Digital retail: adopt digitalization to boost your sales!
In 2018, Carrefour announced the closure of 273 stores, and in 2019 more than 30 hypermarkets are on the verge of bankruptcy. How can superstores compete against online retail giants like Amazon or Alibaba?
With digital transformations and the COVID crisis, the retail sector is undergoing drastic changes. How can we avoid missing the boat?
Digital retail may be the answer.
Digital retail: defining retail 2.0
Retail is an essential sector of commerce. It organizes the business of selling goods to the end consumer in your distribution channel. Products are sold in small, medium and large stores and outlets (shopping malls, supermarkets, hypermarkets, small stores).
Competing with the e-commerce sector for several years now, retailers must adopt new strategies to satisfy the desires of increasingly demanding customers.
In short, digital retail is when digital devices (smartphones, connected kiosks, interactive window displays, etc.) are brought into a physical store to enrich and improve customer satisfaction, but above all, to boost your company's sales.
The challenges of digital retail for retailers
Digital devices enable you to showcase your store's services and products, and offer optimal strategic opportunities for your point of sale.
Showcase your store's new products and promotional advantages
A digital device such as a connected window display or interactive kiosk has the advantage of delivering new products, services and promotional offers to your customers at the click of a button. With its ease of use, this gadget immediately attracts the attention of customers, who flock to it to find out how it works.
Communicate clear messages and adopt a particular design according to the department where the connected terminals and other gadgets are located.
It's good to go digital, but it's even better to adopt trendy, connected tools that appeal to your target audience!
Disseminate information
Today's market doesn't work the same way. It's no longer up to the customer to go to the salesperson for information. The customer's first reflex is to get information on his smartphone before making a purchase. Don't give them the opportunity to look elsewhere, and provide them with an intelligent digital communication system (mobile app or website) to answer even the smallest of questions in the shortest possible time.
As a result, your sales staff will waste less time and be able to concentrate on more important activities, and your customers will be more than satisfied.
According to IFOP research, 70% of French people will be paying attention to digital screens by 2021, so take advantage of it!
Enhance your brand image and stand out from the competition
In addition to making your products and services more attractive, digitalizing your point of sale will set you apart from the competition.
Revitalizing and modernizing your store may require a certain investment, but customers will flock to your doors if you make the right changes. With attractive, connected window displays, for example, new customers can become interested in your products. Your clientele will feel concerned and will take your efforts into account by being loyal over the long term.
All these elements contribute to a positive brand image and are guaranteed to increase your sales.
The benefits of digital retail for your customers
Personalize and simplify the shopping experience
Today, technology and the use of customer data are key to personalizing the shopping experience.
By ticking off their preferences, customers are likely to discover products that are closer to their consumption habits. Personalization means becoming more relevant and more efficient.
To enhance your customer knowledge and better meet their expectations, find out about :
- purchasing behavior,
- consumer preferences,
- your customers' habits.
By feeling more involved, customers maximize their purchases, which is a plus for your sales.
💡 Adopting an app to simplify your customers' purchases can also prove very useful. Customers are looking for two things: speed and efficiency. By providing them with a fluid, intelligent platform, they'll be tempted to make further purchases if their first experience went smoothly.
Embrace frictionless commerce
The term friction includes all the obstacles that hinder the consumer's progress when making a purchase:
- waiting to receive an order
- unclear information,
- too many customers on the shelves,
... all elements that frustrate customers and drive them to look elsewhere.
Digitalization has made frictionless commerce even more efficient, with :
- mobile checkout, which eliminates the need to go to the cash desk,
- omnichannel deliveries or pick-up points (drive, click and collect),
- dematerialization of checkout and payment (express checkouts),
- AI for improved data processing.
Amazon recently developed its first cashier-free stores: Amazon Go!
Enjoy better customer service
As you can see, digitalizing your store doesn't just happen at the point of sale.
Optimistic customers lead to maximized growth!
By making the necessary changes to your website, but also to the various digital tools such as kiosks in your store where your customer can quickly get information in the event of a problem, is the promise of increased sales. This is what we call e-care.
Customer service is the last image you give to your customers, and it's the one thing you mustn't neglect if you want to build long-term customer loyalty.
Here are 4 tips to optimize your digitalized customer service:
- manage omnichannel customer experiences (website, chatbot, etc.),
- develop self-service with online FAQs,
- adopt proactive communication (sending notifications),
- improve and diversify your social networks.
What are your tips?
Article translated from French