Its mobile companion app, which boasts scanning technology, wish list capability, and other useful features including in-store maps, go far in helping customers have the best possible in-store experience. Still, retailers such as Ikea are demonstrating how mobile can help enhance the in-store experience. PWAs enable faster transactions, leading to less cart abandonment and, ultimately, higher profit. Indeed, PWAs-a hybrid of a regular website and a mobile application-may finally mean substantial increases in conversion on mobile. But, he said, this will change as progressive web apps (PWAs) become increasingly important for e-commerce. In fact, Sheldon said, 40% of consumers still find it easier to shop on desktop than on mobile. “However, the majority of sales still happen on desktop because the majority of mobile experiences are still subpar.” “It’s no secret that mobile usage is increasingly becoming more prominent across the globe,” Adobe’s Sheldon said. And while conversion on mobile continues to grow, albeit slowly, it is nowhere near as high as mobile traffic to retail websites. While she was right, missing from her prediction was the visit-to-conversion gap that would plague the mobile industry for years to come. In 2008, Internet trend-seeker Mary Meeker, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, made the bold prediction that mobile would overtake desktop usage by 2014. He mentioned that this type of digital, cashier-less experience in stores is the way forward for low consideration purchases such as groceries, but there will always be instances where consumers want the expertise of a store associate. Jeff Barrett, CEO of Status Creative, said he is fascinated by the business model for Amazon Go. “We thought you may like this” or “This is on sale or special today that you may like” are easy ways to increase sales, Kodali suggested. Smart retailers can improve the chances of customers buying more by bringing out additional merchandise based on what consumers are coming in to pick up. This is the “biggest opportunity for retailers today,” she adds, since many of those in-store pickups result in shoppers adding something else to their orders. Tactics like BOPIS are attractive for retailers because they drive people to the physical store, Forrester’s Kodali says. This spike signals that retailers are increasingly fulfilling consumer expectations for integrated cross-channel experiences, said ADI director Taylor Schreiner.
31), according to Adobe Digital Insights (ADI). One popular tactic- buy online/pick up in-store (BOPIS)-saw a record 65% increase in usage during the 2018 holiday shopping season (Nov. Indeed, the digitization of the in-store experience is blurring the lines between physical and digital, while also letting consumers shop on their own terms. “The conventions of what can be sold online are being disrupted, which is also having an effect on people coming into stores.” Sheldon pointed to Houzz, which has a View in my Room functionality that lets people see an item in their space before purchasing-essentially removing the need to go into a store. “Retailers need to focus on removing all friction related to purchasing, and that doesn’t just mean online it also applies to in-store,” Sheldon said. With the fundamentals in place, there’s no better place to surprise and delight customers than in the brick-and-mortar retail space, agreed Peter Sheldon, senior director of strategy for Magento at Adobe. “There is definitely a big opportunity to execute better in retail-especially in-store.” “If you don’t actually execute and have the right products quickly available to customers and make it easy for them to transact, it doesn’t matter how experiential your store is,” she told CMO by Adobe. The Digitization Of The In-Store ExperienceĪccording to Sucharita Kodali, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, retailers can wow their customers with the most incredible in-store experiences, but first they must have the basics all set. One notable commonality? They all point to a bigger trend of the customer-centric business transformation occurring in retail and other commerce-driven industries. In retail, that means a strong emphasis on customer experience management (CXM) both online and in-store.īelow, we take a look at some of the biggest developments in commerce today.
A study by Gartner found that this year 81% of companies expect to be competing mostly or completely on the basis of CX. Of course, growing the business is still the end goal, but the way to do it-surprise, surprise-now revolves around customer experience.