In thinking about this article on retail, the first thing that came to mind was how drastically it’s changed since my role as leading Social Media& Mobile Marketing back in 2012 for a household name, $40B/yr. retailer. As Sofia on Golden Girls would say (did I just age myself?), let me set the scene.
It’s mid-April and while the rest of the world is thinking it’s tax season, here in retail we’re thinking holidays – yes, the big ones in November and December. Hallways are lined with Christmas Trees and decorations – it’s inescapable and I love that. It really brings the team together when you “see” what you’re working on. Conversely, for BTS (Back to School), we plan to launch sales starting in June. I always found that odd given some schools haven’t even started their summer break. But we do not want to miss the uber organized parent who wants school shopping done before their summer vacation.
I left retail to join a household name home services/security company. While that was a great experience, I missed retail. There’s something about working 24×7 from mid-November until end of December that really bonds a team. I have fond memories of catering in Thanksgiving dinner for my team while we worked in the social media command center. That year, our company started “Black Friday” sales on Wednesday night, for members, and we were one of the first to open on Thanksgiving Day. I can’t say I loved that as there should be time that’s quintessential family time but, many of our employees did love it because they made time and a half, and those few days supported their shopping for presents. I digress.
Fast forward 10 years, and now social shopping is the norm not to mention eCommerce. In fact, right before starting to write this article, I was sucked in by a promotion on Instagram for summer dresses. You should know I’m a jeans and t-shirt (with heels) kind of gal but, something about these dresses drew me in. A few hundred dollars later, I’m going to be sporting dresses this summer. And it wasn’t just a social campaign, they paired with an influencer from one of my favorite TV shows.
To bring such interactions (and revenue streams) into play, you need enhanced, and emerging, technology – think social and voice search. It’s crucial that your commerce infrastructure is both agile and flexible to keep up with the changing landscape of not just retail but also consumer shopping trends. Many retailers struggle with legacy platforms which have no ability to scale, causing site outages and sluggish performance. And if we know anything about retail, it’s that consumers have no patience. We live in an “I want it now” society here in the U.S.
This consumer mentality, coupled with legacy systems, can be catastrophic for introducing new shopping channels. Retailers bogged down with legacy systems lose customers to more tech-savvy competitors. If you thought sites were the end-all-be-all, you’re now finding out that social commerce has taken over.
How do retailers win in this new world? Here are 5 tips:
- As Stephen Covey says, start with the end in mind. If your goal is to drive online sales, build a tech-first experience that performs quickly and easily across mobile, tablet and desktop. Understanding your customers will want to shop, add to cart, and checkout quickly.
- Develop an omni-channel marketing strategy across search, display, social, email and mobile. You’re spending marketing dollars for customers to find your store and that translates into opportunity. Display retargeting, Facebook retargeting, Facebook look alikes, Pinterest ads (yes, Pinterest drives significant traffic to DTC/retailers), email retargeting. Are you getting it? Secure the customers information and then USE IT.
- To get your customers to share their private info (email and mobile phone #), lean into an offer that’s minimal cost or effort on your part, but of value to the customer (first order discount, free shipping, gift with purchase, etc.).
- Plan, plan, and plan but be flexible. If your peak season is Spring because you sell home goods, plan for a big push then but also maintain flexibility. One of the things I’ve seen plenty of time is retailers tell us that they want to plan around Winter but they forget that it’s warm in the south so they can also sell their seasonal goods year-round – all with precise targeting. Be flexible to introduce new marketing approaches – but be careful with them. Clubhouse is a great example. People went crazy for it during the pandemic and then it just fell off. On the other hand, Tik Tok has stayed and might be worth investigating on a limited basis – and definitely with an established influencer.
- Make payment easy. If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a hundred times. Some retailer site that paid marketing dollars to get you to shop, makes it nearly impossible to pay. You have to login; you need to input all kinds of information. Instead of this, bite the bullet of cost and offer 1-click payment, Google pay, Apple pay, Amazon pay.
I’ll leave you with one last thought: shipping. Amazon has changed the game for retail and for consumer expectations and behavior. Plenty of people pay a couple dollars more to buy from Amazon because they’ll get it in 2 days, or less, for free (they forget they’re paying an annual fee from Prime.) Unless shipping is a significant cost for your business, offer it for free. That said, you can put restrictions on it – requires email address, min. order/spend, members only, etc.
All in all, I truly love our retail clients despite crazy customer behavior and reliance on agile technology. As a digital marketing agency, you’d think we only do marketing but we’ve become consultants on site experience, landing pages, functionality, etc. Why? Because it’s all connected. And honestly, what’s better than making someone’s day by selling them what they love and making that buying journey, and experience, super easy.
