Has the internet changed the nature of the way shopping occurs in stores these days? more
To a society fascinated with the process of buying and consumption, a great retail experience should be of significant importance; yet despite the fact that 90% of dollars are spent “in store,” the media are crowded with stories and analysis of “online experience” but scant mention is made of the ways in which we can improve the “in-store” experience for consumers.
Stores all over the world need a wake-up call. There is so much at stake, and most retailers don’t seem to realize it.
Stores have 3 major assets on their books: their physical stores, their inventory and their people and none of them are even close to optimized. Its not that stores haven’t tried with tools and tactics like: Time and Motion studies – to understand traffic patterns, Video technology – to observe buying patterns, Product Endcaps and special displays to create velocity in sales around a given item and then of course the mother of all marketing tactics – the Promotion.
All of these tactics are band-aids. They are the equivalent of retail crack. They aren’t synchronized and never can be using tactics like that because they are not approaching data in a systematic way.
One major retailer we observed takes to pinning up coupons on a bulletin board near the entry and publishing a circular. Does it work? We observed a 1000 square foot building with no less than 50 employees with less than 10 shoppers. All that inventory, all those employees, and all that square footage are so underutilized it’s a shame. What’s worse all that wasted utilization or paying for all those assets.
The point I want to make is simple - your 3 largest investments that your customer is in front of all the time is drastically underused. Its time for you to make every effort to get to know when your best customers are in your store, i.e in front of your 3 largest investments which is the reason why you have these investments in the first place!
