14 August 2018
Close the Gap
With a fast-growing e-commerce market everything is moving fast and the terms are constantly changing. The consumers make new demands, the competitors launch smart, innovative features and the physical shops become a larger and larger part of the equation when it comes to the ultimate commerce success. But how do you eliminate the customers’ hassle, set the standard before the competitors and satisfy the customers’ expectations?
Know your customers’ expectations and deliver on them
At the world’s biggest retail conference NRF Retail’s BIG Show 2018 in New York one of the conference’s huge topics was ’Close the Gap’ which deals with the importance of being aware that someone will lead the way in the market and set the standard.
A standard such as ‘click and collect’ which not only creates new expectations from the consumers but which also make new demands on you as retailers as you now have to close the gap between the new standard and what you deliver to live up to the customers’ expectations. It is therefore essential that you know your customers’ expectations and deliver on them – or even better: be those in the market who set the new standard.
Some of the expectations which increasingly exist among the consumers are the expectations for BORO, BORIS and BOPIS. According to the 2018 Foresee Experience Index: Retail CX Insigths, which is an annual consumer survey involving 40,000 participants in Canada, the US and the UK, 54% of the consumers decline shopping in a webshop where it costs money to return the products (BORO), while 40% of the consumers decline shopping in a webshop where returning the products in a physical shop is not possible (BORIS).
As many as 61% of the surveyed consumers shop online and pick up in the shop (BOPIS) and they believe that it is an important feature when shopping online. Buy online and picking up & returning in a physical shop are just some of the standards which you are increasingly expected to live up to if the customers will choose your shops – online as well as offline. Only by identifying the expectations existing in the market and living up to them you can become the customers’ preferred shop.
Figures and illustrations found at Foresee Experience Index.
Heidi O’Neill, Nike’s President of Global Direct to Consumer
“We’re leading the transformation of sport retail — offering the best of Nike products, services and experiences under one roof. We can realize the promise of personalized performance. Powered by immersive digital trials and in-store experts, this store is about elevating every athlete’s potential. Whether you’re training for a marathon, shooting hoops or doing drills on our in-store court, or if you love sneakers, Nike will help you raise your game. Because it’s more than a store — it’s a personal sport experience.”
The digital-physical experience
In New York you find many examples of stores that set new standards in the market – in particular the so-called Flagship Stores where new ideas for the physical shops are put into play and tested among the customers. One of the brands, which is able to use its Flagship Store optimally, is the sports wear giant NIKE.
The philosophy behind NIKE’s Flagship Store is that the physical shops today are allowed to serve as galleries or showrooms for the online shops where the layout of the shop as well as the committed and impassioned staff are focused on giving the customers a unique experience which they can only get by physically coming to the shop.
Having this philosophy, NIKE has decided to limit the product range in the store for example by changing the theme of the entire ground floor and the product range every month allowing full focus on one particular product category at a time. One of the themes in the store has been personalisation of sneakers where the entire ground floor was filled with white sneakers which you could paint and draw on and decorate with various accessories. NIKE has allowed space for fun and customer involvement in the store and has included digital touchpoints in the store where the customers can search for products in the webshop that are not physically present in the store. This allows the customers to zap between webshop and physical shop without moving.
In this way, NIKE gives its customers an active choice about where they prefer to be at the moment and bring the best from the two worlds together in one. At the same time, NIKE’s staff are servicing the customers via mobile POS so the customers avoid having to go to the cash register to pay but are served directly on the floor - easily and simply. By including the digital features, NIKE is removing the customers’ hassle and is thereby setting the standard of what the customers are expecting from other retailers.
Make-up without make-up
Another feature which has also become very successful in the physical shops is the opportunity to try products via virtual mirrors. The beauty brand Sephora is one of the brands that has definitely adopted the trend by giving the customers the opportunity to try on the store’s make-up products without having to apply them at all.
The way the mirrors work is that a customer can stand in front of the mirror and chose between various types of artificial eyelashes. When the customer clicks on a certain type of eyelashes, they are reflected in the mirror image and the customer can see how it looks - as if the customer had actually put them on.
In this way, Sephora makes it easy for the individual customer to try on many different products without having to ruin their makeup when they leave the store. By giving the customers this opportunity, Sephora removes the customers’ hassle and also makes the experience in the store funny and engaging for the customers.
Are you interested in hearing more about how you can avoid the gap and better live up to the customers' expectations?
Contact Casper Bo Jørgensen, Customer Relations Manager, at: +45 23 30 79 56 or email to: cbj@hesehus.dk
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