REIMAGINING ACTIVE RETAIL Six Strategies That Drive Omnichannel Customer Engagement While Increasing Retailer Profitability Manhattan Active OMNI
A CHANGING RETAIL LANDSCAPE ò23% physical Online retailers have seen sales decrease by as much as 23 percent in zip codes where stores close. More than 5,000 stores have recently closed their doors. Decreasing foot traffic is a reality. But, what s the impact to the overall P&L?
Welcome to the era of active retail. Success requires retailers to move quickly and continuously innovate. Retailers must be able to establish a relationship and dialogue with customers and convert these conversations into profits. For years, e-commerce has been re-scripting the core concepts of retailing. Customers expect limitless product selection, crowdsourced reviews, and pop-up recommendations based on personal buying or browsing histories, all in a fast, one-click sales transaction.
Despite disruption, the store is still at the center of retail. The modern shopping experience has fundamentally changed. Shoppers expect stores, call centers, and store associates to be actively connected.
The challenge is how to integrate the benefits of digital retailing into the physical environment or for a pureplay online retailer, where to open physical stores as an extension of the digital experience. Retailers who offer consumers the best of both worlds can create a reimagined, highly responsive, exceptionally engaging shopping experience. Retailers can empower their store associates to engage, personalize, promote and sell any product or services. Successful retailers are the ones who can enable store associates to fulfill orders for pickup instore or ship orders that were placed online, while keeping an accurate inventory across digital and physical platforms.
Here are six strategies retailers can use to drive engagement and meet customer expectations.
Leverage a 360 Customer View
Customers should always be at the center of the retail universe. Today, it s relatively easy to create a full, 360 view of customers purchases, preferences, wish lists, and lifetime value. Clienteling drives guided selling based on customer-specific digital assets. Store associates engage customers at key points all along their brand journey before, during, and after in-store shopping for a high touch, premium shopping experience. Store associates can inform customers about promotions and upsell items that reflect true personal preferences. With visibility into online behaviors, store associates can access customers online wish lists to take better care of them, while boosting in-store sales.
Reconsider The Store s Role in Branding and Marketing
Brick-and-mortar stores still significantly influence e-commerce success. Studies have shown that when a brickand-mortar location closes, online sales in that geographic area often decline by as much as 23%. To combat this billboard effect, retailers are positioning their stores as showrooms or theaters that offer a memorable shopping experience.
90% McKinsey of retail sales still occur in a traditional store environment. & Company
Empower Seamless Selling Online or in Store From a Full View of Inventory
Many customer journeys start with browsing products online, and end in the store with the purchase of items that were abandoned in the digital cart.
Too often, customers find something they like in the store but it s the wrong size or color. To ensure retailers make the sale, store associates can be empowered to sell online or in-store from one inventory database. It s important to create a single view of each customer that is matched to a single view of the network ensuring that sales associates always have visibility to the information they need. This empowers them to sell anywhere, from the full network of inventory, with a single swipe.
Accept Any Type of Payment From Anywhere
Mobile devices enable store associates to engage with customers anywhere they can search catalogs, look up inventory, line bust, handle on-floor checkout or accept any kind of payment. Because so many customers carry smartphones, targeted marketing using geolocation and beacon technology lets retailers personalize promotions that appeal to individual shoppers. For high-touch, personalized experiences, store associates must be equipped with mobile devices to speed customer checkout, whether they are in line, on the sales floor or fulfilling e-commerce orders from the stock room.
Manage Returns, Exchanges, and Inquiries Across All Channels
An important part of customer satisfaction happens after the sale. Exchanges, returns, and order inquiries are inevitable in the retail process. Handling these services can be labor intensive and prone to error especially if the information needed to respond to customers is isolated in silos designed for specific channels.
A single system of record for all orders across all channels offers a seamless post-purchase experience. Online purchases may be returned or exchanged in stores, where customers can also try on items or see alternative styles and colors in person. The result is more satisfied customers that produce higher lifetime value and profitability.
Elevate the Role of the Store in Order Fulfillment
Orders don t always have to be shipped from a distribution center. The modern retailer can orchestrate fulfillment from stores, distribution centers, suppliers, and even third-party logistics providers to best serve customers while ensuring profitability.
Retailers offering free buy online, pick up in store options enjoy higher sales and more store visits from their most price-conscious customers. The Wall Street Journal
Manhattan Active OMNI provides a first-of-its-kind, born-in-the-cloud, comprehensive portfolio of solutions and services that run anywhere, stay current and are fully extensible. Manhattan Active STORE offers features like point of sale, clienteling, and fulfillment picking and packing, which are available as a mobile app or via web browser. Manhattan Active HQ gives everyone visibility into customer transactions across all touchpoints with a real-time view of perpetual inventory across fulfillment locations in-transit, onorder, and third-party owned/fulfilled inventory.
Ready to activate these strategies? Drive omnichannel customer engagement and increase retailer profitability. manh.com/active 2017 Manhattan Associates, Inc.