Bringing the sale of their products online made retailers more aware: they could finally reach a huge audience that they would never have involved with a physical store alone. At the same time they provided the opportunity for existing customers to purchase products comfortably from home. In Italy, despite the growth of e-commerce during the pandemic, purchases in physical stores maintain a crucial role in the retail landscape. The key to success lies in offering an integrated shopping experience that combines the best of both worlds. The drive to store, or the ability to transform online interest into physical purchases or vice versa, thus becomes a strategic pillar for retailers.
The drive to store is a strategy aimed at bringing customers to physical stores or online stores, to develop an omnichannel approach and guarantee:
- Maximizing Opportunities: Drive to store leverages the potential of both the online and offline worlds, offering businesses the opportunity to maximize visibility and convert customers into purchases.
- Improved Customer Experience: By connecting channels, companies can offer a seamless and personalized experience, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Increase Sales: Offering more purchasing options increases sales opportunities, allowing companies to capitalize on both channels and improve overall performance.
The drive to store strategy based on omnichannel and personalization
The integration between online and offline channels should be seamless. Offering a personalized experience based on customer preferences and purchasing behavior is a winning strategy. Using metrics and insights to personalize offers and communications can significantly increase the likelihood of converting online interest into in-store visits and vice versa. The goal is to increase traffic in stores through a personalized omnichannel strategy, while improving the online and offline shopping experience.
- Phase 1 - Data collection and audience segmentation
It therefore becomes essential to use the data collected from the website, from smartphones and in physical stores to create audience segments based on style preferences, purchase history and browsing behavior. Or again, identify the most loyal customers and those who have shown interest in specific product categories but have not completed the purchase.
- Phase 2 - Personalization of the purchasing experience
We know it well by now: the customer wants to feel at the center of attention, pampered and understood. Engaging existing and potential customers based on personalized audience segments, with exclusive invitations to in-store events, can bring the user to a new level of perception of their exclusivity. As well as booking a product or a view online and then providing a complete dedicated and exclusive service in the physical store.
- Phase 3 - Mobile Integration
Mobile integration with the tool in everyone's pocket is crucial for a brand that has achieved a certain level of notoriety and traffic. Developing features on smartphones that allow customers to feel closer to the brand and encouraged to visit the physical store is essential. For example: receive notifications when a product is available in the nearest store or when it is available in the online store. Implement geolocalized push notifications to inform customers about exclusive offers or in-store events as soon as they are near a store or book a dedicated in-store visit.
- Phase 4 - Personalized in-store experience
Personalized in-store experiences can make a real difference. An example is the installation of interactive totems - better known as digital signage - in stores that allow customers to browse the entire online catalogue, check the availability of products in store and request assistance to try them.
- Phase 5: Feedback and continuous improvement
After the store visit, sending a satisfaction survey on smartphone, encouraging feedback with discounts on future online or in-store purchases, can be an excellent way to conclude the customer's purchasing flow.
Conclusions
All these strategies aim to create a stronger bond between the customer and the brand, offering a shopping experience that seamlessly integrates online and offline environments. In fact, the objective should be precisely this: to make online and offline coexist with coherence and linearity.
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