Article
How To: Crafting a retail customer experience to lure millennial consumers
Rodney Mason, Blackhawk group vice president of marketing, offers tips and insight on how retailers should approach developing and implementing a strategy focused on the millennial shopper.
December 14, 2015 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com
A new Blackhawk study reveals the primary purchase influence for the millennial consumer is price but as every retailer knows pricing is just part of the competitive strategy when it comes to the retail customer experience.
Today’s retail consumer strategy must be much more comprehensive. Just consider these few quick stats, from the Blackhawk study, regarding millennial shoppers behavior and expectations:
- Millennials rank gift cards as the safest method of making online purchases.
- 89 percent use smartphones to connect to the Internet on a daily basis.
- 55 percent rely on social media as their primary source for shopping news and information, easily out distancing television, which ranked sixth.
- 95 percent have the same or greater sensitivity to price as last year.
Retail Customer Experience and Blackhawk recently hosted a free one-hour webinar focusing on Blackhawk’s study and attendees were given a deep look at consumer trends and retail strategies. As a follow-up RCE talked with webinar presenter Rodney Mason, Blackhawk’s GVP of marketing, to gain even further insight on the findings and how retailers should go about developing and implementing a strategy focused on the millennial consumer segment. Mason, who leads Blackhawk’s thought leadership and strategic insights and oversees corporate and client marketing initiatives, is an expert on mobile, social and digital technologies and the impact on retail programs.
RCE: The millennial consumer seems to be a unique consumer for the retailer today. Is there a comparable consumer from the past decades that grabbed so much attention and required such a strategic retail approach?
Mason: Baby boomers have been the center of retailer attention until just the last few years. Boomers are mass consumers that can be easily marketed to by retail, and require much less strategic attention than millennials. Gen X, the generation between Boomers and millennials, has a population that is much smaller than Boomers and their shopping patterns weren’t overly disruptive, so retail strategies targeting them has been in line with that of Boomers. It is only now retailers have begun to focus on millennials who are much more complex. Millennials have a bigger and more diverse population than Boomers and the way they use technology as it relates to shopping is literally dismantling traditional retail.
RCE: Mobile seems to be synonymous with millennial. Where, in your view, is the average retailer today in terms of understanding the connection and importance and will it be the millennial’s expectations driving more retailers to move faster with the mobile consumer strategy necessary?
Mason: Retail mobile is in its infancy and well behind the expectations of millennials and the general shopping population that is following them. This holiday season is already showing that mobile is the number one way the general population shops online. Traditional retail strategies lead customers down a forced path to purchase designed to increase average purchase ring for the retailer. Millennials do not want to walk or browse online around merchandise that is not relevant to them. They make their own path based on what is relevant. Understanding how millennials use mobile to navigate online and in the physical world is what’s missing most in retail right now.
RCE: Of all the data your study brought to light, what is one or two of the most surprising or maybe most compelling in your view?
Mason: The opportunity to grow significant business from Buy Online Pickup In Store (BOPIS) rebates is mind-blowing to me. The vast majority of millennials will BOPIS for an incentive that typically costs less than shipping the item to them. Given the competitive necessity to offer free shipping online, every retailer should be running BOPIS rebates to drive incremental in-store traffic and reduce overall costs. Our research shows millennials love rebates, because they are extremely price sensitive and always seek out the very best deals, which rebates afford.
Promoting best price through social media is a must to reach millennials. Social Media is the number one way millennials discover shopping news. TV is sixth and print further below TV. The primary reason millennials follow brands and retail on social media is to save money. Social media is underutilized as a retail medium, particularly to promote values and savings.
RCE: So once mobile is conquered, and retailers are taking full advantage of capturing the millennial consumer, what do you think will be the next big ‘get’ retailers will need to jump on board with?
Mason: Shoppers want a more personalized experience and we’ve found in shopper studies they are willing to opt-in and share their information for it. For example, when a customer walks in a store or shops online, they want to be assisted on their phone with sales tips, shopping reminders and recommendations based on their shopping history. The technology is there, but the vast majority of retailers are not.
RCE: If you had to describe 2015 as the ‘year of X’ with retail customer experience what would it be and what would the ‘year of’ be for the upcoming 2016?
Mason: 2015 is the ‘year of waking up to mobile shopping.’ 2016 is the ‘year of better mobile shopping.’
About Judy Mottl
