Category Archives: E Commerce

by Jennifer Bosavage

Beacons, SMS Combine To Boost Loyalty

Beacon-Zones-Shopping-Retail-Mobile-Phone

Today’s retail channel is so fluid that consumers move effortlessly between channels. A shopper may begin online, for example, to learn the price of a 50-in television. But that’s just the beginning.

Online, the shopper might discover he can afford a 55-inch television, so he begins his search again. Then, he realizes he’d like to view the picture quality in-person, so he searches for a nearby store. Once there, he pulls out his smartphone and looks for brand reviews online. The product has a QR code, so he scans it with his mobile device for more information. If the brand meets all the shopper’s criteria — quality, price and style — and is in the store, odds are the purchase will be completed at the brick and mortar location. If not, the consumer may opt to order online, place an order at the store, or, in the worst case for retailers, decide to postpone the purchase.

As retailers evolve to make the most of the ever-changing marketplace, they must select digital technology to enhance their model. For example, online services such as Amazon Mom offer special savings for a targeted group of shoppers: caregivers of small children. Amazon recognized that some items are purchased on a regular basis and are completely driven by need, rather than spontaneity or, frankly, fun. Buying baby wipes and diapers is a necessity for parents of young children, and once a brand is selected, there is an associated degree of loyalty, for any reason: Fit, absorbency, price, etc. Amazon takes some of the drudgery out of such mundane purchases by offering members benefits such as 30 days of Amazon Prime including free two-day shipping, 20% off diapers which are on an auto-delivery schedule, and other promotions geared toward parents.

Auto-replenishment is a terrific driver of loyalty online, encouraging shoppers to “set it and forget it.” But brick and mortars can boost loyalty as well, and in a few crucial ways are better equipped to do so. The primary factor offering them the advantage is what defines them in the first place — their physical presence.

Some stores promote loyalty by their atmosphere and their sales people. Savvy retailers understand the need to build on that using digital technology. Beacons, for example, can alert shoppers to in-store promotions as well as offer coupons and invitations to exclusive events. In return, the retailers receive analytics from which they can create marketing solutions. Business Insider Intelligence predicts that the technology will be used at 85 of the top 100 US retailers and influence $44 billion in retail sales in 2016.

Mobile devices are surging to the forefront of how people interact in today's retail industry.

Mobile devices are surging to the forefront of how people interact in today’s retail industry.

Combine that with SMS messaging, which can be used for proximity marketing campaigns, and that’s a powerful retail solution. Take a look at a recent Adroit survey of 1,000 U.S. and Canadian consumers, ages 18 to 34 and 500 U.S. and Canadian consumers ages 35 and up. Adroit found that the majority of paths to purchase are affected by digital: In both age groups, more than 70% were likely to change their plans to visit a retailer or restaurant if they were away from home and received an advertisement on their mobile devices for local deals or discounts.

The winning equation for brick and mortars? Beacons plus SMS equals efficient, affordable tools, ready to arm retailers in the battle for customers’ loyalty.

by Jennifer Bosavage

How Technology Helps Identify Multichannel Profitability

The most successful retailers today don’t distinguish among their shopping channels — rather, they design the digital experience with store fulfillment in mind. The challenge, however, is in determining how profitable such customers are, according to a recent study released by Retail Systems Research, entitled,  “Achieving Profitability In An Omni-Channel Fulfillment Model.”

As far back as 2007, retailers began identifying the importance of the

As merchants expand their online retail marketing initiatives and strive for an integrated, multichannel approach, they need the right technology to support their operations.

As merchants expand their online retail marketing initiatives and strive for an integrated, multichannel approach, they need the right technology to support their operations.

consistency of the shopping experience they were providing customers. Back then, retailers without a robust e-commerce site were at a distinct disadvantage. Whether the site was independent of its brick-and-mortar sibling, or an extension of it, retailers knew it was another avenue of potential revenue.

Today, it’s an absolute necessity for a brick-and-mortar to have an e-commerce channel, but the wrinkle is, it must be seamlessly integrated into the shopping experience. Increasingly, customers begin their purchase in one channel, and finish it in another. Back in 2007, shoppers who started in-store and bought online were called “showroomers.” But in the past eight years, because of a concerted effort by brick and mortars to stay alive and relevant, that trend is reversing itself. Nowadays, a buyer is just as likely to start the shopping journey online and complete it in store, as it is vice versa. So, while retailers met the challenge of showrooming, RSR reports that many are wondering at what cost. While 35 percent of those surveyed said multichannel customers are significantly more profitable than single channel customers, 24 percent reported they could not judge profitability. A number of factors RSR identified as crucial to achieve profitable fulfillment are addressed by solutions such as those provided by Retail Pro:

  1. Can your company track inventory across the enterprise? If so, is your company able to put the right amount of inventory closest to the points of demand, at the right time? That’s important because bringing customers to the store — where the potential for add-on merchandise is high — is preferable to the “one-and-done” reality of many online orders.
  2. Are non-store customer orders fulfilled in a way that maximizes profitability? Assuming the answer above is “Yes, I can see all my inventory,” then the retailer must determine what the most profitable fulfillment method will be. That can vary by individual case: Providing the lowest shipping cost to customer may be satisfactory in one situation, while another may be choosing a fulfillment point closest to the customer’s location.
  3. Who will fulfill the orders and returns? Retailers are loathe to adding head count, but RSR notes that in an ominichannel environment, return rates go up. Customer service becomes even more of a differentiator when shoppers have problems. Reallocating resources to service reps from other areas is a potential answer. Retailers should consider optimizing non-selling store processes, such as stock management, in order to cover the new costs associated with handling non-store orders.

Creating an omnichannel and multichannel experience that consumers see simply as  “shopping” requires the behind-the-scenes technology that will provide seamless fulfillment. Retailers that treat all channel as complementary, and integrate them into a holistic brand experience will be the first to maximize customer profitability.

by Jennifer Bosavage

Digital Engagement Drives Up In-Store Sales

Increasingly, brick and mortar shoppers are using a “strategic strike” method of shopping: They’ve narrowed down what they came for, they pick it up and they leave. Consumers use digital technology first, as part of the selection process, then visit a store for an in-person look and feel, and then, they often make ancillary

Focus on omnichannel retail strategy bolsters customer loyalty

Focus on omnichannel retail strategy bolsters customer loyalty

purchases that are unplanned, as well. A shopper, therefore, who uses commerce or mobile sites to facilitate the shopping experience is actually more apt to be a higher value — and potentially more loyal — customer than one who does not.

A recent study from Deloitte, “Navigating the New Digital Divide,” found that digital interactions are expected to influence 64 cents of every dollar spent in retail stores by the end of 2015, or $2.2 trillion. What used to be the dreaded practice of “showrooming” may actually be driving shoppers into stores. That theory seems to be backed up by Deloitte’s finding that consumers who use digital while they shop in-store convert at a 20 percent higher rate compared with those who do not report digital influence as part of the shopping process.

Deloitte reports that consumers are “hunting,” rather than “gathering.” That’s due to the ability of shoppers to narrow down selections before heading into the store. With time at a premium for so many people, doing a “pre-shopping” online helps optimize in-store time. When the “hunter” has a specific target to pick up at the store, there is more time to spend finding related accessories.

For example, narrowing down a selection of coffee pots to one or two on a retailer’s site before heading to the store provides the shopper the opportunity to simply collect the merchandise (the “strategic strike”), or to browse related items, such as mugs, beans, filters and so on. The consumer has the choice of a quick, easy, time saving experience, or of a streamlined one that offers a targeted pick up with an incidental additional purchase.

Nearly one in three shoppers Deloitte surveyed said they buy more when they use digital as part of their shopping process. Tying selling channels together — converging them — helps customers use digital technology for their initial shopping decisions early in the process, and then makes it easy for them to extend that sale.

by Jennifer Bosavage

Everyone Makes Mistakes: How Does Your Return Policy Rate?

 

 

Retailers hate returns.

That’s not a surprise: Returned merchandise costs the retailers money because the sale was lost, and time, because of restocking.

What is surprising is the high return rate that ecommerce retailers experience.

According to a study from Trueship, roughly 33% of all products purchased online will be returned.

Reducing that number, therefore, will result in a better bottom line.

The study found that one of the most common reasons for returns was easily corrected.

Nearly one-quarter — 23% — of shipments were returned because they were inaccurate.

On a similar note, 22% of items were returned because they were inaccurately described or pictured on the Web site.

Shoppers expect to see what they are getting; if they are misled, they will return.

And with many online stores offering free returns, consumers are not hesitant to ship back the disappointing item.

The paradox is that a vast majority of consumers, 80%, are loyal to those retailers offering “hassle-free” returns.

Free shipping for returns, including return labels and providing other services that ease the pain of returning an item often helps overcome objections to purchasing merchandise in the first place.

Knowing merchandise can be returned at no charge makes it easier for customers to obtain an item they may be dubious about buying online.

While making returns quick and easy may ultimately promote the practice of sending products back, creating a laborious process would likely turn away many shoppers, driving them to the competition.

How likely is that?

The study found that a whopping 92% of customers would continue to shop at an online store if it had an easy-to-follow return policy.

And, 82% said that they would not shop in the future at an establishment that made returns difficult.

Everyone makes mistakes; however, it’s imperative that a retailer not make one when designing its returns policy.

The ultimate objective is taking care of the customer, so removing hurdles to achieving that is key.

Zappos offers an example in delighting the customer while differentiating its brand.

Zappos, which scores high in customer satisfaction, doesn’t require receipts because all its orders are tracked automatically.

That tracking happens at every e-tailer, except many still require receipts.

Zappos also offers free “advanced exchange”: If a customer wants a different size or color, the company ships it for free, as long as the first item is shipped back within the next two weeks.

The customer benefits because he or she doesn’t have to worry about carrying two items on a credit or debit account.

Most shoppers are disappointed their merchandise doesn’t live up to their expectations, and didn’t want to go through the return process in the first place.

Streamlining that process by reducing the pain points provides customers motivation to become, or remain, loyal shoppers.

by Jennifer Bosavage

Beacons Show the Way To Increased Loyalty

Beacons let retailers them to collect data that can be analyzed and put to work in the form of  personalized content that resonates with customers. The end goal? To encourage not only purchasing, but also store loyalty. A recent partnership between an advertising firm and a mobile technology company illustrates that increaing interest in using beacons to enhance the storefront and shopper relationship.

Retailers know how important offering excellent customer experiences is for their operations - by offering effective service and engaging patrons in a meaningful way, businesses are sure to see boosts in their retention and loyalty rates.

Retailers know how important offering excellent customer experiences is for their operations – by offering effective service and engaging patrons in a meaningful way, businesses are sure to see boosts in their retention and loyalty rates.

Freckle IoT, an ad tech company, has announced its partnership with Blue Bite, the Mobile Standard in Out-of-Home, which implements mobile technology for the retail industry. The relationship will aid in the deployment of 60,000 beacons nationwide. Connecting Freckle IoT’s open beacon ecosystem to Blue Bite’s location partnerships and mTAG platform helps advertisers launch innovative, integrated marketing campaigns that connect with consumers across digital, mobile and Out-of-Home environments with scale.

Retailers are leaders among industries adopting beacons, as they use  them to provide customers with product information, flash sales or deals, and to speed up the checkout process with contactless payment systems. Geo-location lets retailers send relevant information — such as discounts, special events and other promotions — directly to shoppers. That’s an effective means of competing against e-commerce outlets, which gather information every time someone visits the page, regardless of whether they purchase.

Beacons do require buy-in from the customer; customers must enable bluetooth and accept location services on their mobile devices, and opt-in to the retailer’s marketing program to receive in-store notifications. Those layers help to reduce customers’ concerns that their privacy is being invaded. User consent provides the foundation of all push-notification programs. And some applications don’t need specific information. For example, Apple, creator of iBeacons, has rolled out the technology in all of its U.S. stores, but doesn’t collect any specific user information about shoppers. For now, the company is simply using the sensors to show customers how beacon technology works.

Currently, less than 1% of the 3.5 million retail stores in the United States have rolled out beacon technology, according to Umbel, a business analytics company. That number is rapidly growing however, with household names including Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, Starwood Hotels, McDonald’s and Major League Baseball rolling out solutions.

The Freckle IoT partnership makes use of Blue Bite’s expertise in the area  of Out-of-Home mobile activations and takes advantage of the company’s extensive roster of location partners. Freckle IoT’s open beacon network connects the company’s rising number of application partners with its beacon ecosystem, addressing the challenge of scalability in proximity deployments.

As more retailers employ beacons, shoppers will find them in more unusual places — including transit, street furniture, airports, college campuses, movie theaters, bars and taxis — working to provide rich content through mobile or wearable devices and target in-app advertising on a hyper-local level. Brands can deliver innovative, contextually relevant messaging to engaged and interested consumers who want to be connected and be a part of an enhanced shopping experience.

by admin

It’s the one that everyone talks about

A chat with Retail Pro International, provider of the gold-standard retail management software, on trends, platforms and retail.

By Chris Petersen | Retail Merchandiser

Retail Pro Prism

Before the Internet, multichannel retailing was something known to only a handful of major national retailers, and the channels were limited to primarily brick and mortar and catalog sales. Today, however, consumers have more choices than ever when it comes to how they interact with their favorite retailers. The prevalence of m-commerce and e-commerce purchasing has become commonplace right along with stopping in at their favorite stores.  This new consumer landscape has created some significant challenges, as well as generated numerous new opportunities for retailers.

The new basis for retail interaction with today’s consumers spans all channels for the retailer including, brick-and-mortar stores, catalog sales, a website or even through their smartphones. A retailer is now challenged with providing the same user experience across all channels to provide a seamless experience regardless of where the consumer may be engaged. At the same time, as more retailers court international customers through their online presence, they are exposed to added complexity in terms of international tax structures and fulfillment. Navigating this complexity alone, especially in today’s omni-connected world can be daunting to say the least. Having a partner in the game like leading global provider of retail management software, Retail Pro International(RPI), can make the task much more palpable.

For more than 25 years, RPI has provided retail management software solutions and platforms which cover point of sale, customer engagement, store operations and back-of-store management, and e-commerce, through its Retail Pro® products.  In recent years, Retail Pro International has become an even more important partner to its retail customers as retail strategy complexities started growing in geometric progression. “As businesses evolve in response to market needs and rapidly changing consumer expectations it becomes critical for the retailer to evolve their business, break down operational silos and adapt; that’s where we come in,” said Director of Marketing for RPI, Alexandra Frith.

 

Flexible Solutions

The native adaptability in Retail Pro is the reason Retail Pro International’s software platforms are used in more than 54,000 retail stores in over 95 countries, and the company continues to evolve to address the expansion and needs of retailers as they grow their businesses. Frith says the Retail Pro software is a perfect fit for growing retailers. Whether a retailer is just starting out or has an operation that spans many regions, including expansions as franchises, Retail Pro can address the complex needs the retailer will encounter across their business models.

Director of Product Strategy at RPI, Kevin Connor, says retailers have traditionally been forced to maintain one software platform for each ‘channel’ of their business – one platform for point of sale, one for e-commerce sales, one for mobile sales, etc. The Retail Pro platform, on the other hand, gives the retailer a platform that can support each of the channels with one integrated product suite. Retail Pro offers platforms that are both environment-agnostic and hardware platform-agnostic, allowing one product to create a more efficient management experience for the retailers and a more pleasant and predictable shopping experience for customers.

Frith says another major component of RPI and its expansive Partner service network for their customers is helping them translate trends into actionable retail strategies. For example, she says, last year many of the company’s customers and prospects were abuzz with the idea of omnichannel retailing. The concept surfacing everywhere in the media was the new buzzword then, without much more information about the details. “We found ourselves in many conversations about this new trend. It was almost an exercise in quelling fear because everyone wanted to know that they had the capability, but only a hand-full of retailers knew how it related specifically to their business,” Frith says.

The idea of omnichannel was prevalent in the retail world but had many definitions. For some of its major customers, Retail Pro worked closely with them to develop a concise definition of what omnichannel meant for that retailer. Then taking this plan, they developed a software experience using the Retail Pro platform that erased the borders between channels to create a seamless experience for shoppers that also fit the retailer in the most effective way.

Connor says the company’s flexible approach to retail management software allows the retailer to have the system that serves the needs across all environments. Whether a retailer is enlisting endless-aisle kiosks or embracing mobility to serve the clienteling needs of their customer engagements, they can do so. This is made possible by the company’s commitment to delivering one holistic system that ties together all aspects of retail into one seamless platform.

 

Global Reach

The company’s international DNA serves as a perfect platform for business. Frith stresses the company’s international expertise, saying Retail Pro provides world-class solutions to its customers around the globe, enabling borderless retailing. “That proves to be a huge strength to any retailer who aspires to be international,” she says.

Further highlighting this point, Connor says the majority of domestic retail software is based on the local tax regulations, limiting their applications in other markets. Retail Pro International’s solutions can support all tax structures around the world, he says, making it possible for retailers using Retail Pro to maintain one system for all geographies. “Something that we pride ourselves on, is seeing ourselves as part of the global retail community,” Connor says.

 

Still Growing

The retail community is a unified community. Today, the concept of borderless retail speaks not only to retailing across geographic borders, but also to disappearing borders between online and brick-and-mortar.  Brands want consistency of presence across markets; customers want the completeness of the shopping experience across channels.  Both require ongoing effective innovation. In addition to optimizing experiences, effective innovation also encourages adopting more efficient operations and procedures, positioning retailers to add value in two directions at once by streamlining costs and improving customer loyalty simultaneously.

“What we found was that our retail customers are adapting business models, adding retail channels, acquiring other brands, and otherwise expanding aggressively throughout North America and beyond,” Frith adds.  “We see this evolution as a primary catalyst for retail growth, and brands willing to take leadership in this area will be the most competitive over time.”

 

Posted in the March/April 2015 issue of Retail Merchandiser magazine.

See the original post  here.

by Jennifer Bosavage

Three Customer Experience Tips To Improve Loyalty

Forrester has released its Customer Experience Benchmark results for 2015, and while e-commerce does well, the segment’s brick and mortar brethren are a bit behind the eight ball.

It should be noted that Forrester has changed the way it judges CX excellence. To rank at the top of the pack, the 299 brands studied were required to demonstrate they had designed and delivered a customer experience that created and sustained customer loyalty. That makes sense; after all, loyalty is a dynamite way to prove consumers like a business. Repeat customers are retail gold.

Another change impacted retailers directly: Forrester split the retail industry into two groups – those with physical stores and those without. Retailers without stores (“digital-only retailers”) remained in the lead, beating out hotels and parcel shippers for the top spot. However, those with stores fell multiple places in the industry standings.

Forrester elaborates on that finding in its report. But it is worth considering in what the e-commerce experience is proving better than other industries, as well as physically present retailers. A few lessons, then, that we can discern:

  1. Personalized attention. You might say this is a no-brainer for brick
    Retail industry leaders are using technological advancements to improve the customer experience.

    Retail industry leaders are using technological advancements to improve the customer experience.

    and mortars. But being in the same place as a customer does not necessarily mean the sales associate knows what to do. Shoppers’ complaints run the gamut from feeling “creeped out” from too much attention, or “neglected” by a too-aloof approach. Online retailers often send a “thanks for shopping” email that provides an acknowledgement of the transaction, and, if timed correctly, brings the retailer to the top of a shopper’s mind. When was the last time, if ever, a physical store sent out such a missive? The relationship does not end when the shopper leaves; it’s just beginning. While the advantage of having a physical salesperson interact appropriately with customers is clear, it’s a double-edged sword: No one claims to feel “ignored” by an online retailer. The onus is much greater on a physical store to understand how your customers shop. Which brings us to:

  2. Know your customers. All that data you are collecting needs to be analyzed and put to work. Who is shopping and when? What are they buying? Did someone help them? How did they pay? All that information is critical in learning how to best serve the customer, and to connect with them, with the goal of nurturing a repeat customer. Online retailers are expert at this, culling information, using analytics tools to decipher it and then employing that knowledge to drive traffic. Special offer emails are great examples; retail powerhouse Amazon uses data collected from a customer’s shopping history to send specific offers tailored to their interests. Brick and mortars can do the same.
  3. Make it easy. If a customer has a problem, how easy is it to rectify it? What is your return policy? Can a shopper use multiple payment methods? This should be a simple point of distinction for many brick and mortars, but isn’t necessarily. Shoppers do not want to be challenged, for example, when making a return. Does it really matter that the shopper wanted to think she’s a size 4 but turns out she’s an 8? No one wants to face an inquisition at any point while shopping. Focus on the “1-click” mindset: The shopping experience, whether leisurely or a strategic strike, should be dictated by the customer, but the transactional part is controlled by the retailer. Make that quick and painless and it will complement any customer-directed experience you provide.

 

 

by Ulyana Avetisov

Curated Fashion Retailer Implements Their Omnichannel Customer Engagement Strategy with Retail Pro®

Fashion has always set the course for Lyn Evans’ life and passions. In 1978, she opened her first women’s clothing and accessories boutique, Lyn Evans Potpourri Designs (from here on called Lyn Evans). In 1980, Lyn established her second store in Wellesley, MA, which currently serves as their flagship store and corporate office. Lyn Evans makes it their mission to curate an exceptional shopping experience and to give back to the communities they serve.

The Lyn Evans Lifestyle

Lyn Evans does not take a price-driven approach to retail. Instead, each of Lyn’s seven stores with locations in community-focused North East cities in the U.S. strives to build personal relationships with the customers they serve.

“We get a lot of snowstorms in Massachusetts,” Shotkus told us. “Some of our patrons will travel for two to three months to a warmer part of the country. We don’t want to lose the customer just because we don’t have a store in that location, so we keep up the relationship online.”

One such customer is a poster child for this kind of relationship maintenance. An associate met with her online for a personal shopping appointment. An hour and a half and one happy customer later, the Lyn Evans associate hung up the phone with a $3,000 order.

Lyn Evans takes fashion to the community - and won the Association of Massachusetts Award of Excellence for commitment to community service.

Lyn Evans takes fashion to the community – and won the Association of Massachusetts Award of Excellence for commitment to community service.

“Our goal,” Lyn Evans owner Stan Shotkus said, “is to integrate the stores with the online community, with our website serving as a showroom.”

 

Lyn Evans Gives Back

With customer engagement that far surpasses most consumer expectations, Lyn Evans is building a reputation of being a community-centered business. In 2012, they were awarded the Retailers Association of Massachusetts Award of Excellence for commitment to community service.

One non-profit to which they donated is the National Education for Assistance Dog Services, or NEADS, which works with a nearby prison to train dogs to be service animals for people with special needs. They have also raised money for animal shelters, breast cancer awareness, school projects and scholarship funds, and many other causes and organizations.

Their relationship with the community is the reason their customers are such loyal fans. “People do business with people they like,” Shotkus said. “If we were just price driven, our customers would have no reason to come to us, or to keep coming back. But we’re more than that.”

 

Curating Custom Looks

It is out of these intimate retailer-shopper-community relationships that Lyn Evans stores began shaping the direction for their next stage in retail.

As a boutique, they serve a consistent community of loyal fans, and they always give their shoppers a reason to come back: their collections are updated and refreshed throughout the season, with a local boutique version of Zara-esque turnover for their styles.

But the market does not always cater to a specific community’s fashion ambitions. “Customers would come to us with requests for certain styles or colors that just weren’t available in the marketplace. Sometimes they would just want a longer top or longer sleeves, or a color that wasn’t available with the current color trends,” Shotkus told us. “So that’s how Lyn Evans label was born.” Lyn Evans stores now carry 24 items that they’ve curated specifically for their customers, and there are plans for growth.

 

Lyn Evans' chic Westborough, MA store

Lyn Evans’ chic Westborough, MA store

Defining their Omnichannel Strategy   

Lyn Evans is striving to create a seamless experience for their customers. Every store is suited with iPads that display their company website at all times to allow for cross-selling of items from other stores. If a customer wants a certain style or color that is not available at their location, a store associate will save the sale by helping the customer place the order from the store’s iPad before they go.

They keep track of everything using their Retail Pro retail management software, which manages all of their inventory for all channels. Lyn Evans outfitted their Retail Pro with an e-commerce solution from 24Seven Commerce to administer web orders, and integrated the two to keep real-time tabs on inventory across every location, without data duplication. Other solutions they tested created too many intermediary steps to keep clear inventory on both their brick and mortar and their online channels. 24Seven, as an integration with Retail Pro, significantly simplified their operations.

24Seven’s transparency and level of communication accelerated the implementation process. “It’s a very responsive team,” Stan shared. “We were communicating on a daily and sometimes hourly basis.”

 

Using Analytics to Direct their Strategy 

The company hired a new buyer, who came to them from the shoe and apparel retailer Reebok. She was experienced in complex analytics but needed to learn how to optimize the Retail Pro reports capabilities for their retail business. So Lyn Evans management called their Retail Pro Business Partner, JD Associates, to conduct a half-day training seminar on-site on how to create customized reports with their Retail Pro analytic tools.

The buying team uses custom Retail Pro reports to see exactly what their customers want. Lyn Evans analyzes performance data from the previous year’s collection and guides future buying decisions accordingly. Last year, they purchased 7,000 tops at this point in time. This year, based on data collected from their customers’ purchasing trends, they bought only 3,700, improving inventory flow and turn.

“It’s constantly evolving. You can say, ‘Aha! I’ve found the secret formula for which and how many of each product to buy,’ but you’ve really only discovered it for this point in time.”

Now they are implementing an inventory rebalancing program fueled by Retail Pro analytics. Because they can see exactly what inventory is at which store, they can transfer goods from one location to another to meet customer demand. The customer can order online and pick it up in one of our stores or have it shipped to their home, which is a big part of the Omni channel convenience their customers enjoy.  In addition, a replenishment strategy will be implemented on basic and core products to maintain a good stock position.

Lyn Evans carries all the season's best colors and styles and curates their own by popular demand.

Lyn Evans carries all the season’s best styles and curates their own by popular demand.

Taking the Experience Online

Lyn Evans is also applying this business intelligence for growth in their online store. “In order for the specialty store to survive, we have to change the way we do business.” The challenge is keeping the personalized customer experience consistent between the online store and the brick and mortar stores, but their customers know that a friendly Lyn Evans associate is always just a phone call away.

And they are not limiting their website to be just another avenue for sales. “We are promoting a lifestyle,” Stan explained. Plans for the website include adding a blog with top trends, recipes, and how-to videos, like this video of a Lyn Evans associate showing different ways to tie a scarf.

With these seamless omnichannel operations in place, the Lyn Evans boutiques have achieved a competitive advantage over so many retailers in their industry, creating a smooth and personalized experience for their shoppers through both channels, while staying true to their brand. “We are a small company with only seven stores. We don’t have the resources that the big players do. We had to do this on a budget and in a short time frame, but we have the passion and commitment to take our business to the next level.” And, might we say, they are doing it exceptionally well.

 

 

 

 

by Jennifer Bosavage

Recognizing the Customer Is Key to Retail Personalization

Retailers today — like myriad ones before them — face the challenge of personalization. Customers want products that satisfy their needs, but they also want some element of serendipity. Creating a shopping experience that caters to the customer is the challenge of every retailer, regardless of whether it’s a brick ad mortar, or an online specialty shop. It’s been the marching orders of every store since bartering for goods: Provide what the buyer wants in both goods and services, and you’ll earn a loyal customer.

Earning those types of customers requires deep and insightful knowledge in order to successfully use personalization as a tool. Online retailers do not have the benefit of engaging customers in casual conversation, making eye contact or reading body language. But they do have reams of data from information keyed in by every customer. The challenge is in designing a Web site that will provide the desired information, and then analyzing that data for accurate results. The websites that generate the most sales are customer-centric and address shoppers’ needs.

Shrewd retailers will use that information and create shopper “personas,” or archetypes of customers, that can be used to personalize the type, amount and even design of site content. But a common trap is that the information gleaned is influenced by the researcher’s own experiences. Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business at MIT Sloan, wrote in a post that was published on Harvard Business Review that people are not inherently better at making decisions, predictions, judgments, and diagnoses, although people seem to be proficient at telling stories that weave together multiple causes and multiple contexts. “The stories we tell ourselves are very often wrong,” wrote McAfee, “and we have a host of biases and other glitches in our mental wiring that keep us from sizing up a situation correctly.”

Trends within customer service sometimes come and go, but one aspect that seems to satisfy consumers significantly is personalized elements during their shopping experiences.

Trends within customer service sometimes come and go, but one aspect that seems to satisfy consumers significantly is personalized elements during their shopping experiences.

Creating those personas is a solid first step, and resources exist to help retailers, such as Oracle’s blog Identifying Buyer Profiles: 5 Ways To Segment Your Marketing Audience. Physical stores with an online presence working to bolster their omnichannel efforts can benefit from understanding their target audiences — and it’s likely that online shoppers may be similar, but different from, those frequenting the mall, for instance. Personalization efforts therefore need to acknowledge and be tailored to each shopping channel.

Last week, RetailPro announced a strategic partnership with 24Seven Commerce, a Silicon-Valley based global provider of integrated e-commerce software and market place solutions for independent retailers. With 24Seven, Retail Pro customers have access to turn-key integrated e-commerce applications that extend and enhance the capabilities of their physical stores. But for online customers, the 24Seven Cart also includes an adaptable responsive design and easy to navigate interface for the quickly growing smartphone shopper segment. Personalizing those types of solutions for customers can go a long way toward positioning a retailer as one that is attending to the way customers want to shop.

It’s critical for retailers to recognize the nuances of who their buyers are: What they don’t want and need is just as important as what they do. Further, understanding their “pain points” and working to relieve them will turn a retailer’s site from one that is reflective of products, to one that is a resource that shoppers see as “just for them.”

by Jennifer Bosavage

Macy’s: In the Omnichannel Groove

Here’s how omnichannel is supposed to work:

I live in the Northeast, in an area recently experiencing record cold temperatures and quite a bit of snow fall. It’s not quite the North Pole, but right about now a sleigh is probably the most reliable source of transportation. As snow and freezing rain came down last Wednesday, I remembered that my 13-year-old daughter had a semi-formal event to attend on Sunday and nothing in her closet was close to fitting her, or even appropriate for the occasion. Little black leggings are versatile, but they were just not going to do for this.

Retailers likely to focus on omnichannel integration in 2015

Retailers likely to focus on omnichannel integration in 2015

I contemplated going out to the mall, roughly 20 minutes away, but quickly opted for the warm coziness of my kitchen in front of my computer instead. I began my quest on Amazon, but was quickly overwhelmed by the selection and had difficulty narrowing my search. Young teenaged girls may be as tall as 20, 30 or 60-year-old women — all of whom wear dresses — but their tastes are vastly different. Getting the Amazon search engine to target that mindset was proving difficult. And then I started to worry that, despite being a Prime customer, I might not get my package in time, because of all the bad weather across the country. (We in the Northeast like to think we have a monopoly on nasty snowy weather, but this year has especially proved that’s not at all the case.)

The mall was starting to look more attractive, but the weather wasn’t, so I stayed put. I started going through my emails and saw I had a coupon code from Macy’s. I’m a loyal Macy’s shopper, and there’s one at my local mall. Now I had a plan.

Macy’s has a very easy to navigate site. I could easily find the Juniors department and even find daytime event dresses quickly. I found and bought the just-right dress in about 10 minutes. And, no worries about shipping, I was all set to pick up my merchandise at the store any day during the week. Whenever we stopped “having weather,” I could collect my purchase. I signed up for text alerts on my order status, and, in fact, my order was ready for me within a couple of hours.

Picking up the dress the next day was simple; one of the three texts I received told me exactly where to go, and my package was waiting for me. I produced my ID and off I went — but not out the door. Rather, I went to the shoe department for some coordinating footwear. I spent an additional 70% on accessory sales, and that is just exactly the way the omnichannel is supposed to work.

Macy’s does a very good job integrating its online with the in-store experience. And that is starting to show in its financial results. Its digital efforts helped fourth-quarter sales increase to $9.364 billion, up 1.8% from the prior year. Among its stronger areas were dresses and men’s and women’s shoes, areas where Macy’s tested a single view of inventory between stores and direct-to-customer warehouses. During Macy’s earnings call last week, CFO Karen Hoguet said the company had just rolled out those same programs companywide based on those successes.

“Our digital channels at both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s did extremely well in the quarter. We were very focused and pleased with what we accomplished with Buy-Online, Pick Up In Store,” Hoguet said. “Both because of the new wave of customers who utilize this shopping, but also for the radiated sales we got when the orders were picked up. And our same-day delivery test was successful and we will expand in 2015 to additional markets.” “Radiated sales”? I guess I participated in that. It does sound awfully nice and warm to this Northeasterner.