Article

Converging the retail experience to connect with the changing shopper

Retailers must be more attuned than ever before to customers, tailoring the shopping experience accordingly.

May 2, 2010

Today’s consumers are bombarded by information from the moment they wake up in the morning until they close their eyes at night. The radio or TV may provide the first exposure; cell phones and smart phones light up with text messages, blog posts and tweets; the Internet supplies unlimited access to shopper reviews and price comparisons; and retail lines have blurred as brands previously available in one store can now be purchased in a variety of formats. Today’s savvy retailers have responded by providing a multichannel shopping experience for their customers. But times are changing and the stakes are higher. Retailers focused on thriving in this challenging retail environment must now consider converging those siloed channels, enabling the shopper to interact with them how and when they choose.

Welcome to the era of Converged Retailing. Retailers must now be more attuned than ever before to each customer, better understanding who they are and how they shop, and tailoring the shopping experience accordingly.

The "proliferation of customer touch points is creating new pressure for retailers to rethink their customer strategies," according to Gartner Industry Research in its 2009 Retail CRM Vendor Landscape and Capabilities report. "…as an increasing number of customers shop or ‘pretail’ across channels, a retailer’s ability to understand customer segments – particularly the most profitable customers – regardless of where they shop will become a critical competency."

In fact, more and more product research is completed before the consumer ever sets foot inside a store. Online research influenced 42 percent of online and offline sales in 2009, reports Forrester Research in its study titled "U.S. Online Retail Forecast, 2009 to 2014." By 2014 this rate is expected to grow to 53 percent, which translates to $1.4 trillion in retail spending. Mobile technology also is playing an increasing role in consumer research and spending. In 2010, U.S. consumers will spend $2.4 billion in purchases using their mobile phones, up 100 percent from $1.2 billion in 2009, according to ABI Research, as reported in the 2010 eMarketer "U.S. Retail Ecommerce Forecast" report.

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