Article

Making multi-channel make sense

Creating consistent experiences is crucial.

April 13, 2008 by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

This article originally published in Retail Customer Experience magazine, Feb. 2008.Click hereto download a free PDF version.

Try this little experiment: Ask five people to tell you the first word that pops into their heads when you say the name "Target." Chances are, most of them will reply with the word "red."

The color red has become such a lynchpin of the Target brand, it often is possible to identify the retailer's television ads long before the name appears. The on-screen proliferation of red products and the people and animals happily wearing and using them is identification enough.

It stands to reason, then, that red is the predominant color not only of Target's in-store fixtures and furnishings, but of its Web site, as well.

Integrating the in-store experience with online includes all of the obvious steps, such as consistent colors and typestyles across channels, but that's the easy part.

"Visual cues help customers know they are in the right place," said Mizi Dzugan, founder of e-commerce consultancy Rapport Online. "If you went to the Target Web site and it was green, the bounce rate would be huge as people backed out, trying to find where they went wrong."

Integrating the in-store experience with online includes all of the obvious steps, such as making sure colors and typestyles match across channels. But that's the easy part.

Know your customer

For retailers operating in both the real and virtual worlds, the stakes never have been higher. Online retail began as a novelty, then turned into a profitable sideline and now is a necessity. And it is not a silo; it has a tangible effect on in-store success. Research conducted by software firm Gomez found that 65 percent of shoppers would stop or at least reconsider shopping at a retailer's brick-and-mortar locations if they had a bad online experience.

"(Inconsistency) can be devastating to a brand," said Jon Provisor, chief technical officer of consultancy Guidance, whose clients have included Foot Locker, The Getty and Relax The Back. "A consumer can have reliably pleasant in-store experiences for a number of years, only to sour on the brand after a disappointing online experience. All channels matter — they are all the same to the consumer. Consistency of brand representation and service levels should be a mantra."

Those service levels require much more than using the same fonts and colors everywhere the brand appears. They require a technological foundation that allows the retailer to connect with customers consistently, no matter where it touches them.

"If you know me from one channel, you should know me in the other," said Don DePalma, president of research firm Common Sense Advisory, whose retail clients have included Land's End and Sears. He pointed to Best Buy and Macy's as examples of database integration done properly: Whether a purchase is made online or in the store, clerks can look up purchase histories, payment records and loyalty program reward points. "That kind of integration isn't that difficult, but it's still the exception," he said.

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Know your Web site

Tighter integration of the two experiences not only means the databases need to communicate with one another, it means the online experience should be available while in the store. Paul Kowal, author of three books on customer service including the forthcoming "Getting in Bed With Your Customers," said retailers always should make sure in-store staff has access to the company Web site and should be instructed to use downtime to familiarize themselves with it.

"They don't need to become Web site experts, but they can at least attain a basic knowledge of what's there," he said.

On the other hand, call center employees should be required to spend time in the retail environment, and if there is no store within a reasonable distance of the call center, a video tour of the store should be used.

"When a customer tells an in-store clerk, 'I remember seeing it in red on the Web, but I can't find it here,' the answer should never be, 'I don't know anything about the Web site; it's a whole different department," Kowal added. "The consumer sees them as alternate channels to the same company, and expects the employee to have some knowledge of both and what the differences are."

Consider Barnes & Noble: It entered the online book-selling business with a considerable head start over Amazon.com, at least from a branding and name recognition perspective. Yet it was quickly overtaken by the site that now is the predominant online bookseller.

"When (Barnes & Noble) first came online, they expected to blow Amazon away because of their good retail brand," said Dzugan. "But they really did not take advantage of their physical stores in the way they could have. They kept the operations totally separated, so, for example, a clerk in the store would not think of searching online for an out-of-print book. Or, you could not arrange to pick up an online order in the neighborhood store."

Roll with the changes

For the most part, store designs tend to be fairly static. Walls are tough things to move, after all, and although seasonal promotions may come and go, retail environments tend to look largely the same over time.

Electrons are much easier to move, so Web site redesigns happen more often than store redesigns. When these changes are taking place, retailers need to keep a close eye on the creative work being done to make sure the overall experience remains consistent, even as specific graphics and layouts might evolve.

Store locator tools are great ways to reinforce the fact that your business is not just virtual, but exists in the brick-and-mortar world. Work with your design team to make this tool as intuitive as possible — the less typing and thinking the shopper has to do, the better.

Including an actual image of your print advertisements is a great way to create a subliminal connection in the mind of your shopper between your channels.

Giving customers the ability to check inventory and research products with the specific intent of buying in the store is a great way to merge the channels.

One answer to the possible problems that can arise from Web redesigns is a holistic marketing and branding strategy — one that extends companywide and has to be hewed to by the creative agency redesigning the Web site, just as an agency designing print ads would.

"For example, when a retailer drops a catalog with a new product release, all channels would support that with consistent messaging, pushing the same products, making sure those products are in stock," said Provisor. "While the catalog remains constant for several months, the Web site and in-store displays can transform more often with focused releases — remaining consistent across the brand and supporting the overall companywide product push."

Keeping the focus "the same and yet different" is especially challenging given the very different nature of the two shopping channels. "Assets can be shared between the two properties using content management systems, but there do need to be separate teams to manage the user experiences, and they must work together on a regular basis to stay coordinated," said Mike Dusche, vice president of creative content agency Intava.

One easy-to-reap benefit from that level of asset sharing comes in the form of digital signage, which can turn retail wall space into a dynamic extension of the retailer's online brand. "If you are redesigning the graphics on your site for a particular promotion or season, be sure to update your in-store digital signage and displays with the same graphics and messaging to create consistency," he added.