Stephen Keenan, Managing Director- EMEA Retail, Verizon looks at five key ways they can get ahead of the pack and grab a bigger slice of the digital pie.
The retail industry is still going through a significant change as consumers continue to spend more and more of their money online rather than in stores. Recent findings by the Office for National Statistics indicated that online spending was up by 8.2% in December 2015 over the previous year. It might seem that this change has been going on for some time already, but it’s showing no signs of slowing any time soon. Forecasts suggest that online spending will grow by 44.9% from 2015 figures, to reach £62.7bn by 2020. Clearly this is something that retailers cannot afford to ignore.
In order to stay ahead of their competitors, retailers will need agility to influence customers with tailored engagement strategies so they can secure their stake in wallet share. Here are five key ways they can get ahead of the pack and grab a bigger slice of the digital pie:
• Build a unified view of the customer journey: Achieving a ‘single view’ of a retailer’s POS and CRM systems combined with its ecommerce, m-commerce, in-store and call centre channels can enable one view across the entire business for streamlining operations and ultimately improving the customer experience. Recognising your customer and their shopping preferences and habits whether they are online, mobile or in store – without being intrusive – can earn the sought after brand loyalty that is the holy grail for the industry.
• Have the right ecommerce ingredients: A key component of successful digital customer engagement involves assessing a retailer’s supporting infrastructure and platform operations. What do your customers encounter once they’ve followed the digital path to your website? Will your customer be personally greeted and is the functionality user-friendly and fast? Is it easy to get customer service support if needed and will those associates recognise the returning customer? How good are your analytics for predicting inventory needs and customer preferences? And, most significantly, can your ecommerce platform handle traffic increases around holidays and promotions? A flexible and secure network infrastructure and robust IT hosting environment are essential for a strong operational model.
• Follow the right digital and mobile recipe: Identifying the best engagement formulas — which involves refining the timing and channel for targeting consumers with compelling and tailored offers — is a must in today’s digital marketplace. Statistics from a recent survey commissioned by Verizon reveal that 56% of smartphone owners made a purchase in 2015 using a mobile app. Though Millennials accounted for the lion share’s (70%), usage by Gen X’ers (66%) and Baby Boomers (39%) is on the rise. Digital outreach then via a consumer’s mobile device that is either infrequent or not compelling runs the risk of ending up as a deleted app rather than a potential reward for both parties. As such, this is an area retailers should be looking at closely and not ignoring.
• Keep customers safe: Part of earning a customer’s loyalty and trust means protecting their proprietary information across a retailer’s ecosystem. All it takes is one data breach to undo all of the foundational brand building that is essential to a company’s vitality. Verizon’s 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report revealed that 88% of the attacks across the retail industry occurred in three major categories: denial of service (44%), crimewave (23%) and point-of-sale intrusion (21%). Cybersecurity measures then should be at the forefront of every sales channel, strategy and function across a retailer’s business.
• Keep your back-office in shape: As retailers continue to introduce new practices that help to speed-up merchandise delivery to consumers — such as expanding a retail location to double as a fulfilment centre — assessing back office and supply chain operations is essential, as ultimately everything is a brand reflection. A late delivery may rest with a distributor for example, yet the retailer will always be in the hot seat.
Despite the fact that the industry is changing, there is a real opportunity for retailers to gain revenue from changing consumer habits. Digital transformation is something that many businesses find themselves going through, however retailers stand to benefit hugely from increased online revenues if they get it right. Having the right digital strategy in place and keeping the customer journey front of mind will help retailers avoid missing out on a huge slice of the digital pie.
By Stephen Keenan
Managing Director-EMEA Retail
Verizon