Retailers across sizes and categories are coveting the elusive omnichannel consumer.
They want to understand the wants, needs, preferences and innate desires of these savvy shoppers because if they do, they can create more relevant and compelling experiences that will drive bottom-line results.
On the heels of Fashion Digital New York, one of the must-attend events for digital marketing professionals and fashion executives, David Caples, Director of Channel WW at PEER 1 Hosting, shares key takeaways from his workshop at the show.
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Retail TouchPoints (RTP): As more consumers shop online, what key challenges are retailers facing to stand out in terms of their e-Commerce experiences?
Caples: In the online shopping world, retailers don’t have the advantages of interior decor, attentive staff and other in-store qualities in order to differentiate from competitors and keep shoppers coming back. As a result, retailers are seeking ways to replicate the in-store experience and keep website visitors engaged by the creative use of digital tools. This effort requires advanced visual merchandising like high res photos and video, innovative web pages and user interfaces, and dynamic web site copy and product descriptions.
However, even high quality visual merchandising can’t be effective if a site performs poorly and is plagued by slow load times. Speed matters more than ever in the digital shopping era — people buy more from fast sites, and they keep coming back when they know a site is reliable. For that reason, maintaining fast load times and using a hosting environment that’s optimized for e-Commerce are both essential for retailers today.
RTP: What would you describe or qualify as “compelling” and “advanced” visual merchandising?
Caples: Not to oversimplify, but often simply starting with a more concrete perspective and developing a comprehensive visual merchandising makes all the difference. After spending time at the Fashion Digital New York event with Dan Garner, Founder of On Tap, it became increasingly clear to me that many retailers and merchandisers are not taking this approach today. However, Dan demonstrated how some brands are adapting the strategies for their brick-and-mortar locations into their online strategies, helping them to deliver context for their followers, and to facilitate the purchase with their online shoppers.
Other examples included the blending of the content message with power of the visual experience, creating a compelling environment for their shoppers and a way to link to their brand in a meaningful way.
RTP: How can retailers ensure their visual merchandising efforts are coordinated — but still unique — across all channels?
Caples: During our workshop we discussed visual merchandising for omnichannel, and Dan referenced tools and strategies to offer context for this type of a scenario. One useful tip that was discussed involved ways of adapting the traditional planogram for visual merchandising across the preferred buying experience. In the most traditional sense, the planogram template permits merchandisers to package and visually promote their products in a consistent way, replicated across multiple brick-and-mortar environments.
With the omnichannel strategy, the merchandiser reinterprets that planogram model with online stores, to translate the look and feel, and to maintain consistency for an enhanced shopping experience across the purchase spectrum. For eTailer-only models, this enables a standardized approach to capture a desired presence for shoppers, accommodate a set of shopping expectations, and to efficiently measure the conversion of shoppers to purchasers to repeat customers.
RTP: How can retailers use A/B testing and data to determine the success of their tactics and make the appropriate adjustments? Are there any specific obstacles organizations are facing in this process?
Caples: Not to hammer on the point, but the importance of strategy continues. In order to fully embrace the power of omnichannel, it’s important to understand the contribution available via visual merchandising — what is working and what can be improved? That means as retailers and merchandisers move from concept to design and then onto refinement, they must build an approach and process that springs from the real-time data presented and captured from shopper profiles and purchaser attributes.
A successful visual merchandising strategy fully leverages the real-time relevance from social media tools inputs, has a process that regularly tests against multiple formats and presentation schemes, and provides a point-of-view thatblends the value of the data and the desired brand presentation.
RTP: Are there any new tools, technologies or tactics on the rise that will impact digital merchandising strategies moving forward?
Caples: Omnichannel capabilities offer a multitude of learnings that can be implemented through a comprehensive strategy. That approach and an embrace of digital offers a wealth of relevant customer detail that can shape the future of a brand. Real-time or near-real-time data points that may be captured, measured, prioritized and applied to affect a shopper’s experience and to impact a purchase, and a repeat opportunity for purchase.
Ultimately, it’s how that information is used to create compelling content to craft an enticing story for the shopper that matters. The combination of the right product at the right time at the right price is only part of the equation — for the eTailer, they must ask: how quickly does my site load, are my page loads fast, how well is the product-set rendered, is the video stream blazing, what is happening to my brand?
All of these factors provide direction and steps to build a better experience and create a nurturing environment for a brand and a customer to engage.
RTP: Are there any final tips or best practices you’d like to share with our retail readers?
Caples: Omnichannel purchasing continues to grow and dramatically evolve, and you don’t have to go it alone. As Dan properly summarized at the conclusion of our workshop:
- Great partners can help you deliver a strategy — don’t try to do everything yourself;
- It does not have to cost a fortune;
- Larger retailers will naturally take longer to adopt an omnichannel visual merchandising strategy, which gives smaller retailers a chance to out-evolve them;
- Above all, out-evolve the customer to stay ahead; and
- If you don’t, your competitors eventually will.
