consumers and maintaining a record of their touchpoints and history in a centrally managed database. With the help of this information, you can show people the previously viewed products on your site or give app perks like store credit, personalized gift cards, or coupons when they shop in a store.
Offer Incentives
To help increase online sales, click and collect option can be integrated seamlessly into online apps. This incentive not only benefits the customer but enables retailers to optimize their online experience and expand the offline-online conversion rate. For maximizing the success of store-to-web procedures, users should be offered further incentives in the form of coupons or discount to keep them engaged. These can be downloaded from the application and redeemed immediately or kept for later. Personalized incentives increase order value and improve customer retention and loyalty.
Create the In-Store Environment for the Online Visitor
E-commerce helps to eliminate the need for the shopper to leave the comfort of their house to shop. Now, the merchant can combine the physical and online worlds to optimize the shopping and purchasing experience. Companies like IKEA are working hard to create an in-store experience directly to the consumers with virtual reality (VR). IKEA’s virtual showroom lets consumer use their mobile devices to display products as they would like it in their homes. This way, a consumer gets to see a hyper-personalized shopping experience without going out of the house.
Virtual reality and augmented reality also come handy when a consumer wants to buys accessories such as earrings and watches. With the help of AR, a company can seamlessly combine real world and digital world to provide content on a personalized level to the consumer so that they can make an informed decision about what they need and want.
Utilize the Internet of Things (IoT)
IoT creates many opportunities for brands to help monitor consumer behavior and spot trends and modification in their online shopping habits. IoT collects information connected to the networks to communicate with devices. A brick and mortar store can also use IoT to provide personalized, valuable content to the consumer.
For instance, a consumer owns a smart refrigerator which can pick up information on consumption habits as well as grocery items. With the help of this data, a local supermarket can create adverts and discounts for specific food interest of that consumer. Several fashion brands use this technology to build the customer relationship. With the help of IoT, a brand can connect customers’ wish list and shopping carts with an in-store mobile application, and provide rewards to members. With smart communication devices such as smartphones, and wearables, the entire consumer experience becomes quick. The idea of IoT may sound absurd and raise privacy concerns, but this technology can do wonders for e-commerce and marketing to make the in-store experience personalized for the consumer.
Brands that fail to transform digitally may fall behind the next wave of technological innovation. Whether the business is offline or online, it is crucial to creating an unforgettable customer experience while also integrating a seamless POS. A company can creatively use technology to personalize the shopping experience. As the demand for new and innovative purchasing options continue, it is best to develop marketing strategies and be more relevant to the consumers.
