Commentary

The store is still a winning strategy. Here's why

Hal Charnley, president of Wiser, explains why the brands and retailers that succeed are the ones that adapt and embrace the changing role of physical retail and use the store to their advantage.

Photo by iStock.com

October 18, 2018

By Hal Charnley, president, Wiser

Physical retail is thriving. The National Retail Federation's Consumer View report shows nearly four out of five (79 percent) consumers are shopping at brick and mortar stores. This includes millennials and Generation Z. Just 34 percent of these demographics are online-only shoppers.

But simply having a store doesn't guarantee success. The brands and retailers who succeed will adapt and embrace the changing role of physical retail, and use the store to their advantage. In collecting and analyzing billions of data points across brick and mortar stores in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, we know a thing or two about what it takes to develop a winning in-store strategy.

Here are a few ideas you can act on today.

Focus on customer experience

Customer experience is the single biggest advantage for brick-and-mortar retail. Even digital buyers want a tactile experience. The store is still the best place for shoppers to try and compare products before they buy, engage with associates and in-store displays, and share their experiences on social media. In fact, 46 percent of shoppers went in-store to try products before purchase this back-to-school season.

Store associates play an important role in this process. A TimeTrade study showed 90 percent of consumers are more likely to buy when helped by a store associate. Work continuously to understand gaps in associate knowledge and offer training on new products, services, and promotions.

Checkout is also part of customer experience. Lines are a unique challenge for brick-and-mortar stores — and an opportunity to leverage technology. Using privacy-compliant sensors and software, collect data to understand how long shoppers wait in line and work to decrease it over time. Also, empower associates with mobile devices to scan customer items and allow them to checkout anywhere in the store.

Invest in unified commerce

Unified commerce is the process of “unifying” many selling channels to provide a cohesive shopping experience and path to purchase. Most (73 percent) of retailers plan to have a unified commerce platform by the end of 2019, according to Boston Retail Partners.

There are many components to unified commerce. The first and most important is marrying pricing and availability of online products with those in-store. Consumers are smart. They don't want to arrive at a store with one price in their head, only to find a different one on the shelf. Unified pricing and promotions at the micro-level is vital in building and keeping consumer trust.

Products should also be available across channels. This is where brick-and-mortar retailers should consider how online and mobile commerce (m-commerce) fit into or impact the in-store experience. Shoppers should have access to store associates with tablets or free-standing kiosks where they can buy products in the event of an out-of-stock or online-only items. Add signage for buy online, pick up in store and process online returns in a profitable way with buy online, return in store. This is all part of the seamless shopping experience consumers have come to expect.

A seamless shopping experience also means cohesive branding. Match your look and feel, and customer service across all your physical and digital platforms. This includes social media profiles like Instagram, where shoppable posts are gaining global popularity.

Leverage pricing intelligence

Pricing intelligence consists of tracking, monitoring and analyzing pricing data to understand the market and make educated pricing changes at speed and scale. Consumers are going to use their smartphones to compare prices at the shelf. Incorporating competitive intel into your pricing strategy allows both brands and retailers to monitor their relative pricing position and put themselves in the best possible position to get the sale.

Start by identifying direct competitors in the same category, and competitors with similar or same products in other categories.

Maintain shelf health and brand compliance

SKU proliferation is a real problem faced by every type of brick-and-mortar retailer. Grocery stores, for example, carry 40,000 more items than they did in the 1990s. It's no surprise that retailers are struggling to gain visibility into what's happening at the shelf.

There are three big challenges. The first is not being able to detect and remedy out-of-stocks quickly enough. The second is display compliance. More often than not, displays are set up incorrectly or too late, after a promotion is over. The third is shelf placement. Brands often face challenges in being placed next to competitors or otherwise occupying an unfavorable position at the shelf.

Mobile crowdsourcing technology is a good solution for all three problems. Chomps Snack Sticks is a great example. The organic, grass-fed beef jerky brand uses in-store monitoring technology to review its shelf health and out-of-stocks in grocery stores across the country. Chomps identified that their packaging was being ripped open when store associates were unpacking the product and placing it on the shelf. After the problem was identified, Chomps remedied the flaw in their packaging.

Winning in-store requires that retailers embrace and adapt to change. Invest in creating a seamless shopping experience across all your channels with the right technologies and a cohesive brand. Your customers — and your profits — will thank you for it.