By Anil Venkat, Mindtree
The retail industry always starts theNew Year off with a lot of momentum, thanks to NRF’s annual BIG Show. This year
is no different, and one of the key themes we are focusing on is how to move
forward where the supply-demand model has flipped.
We used to say that supply meets demand.
But with today’s “phy-gital” shopper — empowered by technology and mixing
online and in-store experiences in whatever way is most convenient or efficient
for them — demand discovers supply.
Retailers that want to win over these customers need to be there at the moment of
discovery, and the insights that we expect to loom large in the next 12 months include:
· Phy-gital shoppers want more information and less friction — if you make their shopping
experience remarkable, they will shop more.
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· When demand discovers supply, it’s the customer experience
that matters — and a solid omnichannel
strategy is crucial.
· Reaching
individual shoppers will be a hot
trend in 2015 — personalized advice, promotions, service and so on.
That last one, personalization, requires
a very important ingredient: Personal information about individual shoppers.
Desire for this information has driven a lot of retailers to social media, from
Facebook to Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and beyond. Unfortunately, social
media has been far from a jackpot for closing sales or getting shoppers to
share their personal information. And with the release of Mindtree’s new global shopper study,
we are starting to understand why.
Shoppers Are Not Interested In Retailers As
E-friends
Last summer, Mindtree embarked on a
large-scale survey
of about 4,000 shoppers in the U.S., UK, Germany and Benelux, focusing on four
distinct market segments: Apparel and footwear, grocery and home supplies, home
and garden, and electronics. One of the most significant findings we came
across, both in terms of percentages and agreement across regions, involves
social media. On a global level, only 5% of shoppers want to interact with
retailers on social media. Meanwhile, 95% of the retailers we reviewed as part
of the survey include social media outreach in their marketing strategy.
So what are retailers to do? Just
abandon Facebook and Twitter? And what for?
Our view is that building presence on
social media sites is still a worthy endeavor. “Likes,” re-tweets,
shares and pins are a new branding currency for retailers that should not be ignored.
But it’s uncool to beg for attention on social media by offering goodies or
promotions in exchange for likes and pins. Shoppers see this as a bribe, but a
bribe is no way to begin a good, lasting relationship.
Social media works best when it happens
organically. People want to “like” things because they truly like
them, not as part of a quid pro quo. For this reason, content marketing holds a
lot of promise when it comes to social media, because content is very shareable.
This is especially true for Millennials, who value word of mouth.
But They’re Willing To Share Personal
Information
If the bad news from our survey is that
only 5% of shoppers want to interact with retailers on social media, the good news
is that 80% say they are willing to share personal information for a better
shopping experience.
Shoppers would be willing to share
demographic data (age, gender, household income, etc.), location data, social
feed data, health data and information about their family makeup — but the
reward for doing so needs to be more than the occasional promo offer
interrupting their social feed. What shoppers want is a better experience
overall, from the time a need arises to the moment when demand discovers supply.
Killer Apps Can Tie It All Together
I think when it comes to getting and
using the personal information of shoppers, the real vehicle worth investing in
is a robust omnichannel loyalty program, powered by the latest technology. And
at the moment, this is the purview of the app. A strong retailer app can
accomplish many of the things that the
shoppers we surveyed say they want:
- Provide detailed product information;
- Help locating products in the store;
- Tell shoppers how crowded a store is;
- Suggest recipes or comparable products;
- Serve as the central hub for loyalty points;
- Offer personalized promotions based on past
purchases and behavior; and - Pre-package orders for in-store pickup.
When all of these things can be
accomplished in one piece of technology, shoppers will hand over personal
information in order to make it work better for them. After retailers have
collected a solid amount of data from individual customers, the right technology
can analyze that data and create “next-best-action” triggers tailored to
individual shoppers. That’s when stores will truly begin to succeed in helping
their customers live richer yet simpler and provide them with enhanced shopping
experiences on a regular basis.
Anil Venkat is the Global Marketing Head & Director
at Mindtree. For the past 10 years,
Anil’s strategic thinking and executive management skills have driven campaigns
for companies like Infosys and Satyam Computer Services. His marketing
expertise focuses on CPG, retail and logistics.
