By Steve Weber, nChannel
In the next three years, the web will account for $414 billion of total retail sales, according to a Forrester Research e-retail forecast. That said,many merchants still view their physical store as their main business and feel they merely “dabble” in the Internet. As a result, they tend to neglect their online activity and treat web orders as an afterthought, at best.
Those retailers do not invest the same time and resources in their web site as they do their physical stores, nor do they invest in redesigning their order processing to account for different expectations from different types of buyers and different competition. These factors can lead to a poor customer experience and a lack of repeat buyers. In today’s environment, all retailers need to be multichannel retailers — and as part of that, they must have a cohesive strategy for managing their Internet business.
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A few guiding principles will help retailers elevate their web business and maximize opportunity to attract new and repeat buyers. The key is not to overlook the Internet, even if the Internet is not the key to your business:
- Consistency Is Critical: Shoppers relate to your brand, regardless of where they’re interacting with you — whether it’s in-store, online or via a third-party merchant. It is crucial that their experiences through every channel match their expectations for your company. They will judge your store based on your web presence, so it’s a mistake to overlook it. Buyers assume that they will be able to access the same products at the same prices through all of your channels. If this is not cohesive, it can damage your brand and could cost you sales.
- Personalize Across Platforms: No matter how your customer interacts with you, ensure that each sales channel and customer service point has access to customer data, including contact information and complete order history. Knowing your customers’ preferences personalizes the interaction, makes them feel important, enables faster service and enriches the entire buying experience. This personalized experience is even more important for your customers experience with you on the web.
- Make The Most Of Merchandising: Make information about each product comprehensive and easily searchable. Helping customers navigate products with a variety of criteria ensures they can find what they need and you can more easily manage inventory. Furthermore, what many merchants don’t realize is that the Internet is the world’s largest niche marketplace — customers are hungry for very specific products and will hunt it down on the web. Multichannel management platforms, like the one nChannel delivers, can help retailers organize products by region, brand, season, promotion, etc. to simplify updates and merchandising.
- Drive Them To Your Business: Attracting customers is no longer the result of a physical location or the biggest signage on Main Street, but rather how easy it is for a customer to find you on their mobile device. The key is to leverage your online channel and web orders to get shoppers in the store. Make sure you can be easily found via a mobile device and offer sales that drive local customers to your store.
To compete effectively today, retailers must deliver a superior buying experience across all channels to entice to keep coming back…to your store and your web site.
Steve Weber is the President & CEO nChannel, a provider of multichannel management software that simplifies selling for retailers of all sizes. Steve has over two decades of software industry experience, and is a 13-year veteran in the retail space. He is the former Vice-President of eMarketplace Outsourcing Services for Sterling Commerce, a division of IBM. More recently, he was named Microsoft Partner of the Year for Dynamics Retail and awarded Microsoft Retail Independent Software Vendor (ISV) of the year.
