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.
Walk into any bank, retail establishment or hotel these days and the customer experience often leaves a lot to be desired. In a frenetic world where time is the most valuable commodity for most people, customer-facing retail establishments need to re-look from the ground up at the customer experience they provide.
The concept of session metrics is well known in ecommerce. For example, Amazon.com analyzes the click-stream behavior of its customers so it knows what pages site have you visited, what products you looked at even if you did not buy them, and how long you spent on their site. These session metrics allow them to customize the site just for you.
Paco Underhill, noted author of exhaustive studies on retailing, explains why you need to start collecting In-Store Shopping Metrics:
In today’s typical retail environment customer intelligence is fragmented and only captured in the minds of the sales associate. Furthermore, there is no real way to enter it into a central repository other than the dreaded “black book” of the individual sales associate.
Loyalty programs have been around since the end of the 19th century and mass-marketed by companies like Betty Crocker and S&H green stamps in 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Yet loyalty programs really haven’t changed in the past century, and the last thing most customers want is another loyalty card.
In theory, a 360-degree view of a customer is created by capturing all customer interactions across all channels frequented by any given customer. This translates into capturing every touch point and every interaction, which when multiplied by thousands of customers is terabytes of information.
Have you ever heard of FOAF? If you look up social networking on Wikipedia you will find many cool new acronyms, but this one really caught my eye. FOAF means “friend of a friend” – the engine that fuels most social networks.
