Consumer Behavior
How retailers can continue to ensure in-store shopping is worth the trip in 2021
Chip Miller, CEO at Miller Zell, writes that regardless of the surging COVID-19 pandemic consumers are still venturing out to their favorite brand or retailer and offers insight on how retailers can continue to ensure in-store shopping is worth the trip in the coming year.
December 17, 2020 by Chip Miller
Think the in-store shopping experience is a thing of the past? Think again.
Although it's true that the pandemic has accelerated the shift away from brick-and-mortar stores to digital shopping by nearly five years, retailers can and are designing a customer experience and store environment that will make it worth the trip — not only now, during the holiday season, but into the coming year and beyond.
The National Retail Federation doesn't expect the COVID-19 pandemic to curb holiday sales. In fact, it forecasts sales during November and December to increase between roughly 3-5% over 2019 to a total between $755.3 billion and $766.7 billion.
And while e-commerce is grabbing a significant portion of those sales, many brick-and-mortar retailers have gone all out to draw consumers back into their stores. And regardless of the coronavirus, many consumers are still making the trip to their favorite brands.
Let's take a look at what's happening with retail now and how retailers can continue to ensure in-store shopping is worth the trip in the coming year.
Prioritizing safety
Despite the challenging year, shoppers are willing to open their pocketbooks to retailers that put safety first.
Stores that are clean, sanitized and make mask-wearing and social distancing mandatory will be those reaping the benefits and drawing shoppers through their doors. If you choose to skip such safety measures, including asking people to stay six feet apart, consumers are more apt to shop elsewhere.
It's also important to remember that safety begins before customers even set foot in an establishment, as customer perceptions of entrances and exits have become increasingly important.
Customers want to see initiatives in place to address crowd management, mask enforcement, cart sanitation and more. Innovative storefronts that prioritize safety help build customer brand confidence as well as create a safe space for both new and repeat shoppers.
Take a look at your establishment and think about the image it portrays throughout the trip – as customers enter the parking lot, walk into the store, shop, check out and leave the store – and make sure you are creating a consistent experience throughout.
Embracing a one-stop-shop mentality
Although many consumers are willing to leave the comfort of their homes to venture out into stores, they are making fewer trips, spending less time in stores and are planning their trips in advance. In fact, research by Path to Purchase reveals that 50% of shoppers self-identify as "trip planners" versus fewer than 25% before the pandemic began.
Therefore, retailers are responding by meeting consumers where they are. They are experimenting by offering products and services they didn't before in an attempt to create a holistic shipping experience. Rather than having go to the drug store, the supermarket and then to the eye doctor, some brands are trying to provide it all within the confines of their store through key partnerships.
Considering cross-pollination
In fact, many retailers are showing there's no time like the present to embrace COVID-19-driven changes in shopping behavior. Seemingly unlikely pairings are popping up everywhere as they are embracing transformation and innovating.
For instance, Sephora will open hundreds of beauty shops inside Kohl's stores, rising to at least 850 sites by 2023. Target and Ulta Beauty have sealed a deal to open up makeup and skincare shops inside many of U.S. Target stores over the coming decade. DSW is opening 1,200-square-foot mini-shops inside regional grocery store chain Hy-Vee.
Others like 7-Eleven and Wawa are also experimenting — by offering small convenience locations with no (or minimal) employees – à la Amazon Go fashion. Perhaps the most surprising of all? For the first time in its 51-year history, Cracker Barrel is serving alcohol.
Trying, testing and tossing
And while it might sound like retailers are just throwing ideas against the wall to see what sticks, they aren't. With the help of data – through loyalty programs, apps and more, the smarter use of customer analytics — they're being prescriptive with their experimentation. They've entered a challenging-yet-exciting new era of testing, learning and being willing to pivot quickly when an idea does not work.
At the end of the day, though, brick-and-mortar stores must offer well thought-out, consistent, simplified customer experiences – whether in the parking lot for curbside pickup, inside the front doors for buy online pickup in store or deep within the aisles, where ultimately, you want customers to linger a little longer.
Best Buy, Kohl's and Dick's Sporting Goods, for example, had a curbside program in place pre-pandemic and have worked on perfecting it since its popularity soared this year. And Home Depot, which is masterful at drawing people into its aisles, has seen explosive growth as Americans continue investing in their homes.
Redefining the shopping experience
Although 2020 has undoubtedly been a challenging year for everyone — especially retail – it has also ushered in an exciting era in which we're thrilled to help our customers rethink their physical store configurations to entice consumers back into their doors. Retailers are redefining the way consumers want to shop and vice versa.
Today presents the opportunity to implement changes that will positively resonate with customers and keep them coming back through your doors, whether that means increasing safety measures or trialing a novel — and possibly game-changing — idea.
As 2021 unfolds, a fair amount of experimentation will continue and morph to meet consumers' changing needs. What works for one brand may not work for another.
Consumers want to feel safe when inside stores. They want simplified shopping experiences where they can check several things off their list at once. They want consistent, customer-focused experiences.
And as long as retailers strive to make the shopping trip relevant to your customer base — and provide an environment that allows for personal-yet-distanced connections — next year will surely be filled with untold possibilities and success.
Chip Miller is CEO at Miller Zell.
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