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Future of Retail — Omnichannel
issue 07
“If I’ve gone in-store but then bought online how do retailers know I’ve done that? I could have spent half an hour with a sales person in-store. It will be those businesses that find a new set of metrics – to measure the efficacy of the store – and reward people on these new metrics that will be successful.”
Retailers need to get their heads around not just having a great ecommerce platform but have to also focus on their stores. But there is this dilemma of what to do with their retail space,” she suggests. The ongoing treatment of stores as simply for
driving sales is a mistake, according to Franklin, who says customers are using them as part of a multichannel journey and also for product discovery. But for retailers this comes at a time when in-store employees are doing more processing tasks like packaging for click and collect and handling returns. “This takes them away from dealing with
customers at a time when shoppers need more face-time. There are many more high-touch products today, even outdoor jackets can be quite technical, and customers have questions and want to go into stores,” says Franklin. As a result of this dynamic she believes
stores should no longer be judged on their long standing KPI – sales. “So what is the new KPI? If I’ve gone in-store but then bought online how do retailers know I’ve done that? I could have spent half an hour with a sales person in-store. It will be those businesses that find a new set of metrics – to measure the efficacy of the store – and reward people on these new metrics that will be successful.” There is also the issue of retailers failing to
tailor their offers in-store to the customer types in each location: “There is more opportunity now with data analytics to better predict what customers want to buy. Using personas based on actual data segmentation is the key to this.” To better understand customer demands
Franklin says retailers need to talk to them but this is often dismissed. “Managements in the boardroom need to focus on customer feedback and behaviour and to then act on it. This needs to be a priority in order to help companies focus on customer retention as well as acquiring more customers,” she says. The solution would not require expensive IT
systems, argues Franklin. “A lot of businesses worry about further investment in more technology but often getting closer to customer and their journeys can give you a lot of clues to drive improved performance,” she says.” Needless to say, she does not believe there is
a silver bullet to solve the problems facing many retailers. What is needed is a change of mindset of managements. “For people who have been in the industry 30 or 40 years, it’s a very different world now. If they do not embrace the changes then customers will vote with their feet. Retailers need to demonstrate things like sustainability and create loyalty [around these things] as well as great service because customers now expect great service – it’s table stakes,” warns Franklin.
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