Future of Offline Retail
Being everywhere is a dream come true for every marketer or retailer. A marketer representing a brand wants to meet his target customers wherever they are, at whatever point in time. But customers are highly mobile and their moments of truth vary across touch points like inside a physical store, on the web, a mobile screen, TV and other displays along with print catalogues etc. So, brands and marketers have a pressing need to offer a unified experience across all these media to the customer.
COMMUNICATIONS ON THE FLY
Before market share, comes mind share. Irrespective of whether the conversion happens online or offline, the offline offers a huge opportunity for marketers to influence buying decisions. In this direction, there have been giant strides powered by continuous technological revolutions. One specific area of interest is the digital out of home (DOOH). When we combine the power and flexibility of digital with the conventional OOH, we are able to run real-time video analytics to obtain insights and calibrate in-store campaigns on the fly in order to drive better performance.
“CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE” IS THE KING
To capture mindshare, one also need to be alert and attentive to the voice the mind speaks. Today’s technology offers us innovative means to listen to the voice of the customer (VOC). Easily approachable and navigable personal screens offer customers an opportunity to interact with brands which enable intelligent brands to run background analytics to derive vital insights. With an orientation to understand more of the consumers’ mind, marketers can revolutionize simple in-store price checkers into smart, interactive price kiosks capturing product feedback or the point of sales (POS) experience of the in-store customer. In the same way, shelf displays can run advertisements and can transform themselves from passive displays to live sales generators. Similarly LED displays around windows, columns and media facades can positively contribute to the brand quotient enhancing the brand’s pull, improving the brand’s stickiness and retention and encouraging more footfalls into the store by offering a more joyful and inviting experience.
LOYALTY PAYS
We originally set out with the premise of being everywhere. This has a time and place dimension to it. It also has a gratification perspective. Gratification is getting the product that the customer is looking for but goes beyond. The beyond factor is something that the customer is not expecting at all. So, a brand needs to have the capability to identify prospective members of the TG (target group) or its loyal base who are checking in (through Google Places or Facebook Check-in) to nearby places and push invites. The brand can also offer an absolutely personalized and delightful experience to these invited set of customers. This may mean – pulling an out of stock item from a nearby store; match the customer’s prior purchases from the CRM database and suggest leveraging the AI (artificial intelligence) capability; allow the customer to pull points from his wife’s loyalty account with the brand; or tap his prime membership with an online retailer for trouble-free EMI or seamless delivery to his pre-recorded favorite address. Then we have to go beyond in gratification, remember? Depending on the profile of the customer we may offer a final thank you appreciation to the customer – something he is not expecting at all. This is for the brand to leave a lasting experience and ensuring long term loyalty with the customer.
About Satin Neo Dimensions
Satin Neo Dimensions (SND) is a leading design & innovation-driven firm in the retail space. It has been a frontrunner in adopting technology since they ventured into the retail fit-outs space in 2010-11. SND is at the threshold of ushering brands into the future of retail fit-outs by bringing pathbreaking instore technologies. SND is also a pioneer and partner of choice for civic bodies and transport authorities in the space of Way Finding solutions for public areas. To know more write to us at – contact@satinneodimensions.com