Category Archives: Merchandising and Marketing

by Jennifer Bosavage

How to Create Shopper Personas to Know Who’s Buying from You and How to Sell More

Knowing and understanding customers is key for any retailer’s success.

Successful businesses study their shoppers, learning what they like – which can be as important as figuring out what they don’t like – and using that information to help predict what they’ll buy in the future.

Studying consumer behavior helps retailers determine factors that influence their buying decisions, which allows them to offer products that satisfy their customers’ needs.

If you want to really understand your customers, consider developing buyer personas.

 

  1. Who is your typical buyer?

The answer to this can be one type of person (e.g., a soccer outfitter) or a number of types (e.g., a general sporting goods store).

Using purchase data from your POS, you can discover who your end customers tend to be.

Hopefully, the results won’t be entirely shocking.

 

  1. Look at Their Product Purchases

Next, look at your products and connect the dots to the buyers.

Are your customers buying for themselves or others?

Some stores may find clear evidence that they are a gift-giving destination, while others may find it’s parents rather than teenagers who are doing the buying.

Consider creating a persona not just for the shoppers buying for themselves, but also for the ones buying on behalf of someone else.

At first, you are simply defining your clientele and placing them in large categories.

 

  1. Refine Your Search

The next step is refining your research:

Where do your customers live?

What are their ages?

Gender?

Hobbies?

Education level?

Income level?

Language spoken?

 

 

Some of these distinguishing traits will be more important than others.

Furthermore, there may be additional questions that are particularly relevant to your business.

 

  1. Draw Conclusions

Ultimately, you want to take the answers and compare that to what is being purchased and draw conclusions.

That can be accomplished by gathering reams of data not only from the point of sale terminal but also (potentially) from contest submissions or newsletter subscriptions.

Don’t forget past or inactive customers.

 

  1. Test Your Findings

It’s beneficial to understand why they may have stopped shopping at your business, so pick up the phone, send an email, create a survey – and find out you’re your shortcomings are; whether they are perceived or real they are valuable.

Offer an incentive, such as a coupon code and not only will they be more apt to respond, but they may also give your business a second shot.

 

  1. Tie in Online Data

If you have an e-commerce site in addition to brick and mortar, use tools such as Google Analytics Audience reports to nail down the demographics of online shoppers.

Take it one step further and unite all that data – POS, ecommerce, Google Analytics, and any other retail software you use – into an analytics platform that can help you predict what your customers will do next.

 

Successful retailers know their customers.

They not only know what they are buying and what they want to purchase but also their likes and dislikes outside of the store environment.

They know personal details.

And they’ve analyzed all that information so they can provide a stellar customer experience, not just today but for well into the future.

They know that the day they stop knowing their customer is the day they lose that customer.

by Ulyana Avetisov

Integrate production and retail sales information

 

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Customers love your latest styles.

Get them into your customers’ hands faster – by integrating all your retail software for end-to-end visibility into customer information and stock performance that helps you improve speed-to-market in your production cycles.

On 2 – 3 May, visit us at RBTE stand H-150 to see how you can get GDPR-compliant, end-to-end integration of your mission-critical retail software to streamline your operations with Retail Pro, our service and support partners Pinnaca Retail Solutionsand Datascan Retail Solutions, and our solution partners Dedagroup Stealth Retail ERP, BS Payone payments, and Pimble ecommerce and digital marketing.

 

Fashion ERP for Global Brands

 

Dedagroup Stealth Retail ERP provides luxury and fashion retailors with a modern technology platform that enables them to run an efficient, responsive and profitable omnichannel business, built on insights about their customers’ needs.

When used in conjunction with our GDPR-ready solutions partners like Retail Pro POS, BS Payone payments, and Pimble ecommerce and digital marketing, and the local expertise of our support partners Pinnaca Retail Solutions and Datascan Retail Solutions, you get a complete end-to-end solution that gives you total control of your most important assets: your inventory and your reputation.

 

  • Match product to customer more easily with a single view in a single platform
  • Manage all aspects of your stock, including design, manufacture, in-channel operations, and logistics
  • Simplify process and operations so you can respond to market and customer dynamics in real time

Book your RBTE appointment with us today to see how our end-to-end solution that will help you build a solid foundation for your omnichannel retail operations.

 

Book my RBTE appointment

 

 

Learn more about our partners at RBTE

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by Jennifer Bosavage

3 Ways To Get Personalization Right

 

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Today’s shoppers have immediate access to product information at their fingertips.

Competition is plentiful and fierce, so retailers must differentiate themselves to be top-of-mind.

To be that “go-to” store, retailers increasingly must create personalized experiences that appeal to an individual’s desire to be valued and sought-after.

Retailers must leverage the customer data they have — or should have — to create that unique environment.

Intelligence on customer preferences and their interactions must be accessible and actionable; in other words, if you have information, use it. Analyze it.

And interpret it through the prism of providing a top-notch retail experience.

Why? Because it’s profitable.

Customers report that meaningful personalization does increase spending.

Retailers using personalization strategies experience revenue gains of six to 10 percent, a rate two to three times greater than other retailers, Boston Consulting Group research reports.

 

Here are three ways to get personalization right:

 

1.  Create personalized marketing campaign around product usage

Consider how your products or store can help customers achieve their goals.

The data that helps you determine which products customers may be interested in will also help you figure out why they need those items.

That knowledge will help you craft an individual message to every shopper.

Sometimes a group message is appropriate, but most often, the more you treat your customer as an individual with unique needs, the better you can illustrate your brand’s respect for individual customers.

 

2. Use detailed customer data to meaningfully personalize teasers, promotions and discounts

Communicate through data-driven email.

Personalizing messages requires email segmentation, analyzing customer data and creating a 360-degree customer view from a centralized database.

However, although email list segmentation has proven to lead to higher sales rates, half of marketers surveyed by Tune said they are not segmenting their email lists and less than nine percent of marketers said they aggregate their data within a single system of record.

Targeted email marketing is very successful; 47 percent of marketers told Emma’s 2017 Email Marketing Industry Report that email generates the most ROI for their organizations.

To take full advantage of email’s potential, retailers can send personalized teasers, promotions and discounts to loyal shoppers as well as prospects, in addition to those who’ve abandoned their shopping carts.

 

3. Engage consumers at key moments in their shopping experiences with push notifications

Text notifications can push shoppers through your door.

Research has found that 57 percent of shoppers spent more money at a retailer after receiving a notification.

An even more impressive figure is that 68 percent of consumers reported an impulse buy after receiving a notification.

Sending push notifications effectively helps boost sales by engaging consumers at key moments in their shopping experiences.

 

 

by Jennifer Bosavage

Two Ways to Keep Shoppers Coming Back

Repeat customers are a valuable commodity. It’s seven times more expensive to find a new customer than to retain one, according to Kissmetrics. In addition, the research has found that the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 to 70 percent, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is just five to 20 percent.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday around the corner, it’s the perfect time to re-introduce your brand or store with customers who may not have made a recent purchase. Marketing automation and CRM solutions can generate follow-up emails and trigger behavioral-based campaigns to keep shoppers engaged with your store. And the new holiday shoppers you attract can be made to feel like they, too, are part of a special community well after the initial purchase is made and the holidays are packed up and put away.

Marketing Automation Helps Identify Your Advocates

Returning customers buy more and are more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, but they can also become advocates for your business. They can help you identify and bring in new customers. Marketing automation helps businesses automate repetitive marketing tasks such as emails, social media, and other website actions. It can help identify brand advocates and nurture prospects with highly personalized, useful content that helps convert prospects to customers and turn customers into delighted customers.

Nurturing leads is an important part of marketing automation. If a particular customer has shared a few of your blog posts on social media, for example, encourage this behavior by proactively sharing relevant posts with this person.

Retail marketing isn't just about making the sale - it's about winning loyal customers and establishing a brand.

Retail marketing isn’t just about making the sale – it’s about winning loyal customers and establishing a brand.

Never send a generic message. Always personalize content so your audience understands why specifically he or she should visit your store.

CRM Solutions

Compiling information about customer behavior in the aggregate and comparing it with data on individual customers will help discern what products a store should sell and how to market those products. A CRM solution stores every desired piece of customer data, so a business can reach and engage with every customer type. And it’ll help with up-selling, too, a critical part of customer retention.

Upselling should make customers feel as though they are winning – not as if they are simply shelling out more money. CRM marketing streamlines and organizes the process: Through analysis and data mining, businesses can determine the optimal time and method to propose an upsell. Upselling is easier than selling to a customer for the first time and can help a store’s revenue grow faster.

Grow your bottom line efficiently by reaching out to past and repeat customers. Make it clear why you deserve these customers business, and why you offer a better value proposition than competitors. Most importantly, let them know how they’ll profit too, because, after all, everyone wants to be a winner.

by Jennifer Bosavage

Omnichannel Strategies Are a Gift for Retailers

 

 

Looks like store traffic is expected to be on the rise this holiday season.

Recent studies from AlixPartners, Deloitte and KPMG are predicting in-store sales will rise approximately 4% this year.

Despite some retail store closures this year, only 6% of those surveyed by AlixPartners said that would cause them to reconsider the purchase.

Rather, 36% of consumers said they’d simply shop competitors.

Retailers can best position themselves to win this holiday by providing customers with integrated omnichannel strategies.

However, not all multi-channel experiences are omnichannel.

Having online ordering, a brick-and-mortar storefront and a social media presence is simply having a multichannel strategy.

To have a true omnichannel experience, the retailer must provide the customer with a seamless experience and consistent messaging across each of channels.

In particular, millennials want to be able to start shopping at any touchpoint — online, mobile or in-store — and end the transaction at any other point in the sales process.

An example of omnichannel success is U.K.-based Oasis.

The retailer’s associates are equipped with tablets to provide immediate answers to customer questions on the sales floor.

The handhelds also act as cash registers, and out of stock items can be instantly ordered online for home delivery.

Many retailers have realized the devastating impact poor inventory management can have: Customers are often unwilling to go back to a store that is out of a desired product and that makes no effort to locate it.

As a result, retailers have invested in inventory visibility.

Analytics along with inventory tracking software takes the pressure off retailers because it eliminates the guessing about how to allocate stock.

They can plan more accurately and locate products in other store locations quickly and accurately.

Retailers should take advantage of customers’ desire to holiday shop in person by increasing efforts to drive customers into their stores.

Standing apart from the competition is critical.

Some will respond by offering exclusive merchandise, others by providing engaging experiences.

Knowledgeable and helpful sales associates are always a plus.

And there’s also price.

For millennials, the fastest growing shopping segment, price has the greatest influence.

Quality, brand, store and availability are important but in the end, price rules, likely because they have the ability instantly to price compare and save on almost anything they buy.

Retailers, therefore, need to offer competitive pricing as well as more value than consumers can obtain on Amazon, Google or other large retail outlets.

Omnichannel experiences are key to retaining customers and perhaps regaining sales previously lost to online.

 

by Ulyana Avetisov

All Things Retail Webcast: Promotions

 

When competing for a share of shoppers’ hearts and wallets, promotions are a good way to increase traffic and sales, which in turn can help you become more profitable. Promotions draw in new customers and infrequent shoppers, and all those socially-oblivious laggards who just don’t see the need to shop with you (until now ???? ).

To help make your customer hunt a little easier, this month’s All Things Retail webcast talks about the kinds of promotions you can create with Retail Pro enterprise retail software. Retail Pro is designed to for ultimate flexibility so you can tailor your retail management software to your business operations, and the promotions capabilities in Retail Pro are no exception.

Retail Pro promotions come with 8 types of promotions out of the box:

  1. BOGO
  2. Coupon
  3. Item
  4. Pack
  5. Quantity
  6. Rolling
  7. Tiered
  8. Transaction

These promotions can be used on their own or in any combination of promotions, which means you have total control over creating and testing as many diverse and complex promotions as your marketing team can throw at you.

When you choose the type of promotion you will run, you get to set the activation rules that will trigger your promotion to be automatically applied to a customer’s transaction. You can set the start and end date and determine to which products the promotion will apply. You can also choose to activate the promotion for all or distinct subsidiaries, brands, countries, or business entities within your enterprise.

Next, you set the validation rules. These rules validate whether the customer’s purchases qualify for the promotion. The promotion can be activated by your choice of any of the following criteria:

  • At the sale of a particular item or combination of items
  • When a set threshold amount is met at the sale subtotal
  • If the customer uses a coupon
  • If the customer meets a particular qualification, i.e. if the customer is part of your loyalty program, etc.

These validation rules allow you to cast the promotion for as broad or as targeted a group as you determine is profitable for your business.

Once validation rules are set, you can then set the reward rules, which determine what reward and how much of it the customer would get for meeting the reward rules.

Retail Pro POS tracks the redemption of the reward, helping you get a better report on the promotion’s performance.

Careful planning and solid promotions tactics can play a significant part in converting a shopper from someone who’s only ever walked past your store to a repeat customer who loves the way your products fit their life and will buy from you even when you’re not having a sale.

So how do you create the kind of promotions that encourage good shopping habits?

That may be a question for business psychologists and your marketing team, and definitely will depend on your business’ unique circumstances and brand value in consumers’ eyes – but it’s evident that promotions impact retail operations in critical ways.

Historical data sets tracking sales during and after promotions show that customers resume normal purchase habits once a promotion is complete. Whatever your promotions strategy, it’s best to think long term – creating customer purchase habits rather than simply meeting this quarter’s sales goals.

1. Promotions create buzz; buzz creates customers.

JC Penney abandoned their long-lived coupon strategy in favor of everyday low prices and experienced disheartening sales and earnings. At a time when everything is accessible for less on Amazon, JC Penney’s coupons played a critical role in generating the buzz that would bring shoppers to their stores.

Once that buzz fizzled away, so did discount-trained shoppers, and everyday low prices became everyday low sales.

2. Supply chain and replenishment blunders can cripple promotion performance.

Promotions put pressure on your supply chain operations and retailers are often left with an unprofitable inventory glut or lack in the post-promotion period. Sales exceeding your forecast sounds like a positive problem to face, but stock outs leave mean lost sales both during and after the promotion. Retailers must be responsive and on top of their replenishment game.

Of course, for some retailers, stock outs are part of the strategy to create buzz. Ty in the 1990s stringently controlled the supply of Beanie Babies available to the public, even discontinuing toys rising in popularity to spur frenzied sales over scarce supply.

3. Promotions affect sales for other products, and creative inventory management

Promotions influence sales for other products, and smart inventory management can help you maximize its positive effects. When preparing for the promotions period, order more complementary, non-competing products, since basket analysis often shows a lift in sales of these items due to the halo effect. For example, a promotion on jackets can cause an increase in scarf sales in cooler months.

The same promotion can cause cannibalization of sales for items in the same category, so order less of the competing item for the period of the promotion. The pull-forward effect can also impact post-promotion sales, especially for commodities like laundry detergent, which has a long shelf life. This occurs when shoppers stock up on the sale item, causing a hiccup in their regular purchase frequency and therefore lower sales in the months following the promotion.

Promotions are important elements in the retailer-customer relationship, and how you set expectations today can impact how your business performs for decades to come. In any case, you can count on Retail Pro to give you the flexibility you need to create the promotions strategy that makes most sense for your business.

 

Want to see it in action?

 

Request a consultation

 

by Jennifer Bosavage

Mobile Marketing Must Be In Your Future

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Are you marketing your business without acknowledging that a vast majority of your shoppers are mobile-equipped? That means you could be communicating with them far more than simply when they venture into your store. With roughly 80% of internet users owning smartphones, and 40% of users’ internet time being spent on mobile devices, retailers need to incorporate mobile into their marketing mix.

Researchers are predicting that smartphones will account for 60 percent of e-commerce visits by the end of 2017. Mobile is disrupting how customers engage with brands. That means retailers shying away from mobile marketing will be left behind as customers increasingly report wanting to interact with their favorite stores on mobile platforms.

Ideally, a mobile strategy connects shoppers with retailers through smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Mobile customers can ask customer service agents questions, chat with agents, and get personalized information, including recent account statements and in-stock inventory.

Retailers can build loyalty programs into mobile marketing efforts to encourage customer trial and create shopping habits.

There are several ways of integrating mobile into your strategy:

App-based: Retailers don’t have to create an app themselves; various services are available to help design mobile ads that appear within third-party mobile apps. And Facebook lets advertisers create ads that are integrated into the social network’s mobile app. Promoted Post ads integrate seamlessly with Facebook’s news feed, so users often don’t realize they’re viewing ads.

In-game: These appear within mobile games as banner pop-ups, full-page image ads or sometimes as video ads that are visible between loading screens.

Location-based marketing: Advertisements appear on mobile devices based upon a user’s location. If they are in the mall where your business is located, they’ll receive a coupon as a text message, for example. Retailers choose specific boundaries on how far these ads can travel.

Mobile ordering: Offering ordering via an app is a great differentiator for a retailer. Customers expect a seamless experience, so building a robust app is crucial. The mobile order experience should include the elements of an in-store order within the app: view full menu, customize items, make a mobile payment, and complete the order.

It’s a mobile-first world, with increasing numbers of shoppers using their devices to complete or research purchases. The time is now to start building —or improving — your mobile presence.

by Jennifer Bosavage

3 Tips for Using Your Retail Data to Attract More Customers

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For retailers, much of the work that goes into making a sale is done before your customer ever sets foot in your store. Here are 3 tips for using your retail data to attract more customers.

 

1. Use outbound marketing as a targeted follow-up to inbound marketing.

Fresh, high-quality content is available to sales prospects 24/7. Whether it’s on the web, in stores, or via email, information is out there, waiting to be consumed by eager customers. Savvy retailers are using their content assets to attract customers, and it’s working: Interesting, relevant material attracts leads to a business’ site, social media presence and/or store. That content must position your company as a market leader. Valuable content that informs the customer is key. The more specific your content, the more focused you can be.

2. Collect data on your customer.

To really provide such highly focused, relevant content, you must understand customers’ interests and tastes, as well as their demographic information. Only then can you tailor both your content, which attracts customers, and the message, which will be used to close the sale. Outbound marketing only succeeds when it reaches the appropriate audience. Personalized campaigns can go a long way when you are courting a customer. Let the data you gather help inform the way you engage with customers.

3. Use predictive analytics.

Look back and use past performance to gauge future sales. Predictive analytics examines a variety of data and then systematically offers the makeup of the best leads. Big data crunching can help find those sweet spots invisible to the naked eye. In addition, sales teams knowledgeable in the science of data analytics can gain insight into purchasing triggers. Paying attention to small triggers can get your retail marketing campaigns out ahead of the competition’s.

 

 

 

by Jennifer Bosavage

Making the Most of Your Social Media Presence

 

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Understanding how social media influences consumers’ attitudes, motivations and behaviors is more important than ever.

Referrals are the lifeblood of retail. Having a satisfied customer base that will sing your praises is worth more than an ad campaign by the most sought-after advertising firm on Madison Avenue. People are more than five times as likely to buy based on a recommendation from a social peer than they are when they’ve merely been exposed to traditional forms of marketing, according to research from consumer giant Sony.

Today, referrals are made easier due to the proliferation of social media.

Understanding how social media influences consumers’ attitudes, motivations and behaviors is more important than ever. Social platforms are uniquely able to broadcast satisfaction from New York to Nepal. Retailers who embrace social media — and use it to interact with customers as well as engage so-called “influencers” – are finding it’s a valuable marketing tool.

More than any other age group, millennials use social media to research their potential purchases. In The Monogram Group‘s August 2014 survey of 21-to-32-year-old internet users in the United States, 52% cited social sites among places where they gathered information about “new products or brands that interest you.” That ranked higher than paid advertising (41%).

Many conversations take place on various social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat, etc., prior to any purchase is actually made. It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of social media in business: It’s critical for getting their brands noticed as well as creating “buzz.”

Segments have key influencers — people that are tastemakers. What they say online sells — so find them and forge a relationship. Getting on their radar will greatly amplify your marketing message ad enhance your image with customers. Forging a relationship with an influencer, or getting mentioned in their blogs, could build your company’s reputation. To find influencers, engage with your customers: Which blogs do they read? Also, search on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for keywords relevant to your segment to learn which of those accounts have the most followers. Social-listening software can also be used to flag certain topics of interest.

Seventy-six percent of retailers are spending more on social media marketing this year than they did a year ago, according to Forrester Research Inc.’s report “The State of Retailing Online 2016: Marketing and Merchandising.” Increasingly, retailers are taking a cue from millennials and rather than selling them products, they are aiming to add value to their consumers’ lives by solving problems. And one of the most focused ways to do that is through a targeted, engaging presence on social media.

by Jennifer Bosavage

Millennials and the Importance of Authenticity

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Millennials are coming on strong. Retailers expect Millennials – who were born between 1976 and 1994 — to spend more than $200 billion annually starting in 2017. Further, they are projected to spend more than $10 trillion during their lifetimes, according to Advertising Age.

Millennials currently account for $1.3 trillion in consumer spending, and with 80 million potential millennial customers, retailers will be rewarded if they can attract this segment.

AdAge estimates these young adults spend 25 hours online weekly. They are gathering information — retaining what is appealing, discarding what is not. To avoid having your content in land in the virtual recycle bin, it must be authentic.

Authentic means more than just being unique or having originated from your store. Rather, authentic means that the content “rings true” to the consumer. It is written in a manner that is familiar to the millennial, and that gives it credibility. Content that is not authentic sounds phony or forced and turns off this age group.

What that means is that most traditional advertising sounds fake to Millennials. According to Forbes research, a mere 1% of millennials surveyed said that a compelling advertisement would make them trust a brand more. One percent. Clearly, advertising budgets for this group need to be rethought.

However, remember all that time spent consuming content on the Web? Much of that is spent doing research on future purchases. Forbes said 33% of millennials rely mostly on blogs before they make a purchase, compared to fewer than 3% for TV news, magazines and books.

If you are looking to invest in TV commercials, you’re looking to attract baby boomers, not millennials.

In addition, millennials check sources of material for their authenticity as well. If they trust the content creator, they’ll trust the information.

All of that is great information to keep in mind when creating any marketing collateral for your company — and that includes social sites. It’s imperative to have a presence on the networks that make sense for your business, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

And millennials expect nearly instant responses to their comments: Getting back to a complaint on Facebook two days later is not acceptable. In addition, those responses must be personal and respectful.

Whole Foods offers a great example (click to enlarge):

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Seriously, if Whole Foods can reveal itself as truly caring about a customer’s trash bag selection, you can surely create authentic content about your product as well.