retail Archives - Page 3 of 3 - People Powered E-Commerce

Where Does the Associate Fit in an Automated World?

We’ve all imagined it- a world where our demands are catered to by computers and robots so that a lot of the daily drudgery is taken care of by someone else. And taking a look at the pace at which things are advancing, it looks like our lives are quickly hurtling towards complete automation.

While it’s interesting to believe that eventually we will be living in a utopia where everything is done for us at the tap of a button, there are major flaws to offloading our lives to computers. Anyone who has accidentally ordered the wrong item online can attest that sometimes automation can be a bigger pain than just getting the correct item in a store.

Associates vs. Automation on Flexibility

The reason ATMs have not made tellers extinct is the same reason that automated kiosks at fast food restaurants are slow to be adopted: people often need to interact with people to solve their problems. Programming and artificial intelligence are great, but you can’t code for every possibility of issue a person might experience. Ever tried to call the 1-800 number for a company and not had any of the number options apply to you? For a sizable portion of the population, this is often the case.

“The reason ATMs have not made tellers extinct is the same reason that automated kiosks at fast food restaurants are slow to be adopted: people often need to interact with people to solve their problems.”

The same holds true for retail. As much as people are fine buying consumables (shampoo, razors, etc) from an online drugstore, there are still people who will never buy a pair of shoes or a jacket without trying it on in store and talking to a sales associate.

Winner: Sales Associates

Associates vs. Automation on Personalization

Consider that while Sephora does a brisk business online, it’s very difficult for someone to find a shade of lipstick that would match a dress they have to wear to a wedding, or for someone to accurately understand whether a moisturizing or smoothing conditioner would work better for them, without speaking to a person who understands the product line. Even if a color swatch for a lipstick is 100% accurate (impossible to do with current technology) then there are the other qualities a lipstick has: texture, weight, matte vs shiny, longevity, whether it has plumping or smoothing ingredients, to consider. 2 minutes with a sales associate and you can have all the answers and make an educated decision on whether that lipstick is right for you.

Consider all the areas in your life where you hold opinions on how something should be, or you have special requirements. Even if you read all the text on a page for a sweater and all the reviews, you still might not know whether 5% Merino Wool will make you itch. 2 minutes in a dressing room will tell you. 5 minutes with a sales associate will give you other options you might not have considered online.

People often view suggestion engines on e-commerce platforms as replacing the role of the Sales Associate in making recommendations, but algorithms are not people. Algorithms don’t know what percentage of “people who bought this item” bought it for uncles or husbands. This is an important distinction that Sales Associates can find out in a very quick discussion.

“Algorithms don’t know what percentage of “people who bought this item” bought it for uncles or husbands.”

Use cases are only some of the reasons that people need and prefer sales associates. Developing relationships with sales associates can help you save money. Good sales associates will tip off valued customers when sales are imminent.

Winner: Sales Associate, with automation as the helpful sidekick

Associates vs. Automation on Social Intelligence

The most important distinction that separates trained sales associates from computers is being able to take in hundreds of pieces of subjective data and turn them into a “sales diagnosis.” Salespeople are able to look at a customer from the time they walk into a store and suss out their style, their mood, and through pleasant interactions, understand the immediate needs of that customer, whether they are buying for themselves, or someone very different from themselves, understand any budget concerns, and suggest items to fit the needs of that customer. This becomes infinitely harder for computers who might be able to identify your face as “you,” but not understand any of these other key pieces of data, or judge your mood.

A surprising amount of subjectivity goes into the shopping experience. People are better educated consumers- meaning they understand the average price for goods, common feature sets, what to look for in a quality item, etc. but many customers still go into shopping for gifts or major items a bit bewildered. They often have lots of questions. If you’ve ever used a “frequently asked questions” page on a website, you understand the limitations. No algorithm will be able to tell you how easy to clean one fridge is versus another one, where a Sales Associate will have the answer to this, and also ask follow up questions about product suitability if that question leads them to believe the person asking the question has children. One fridge might be safer than another for little fingers or have the water dispenser in a less accessible place. No algorithm can take these pieces of data into proper consideration and deliver a suggestion the same way.

“If you’ve ever used a “frequently asked questions” page on a website, you understand the limitations (of automation).”

Sales Associates are also the keepers of secret information that they can use to help customers. If there is a problem with a product, Sales Associates often know the best way to get in touch with manufacturers, where to have products serviced, or altered, and often can tell you before purchase if an item being sold is “white labeled” by another company. (Something even consumer reviews can’t tell you, but could be critical in the event of a product recall or a malfunction.) Secret knowledge holds great value and power for consumers, and there is no easy way to get this information online.

Computers can store a lot more information than humans and access it incredibly quickly, but they don’t pick up social cues.

Winner: Sales Associate, with automation as the helpful sidekick

Best of Both Worlds

So where does the associate fit in an automated world? At the helm. Beginning now, and expanding in the future, sales associates will be able to leverage the best parts of big data and artificial intelligence coupled with their tried and true methods of customer care.

Sales teams will be able to share secret knowledge and customer insights. They will be able to flag questions that often arise from customers to help their fellow associates more effectively learn and pass on product knowledge. They will be able to proactively communicate with valued customers to alert them of private events, and sales on specific items they’ve expressed interest in, thus raising the purchase cadence of these valued customers. They will be able to record important events in a customer’s life- birthdays, anniversaries, etc. and prepare proactive communications to entice a customer to come in to shop for that event.

Data on its own can sometimes be seen as an intrusion, but data coupled with a friendly face and a confident Sales Associate can help close deals. For many customers, the less they need to think about or disclose about their needs, the more they appreciate the service.

Service industries will always be with us, and sales associates are a vitally important part of the retail ecosystem. Imagine buying a car or a house without speaking to a person. Customers have needs that technology won’t be able to meet in the same way that a person can. Humans can leverage the best parts of technology to deliver the best solution for customers in ways that anticipate and serve the needs of customers in new and exciting ways.

To Increase Spending, Reduce Friction for your Customers

How can all retailers learn from Amazon Go’s recent experiments?

Remember the first time you watched Star Trek and saw items magically appear in the replicator on demand? The advent of mobile shopping, in-home on demand buttons, and on demand replenishment services is making that science fiction become more of a reality.

[Star Trek Replicator image via: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Replicator]

What’s interesting is that as much as we imagined having unprecedented purchasing power at the tips of our fingers would change our lives, we perhaps didn’t bargain on how it might change our brains and behavior.

Frictionless purchasing is great for situations when customers need something as soon as possible and don’t have a lot of time to spend. Where it causes some concern is a situation comedian Patton Oswalt has summarized “I’ve been drunk enough to order stamps online.” When people lose the friction and barriers to shopping, sometimes they make purchases inadvertently or ones they may regret.

How does frictionless purchasing actually affect human brains? It’s obviously a new field of research, but the parts of the brain that form the reward centre are at work.

Back in 1998, Neuroeconomists at MIT discovered that credit cards, while convenient, did not connect purchasers enough to their purchases the way even debit cards do. This makes it easy to make the purchase in the moment, but not as welcome when it comes time to pay the bill. If something as manual as pulling out one card over another can have such a strong effect on our brains, what can pushing a button, touching a phone to a touchpad or even using a fingerprint do to the experience?

Something MIT has figured out more recently is that frictionless payments not only make people more likely to purchase impulsively, they are more likely to get them to pay more per purchase.

Of course, this is good news for retailers who are looking for lower cost methods to increase cart size. It’s also good news for businesses that are losing a percentage of sales to online outlets… It turns out if you make the experience as easy as possible at point of sale, you can reap the rewards.

If you make the experience as easy as possible at point of sale, you can reap the rewards.

That’s the basic thinking Amazon is running with with their new concept store, Amazon Go. Customers tap their phones on the turnstile when entering and leaving the store the way you might for a subway trip. Everything they pick up in the store is added to their cart and then they simply leave and are charged for the total order.

For convenience based businesses, this could be a new trend. It cuts down on overhead, reduces shrink, updates inventory in real-time and gives deep analytics to a retailer about what people are purchasing and when (consider that this data can be cross-referenced with weather, for instance, to discover that more cookies are sold on rainy days.)

Amazon was right to start this experiment with a grocery store. It’s hard to imagine another retail endeavor with such ripe potential for impulse purchasing. For those with carts, your only limit is your cart. For those with baskets, your only limit is what you can carry. We’ll have to watch to see what the results are of this experiment, but the science tells us this will lead to increased purchase frequency and larger cart size.

An interesting recent change in purchasing is the increase in tips caused by adding tip “buttons” to POS terminals in restaurants. When presented with tip percentage options, people often choose a higher tip percentage than if they had paid cash. There is an interesting bit of cognitive science here. The buttons play on three things – the suppression of friction makes it easier to spend more without consideration, the options indicate to us that perhaps others tip more than we might, and that can create a competition reflex, and we simply have a preference for round numbers. This leads to happier waiters, and much happier restaurateurs as a result.

When presented with tip percentage options (in POS terminals), people often choose a higher tip percentage than if they had paid cash.

How can retailers harness the power of frictionless purchasing? Getting your company fully up and running with a completely frictionless payment system can be expensive and may result in downtime or lost sales, so it’s not always easily done.

If you’re not in the position to switch to a new system, consider adding options. Square is one of many companies offering simple payments that only require a phone or an iPad to work. These systems often add payment options like Paypal, which aren’t available easy elsewhere.

Another option for retailers that seems to be working is the hybrid of buying online and picking up in-store. This way, you’re capitalizing on people who are incorporating shopping with you into their normal routine. If you can make this frictionless, so they can grab and go, you could see lift in your sales and cart size. Salesfloor has a ‘reserve in store” feature coming in 2017. For now, purchases can be made online and shipped to the customer’s home. Stay tuned!

If your business is primarily online, you can consider testing options for your cart procedure. Amazon’s 1-click purchasing is popular for the simple reason that users can shop and go as long as their details are up-to-date.

Looking at the science on the tip button, there are some interesting ideas for e-commerce retailers. Suggesting items that would fill a cart for free shipping or entitle a customer to a perk is an easy, frictionless way of increasing cart sizes. Salesfloor associates can offer these types of perks through a marketing campaign to their clients or more generally, by simply engaging with customers as they shop online.

Not every method of making purchasing frictionless comes down to technology.

Not every method of making purchasing frictionless comes down to technology. Businesses can look to companies like Apple and Sephora for guidance on what the future of payment might look like: having terminals in hand throughout the store, on demand, allowing customers to walk up to a sales associate, skipping big lineups. After the transaction, the customer just walks out. Receipts are sent to their desired email, so they can retrieve them as needed.

The psychology of shopping is an emerging and rapidly changing area of study, but some basic human behaviors remain consistent, which makes it easier for retailers to make small, educated tests of their markets to see whether these tests result in larger carts and higher purchase frequency. We think that retailers who make this leap will have their choice of consumers ready to spend some serious money.

Ways to Motivate Your Customers to Buy (beyond price)

Customers are motivated by vastly different things. Don’t make yours motivated by price.

If you had to describe recent decades as macro shopping patterns, it would have to be that the 1980s were about status, the 1990s were about price and the rise of the all-in box store, the 2000s were all about conspicuous spending, but where does that leave the 2010s?

It’s interesting that in an era where things we need are costing more than ever before, the main motivator for shoppers does not always seem to be price. In a world where you can spend 30 minutes in your pajamas to find the lowest price on an iPad, people still spend hours in the Apple store, just browsing and trying out the shiny new things. What exactly is going on there?

The 2000s saw the rise of ecommerce and its effects on bricks and mortar- it had a polarizing effect. Some businesses thrived. Others were the victims of showrooming. Some people still prefer to do all their shopping in person. A quick check of any mall parking lot in December confirms this. People are shopping in store, and sometimes paying a premium to do so.

What seems to set retailers apart in this new paradigm are retailers who understand their role in customer care, and that customer care starts the moment the door opens. According to an Oxford study in 2013, what customers really care about isn’t decoration or cheerily delivered sales scripts, it’s a salesperson’s ability to read a customer’s mood and deliver what’s needed to them in the moment. Understanding when a customer is in a hurry or buying a gift for someone who is unwell is a key part of sales success, according to the study’s findings. The same study found that women are actually distrustful of red “sale” signs, and often second guess whether they are being manipulated.

What customers really care about isn’t decoration or cheerily delivered sales scripts, it’s a salesperson’s ability to read a customer’s mood and deliver what’s needed to them in the moment.

Psychology today looked at the psychographic profiles of different types of shoppers and found they are motivated by sometimes wildly different reasons to shop: adventure, social outings, indulgence, trends, relationship to a recipient were all cited as strong motivating factors toward driving purchases.

[In other words, focus on the other shopping types!]

Bargain shopping was not only a lower motivator, if you look at it versus all the other reasons, It’s only 1/6th of the reasons to complete a purchase, and has no emotion tied to it. Competing on price doesn’t make the most sense from a numbers perspective as a strategy. Catering to more of these identified motivations seems to be a way forward for retailers in a changing environment.

What’s Working in Retail Right Now

Who’s winning the retail game? Think small. Small as in brands, and small as in square feet. Many large retail operations are moving into smaller, more urban focused spaces and catering to the needs of urban dwellers. This is partly due to the cost of operating in these markets versus the amount of foot traffic moving to e-commerce solutions. Stores simply don’t need to be as big anymore. How do stores win in that case?

Studies show that customers will walk around and browse more in a smaller location. The more you browse, the more opportunities for you to find something you’re going to purchase, and the larger your bill might be. Smaller stores also bring you in contact with sales staff more, enabling more touches and more opportunities to get questions answered.

The think small ethos has also worked to bring big attention and a healthy bottom line to retailers like Warby Parker. They’ve managed to successfully bridge the offline-online gap in a vertical that most would agree requires in-store shopping: eyewear. It turns out, that they’ve managed to do what traditional retail wisdom tells us is impossible: Take a primarily online business and segue it into retail success. They boast nearly 50 stores in the United States and Canada. (Up from 0 in 2010.) Their “try at home” program still exists, but foot traffic at their stores is healthy.

[Warby Parker photo from Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/b9Hitz]

What’s Working in E-commerce Right Now

Customization was a theme about 7 years ago we were promised would win big in the future. While it has had some moderate success for some retailers, it’s largely not been a real vertical killer for brands who have tried. More options means more overhead in the form of inventory you may never move and can’t repurpose. It turns out, customers don’t want custom products, they want custom curation.

It turns out, customers don’t want custom products, they want custom curation.

What’s been working for many retailers is an old fashioned idea: Newsletters. 2016 was, for retailers and media companies alike the Year of the Newsletter.

Email is still king when it comes to driving sales. Search barely beats it out, but that’s for consumers who already know what they want. For those who are “just browsing” or undecided, Email is the best bang for a marketing buck.

The ability to tailor content to a specific customer based on shopping preferences, time of year, and purchase history has changed the game for many retailers. Our own partners have seen real foot traffic and conversions from implementing Salesfloor to personalize the shopping experience for individuals.

Associates using the Salesfloor platform can create personalized email marketing campaigns in which they can offer special promotions or recommendations. Presenting the right goods to the right customer at the right time leads to sales lift, much like hand selling in store by judging a customer’s mood and style works.

The Road Ahead

No one has a crystal ball to know what’s next for retail, but what works- Observing, Listening to and Responding to customers is not a purely offline or online play. These are cornerstones for selling and increasing cart sizes. We predict that a mixture of human interactions, data, and real customer feedback will further refine the way products are sold in 2017 and tech will be a key part of lowering friction to purchase, increasing purchase frequency, and increasing purchase sizes for retailers.

Observing, Listening to and Responding to customers is not a purely offline or online play.

We’re thrilled to work with our partners to watch this transformation of retail happen in real time and are excited for what’s next.

7 Trends That Will Continue to Impact Retail in 2017

2016 has been one interesting year (to say the least). We’ve lost too many of our classic rock icons, we had one of the most divisive political races in history, and we found out that the UK will be leaving the European Union. We’ve talked to many people who are ready to move into 2017 with an eye to a hopeful future, and we are, too.

With that eye on the hopeful future, we’ve taken a look at seven hot trends that have really taken off in 2016 that we predict will make an even bigger impact on retail in 2017.

1. “On demand” Shopping

Though Google’s Project Wing partnership with Starbucks – along with the promise of drone-delivered lattés – has recently been shelved, the inevitability of drones delivering goods to our doorstep at a click of a button isn’t too far off into the future. Ever since Amazon released the test drone delivery footage in 2013, we’ve been anticipating the day we would see our packages flying through the skyline. And just recently, the Federal Aviation Authority gave Amazon the ok to proceed with the service.

Though a few retailers already provide same day delivery and pickup in-store, it won’t be long into the future before it’s expected that your customers will be able to get their purchases within hours of their purchase.

via GIPHY

2. The Internet of Things

Not one, but two different ‘internet fridges’ were offered to the buying public this year that turn your ice box into a smart food centre that allows you to do things like order groceries and browse recipes. Google is monitoring our homes with Nest, Amazon’s Alexa is our home voice-activated personal assistant who will do everything from playing music to suit our mood to ordering toilet paper and beyond.

What’s next? Will our vanities order expired cosmetics? Will our Apple Watches remind us when we are walking by the mall that it is our mother-in-law’s birthday coming up? Will our shoes send a message to our personal shopper that it’s time for a new pair because they’ve worn out?

You may think this is far fetched, but at the pace of technology, it’s not that far off into the future. As everything in our physical world gets connected to the web, more and more opportunities for retailers arise. Have you imagined how your business will take advantage of this?

[credit: http://theverynearfuture.com/post/137280998764/smart-fridge-what-is-this-comic-about-samsung]

3. Personalization

It’s not new or news that customers want to feel like they are more than just a number. For a long time, personalization has been key to improving the experience for the customer as well as increasing sales for the retailer.

There is nothing like coming into your favorite business and being greeted by someone who not only remembers you from your last visit, but can also show you directly to the new products based on their memory of your previous purchases. It saves you time and makes you feel special. It also influences your purchase. According to our recent study, 73 percent of shoppers say sales associates who remember their personal preferences/style impact how much they buy from a retailer.

But it isn’t only in-store where personalization can make a difference, you have the opportunity to do more than just recommend products through algorithm. Tools like Salesfloor allow you to give the same level of personalization online that you give offline. This isn’t a trend that is going to go away. As more and competition appears, personalization is going to become even more important.

4. Virtual and Augmented Reality

Have you ever looked at a chair or table in a showroom and tried to envision how it would look and fit in your house? We have. Back in the day of catalogues, we even cut them out and stood holding the clipping out in front of us to get a better sense. Thankfully as Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) have evolved over time, we no longer have to carefully cut out pictures, we can just hold our smartphones up to the room, place the furniture piece and -voila!- we can see how it will fit in its surroundings.

For those who don’t know the distinction, Virtual Reality (VR) is the technology that immerses the user into a simulated world, and Augmented Reality (AR) is technology that brings simulated elements into the real world.

In regards to VR, you have probably seen the goggles such as the Oculus Rift, where the person wearing them escapes to a 360 degree fantasy world. Though virtual reality is mostly used in gaming, we are seeing travel companies use it to create simulations of escapes, realtors use it for virtual tours of homes for sale, and car companies use it for virtual test drives. HBR.org gives the example of being able to test a tent remotely.

AR has been around for many years (Converse used it in 2010), however, the rise of Pokemon Go this year has not only brought it into the mainstream, it’s ignited the public’s desire for more applications of the technology. AR is especially attractive because it’s so simple: anyone with a smartphone can use it. To our example above around furniture, Wayfair, online home goods and furniture marketplace, launched Wayfair View to help customers visualize furniture in their homes (though Ikea did this back in 2013).

[credit: http://gph.is/2bFPCMq created from Lee Jeans ad]

5. Direct to Consumer

Direct to consumer fashion brands have been popping up all over for many years now, but according to Racked, many established designers and brands are also pulling their lines out of department stores and creating their own direct to consumer online and offline boutiques. This move is accelerating now because of several factors:

Number one, designers and brands have grown more direct relationships with their customers through social media. Number two, creating online stores is easier than ever and since more and more customers are shopping online, this has created a great revenue source to help fund (number three) the brick and mortar experience.

Though this could prove tricky for some department stores, others like Saks Fifth Avenue have embraced the idea of the direct to consumer model, creating shop-in-shops that allow for their brands to create unique branding experiences while enjoying access to the Saks clientele.

[credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/12241789/]

6. Mobile Payments

Currently, there are only a handful major retailers that offer mobile payments: the Apple Store, Home Depot, Starbucks, Macy’s, Walgreens, Bloomingdales, etc. But we know that this is going to grow a lot in the next few years because of the number of options consumers now have available. According to TechCrunch:

A recent report noted that 39 percent of all mobile users in the U.S. had made a mobile payment in 2015. This is up from 14 percent in 2014 and by my estimations will in the 70 percent range by 2017.

There are three overarching categories of mobile payments:

Near Field Communications (NFC), which you’ll find in Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay, allowing the customer to just tap their phone to a device and authorize the transaction.
Commerce payments, where customers use an app with a stored credit card. Anyone who has checked themselves out at the Apple Store or used the Starbucks App have experienced this.
Mobile Wallets, where customers can store their cards on their phone to scan.

If you haven’t considered offering mobile payments as an option to your customers, it’s probably a good New Year’s resolution to make.

[credit: http://themerkle.com/shake-giving-android-apple-pay-run-for-money/]

7. Enhanced Experiences

As we wrote in our article on the retail renaissance, the retailers who are driving the most profit per square foot in their stores are those who are prioritizing experience over sales. Though it seems like a contradiction to get more sales from de-prioritizing sales, this is what appears to be a factor contributing to the enormous brick and mortar profits of retailers like Apple, Shinola, and Warby Parker, and more established retailers and department stores are taking note.

Bed, Bath and Beyond just announced that they are adding a cafe in their stores and have even applied for a liquor licence. Saks at Brookfield Place in New York offers up an experience they call a Power Lunch, which gives you a beauty treatment, style consultation and lunch – no purchase required. Harry Rosen partnered with Macallan Whisky to create a tasting bar in store.

The more excuses you can give your customers to just ‘drop in and hang out’ with no pressure to buy, the more likely they will buy. And the more often they have these experiences, the more they will start to get used to them. 2017 and beyond we are sure to see a rise in enhanced experiences in retail.

[Credit: Guru Blog covering the Barbershop in Frank & Oak’s Montreal retail location]

When it comes to trends, 2017 looks a lot like the next iteration of 2016, which will make things even more exciting for retailers and customers. Now, here’s hoping the trends outside of the retail world don’t continue along the same path as 2016. Have a happy holiday and a prosperous new year!

Retail Personalization in 2017: Exciting Times Ahead

Though the means of shopping may have changed radically, the emotional drivers surrounding it have not.

Think about how shopping is tied to some of our most precious milestones and memories: we spend time crafting lists for weddings; we fight our way across town in traffic to get the last of the latest trendy toys on the shelf for our children; we agonize over the possibility that someone may have beaten us to the perfect birthday present for our best friend; and this holiday season, we will search high and low to get everyone on our list the perfect present.

Buying the right gift for the right person at the right time makes us feel good. It also lets the recipient know that we understand them and what they really enjoy.

This is the heart of why retail personalization is so important. If you’ve ever received a little card or gift from a store that participates in a birthday program, you can understand the allure of a brand that goes that extra bit to make you feel special and like you have more than a transactional relationship with that company.

Retail personalization isn’t one thing. It’s a host of ways that customers and brands can interact to make sure that the needs of the buyer are being listened to and addressed by the brand.

The same reason you can take home samples from your favorite make up store is the reason this is an emerging area for retail: if a customer feels listened and catered to, they are more likely to continue shopping at a store.

Even though it seems that the landscape of shopping is moving full steam ahead to a “post bricks and mortar” approach, many smart companies are investing in personalization and bridging the online to offline experience, borrowing the best things about both to make customers happy, and keep them coming back.

Incredible in-store experiences aren’t just relegated to expensive stores or places where a lot of personal attention is a given (make up stores, lingerie, jewelry). You can have a delightful shopping experience buying plumbing tools at your local hardware store.

Using Personalization to Differentiate Experience

So, what makes a great retail experience, rather than just a good one? Here are a few key differentiators:

Sales associates understanding what makes the customer or the gift recipient tick
Associates teams addressing the needs of the customer and working to any constraints like budget or time
Associates building a relationship and trust with the customer

These elements are important to keep choosy customers, who can always price match from their pajamas at home, in the retail experience and purchasing from a specific retailer and building loyalty instead of just adding something quickly to a shopping cart online.

The future of retail is using digital tools to help augment, not replace, brand experiences.

Personalization Ghosts of Holiday Past

[credit: whateverjames on flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/whateverjamesinstitches/6536829253/]

Up until recently, the pure e-commerce sector hadn’t really solved the problem of personalization. Targeted email marketing is not a real substitute for personal attention and care when selecting an item, especially if the retailer is sending “Father’s Day” emails to a person who really needs to buy something for someone else.

The best solution that pure e-commerce has built to address the “personal touch” problem is recommendation engines. There are many reasons these don’t come close to the personal attention of a shopping assistant:

An algorithm can’t distinguish between an item you buy for yourself or for another person, leaving you with suggestions which might not be appropriate
For some stores which sell everything under the sun, they can’t distinguish between your purchase of laundry detergent and your purchase of a wedding present by priority
If an item you truly want is sold out, the recommendations can sometimes be very far off the mark
An algorithm can’t glean why you bought a gift, which can be embarrassing or painful to you when you are suggested something you previously purchased.

There are many more reasons why a simple recommendation engine doesn’t work, but they all come back to the same basic issue: there is no human intelligence in the process.

Putting humans into the mix is essential for brands to deliver that personal touch and a feeling on the end of the customer that they are being heard and that they are making the best informed choice.

Price isn’t the only factor when people buy for themselves or others. Sometimes, people are searching for a way to purchase a gift that says more about their relationship with the recipient than just “I had $100 dollars to spend on you, and this sweater seemed nice.”

A great example comes from Saks Fifth Avenue. Saks’ sales team are empowered to reach out to valued clients and send them customized lookbooks in order to keep them interested in shopping with them, but also to build unique relationships with a few sales team members. The deeper the relationship, the more likely a customer is to return and spend money with a particular salesperson, and that particular store.

Sales teams can also answer questions through Salesfloor to ensure that a customer is properly informed and can feel good about the purchase they’re making.

Personalization Ghosts of Holiday Future

What’s next for retail personalization? The more sales teams and customers contribute data, the better predictive systems will work.

Look out for ways to connect with customers during times when they haven’t shopped in a while and enticing them with proactive suggestions related to their own purchasing and their purchasing habits for others, complete with customized visuals and copy that really add a personal touch and help eliminate the agonizing thought process some gifts elicit from customers. This might mean suggesting buying a gift for your mother, whose birthday is in June in March, because the item is in stock and at the right price point, and your sales associate has alerted you to the great deal.

The advantages of this system are obvious for retailers: regular, repeatable sales frequency, even when deep discounts aren’t being offered. Higher overall margins. Increased foot traffic, leading to larger per order spend and increase in word of mouth due to satisfying retail experiences.

While technology won’t replace human sales teams in the next year, it will continue to empower sales teams and customers alike to build strong connections and build brand trust and loyalty, which benefit both brand and customer ultimately.

We look forward to what’s next in 2017.

7 Ways to Shift Your Customers from Showroomers to Webroomers

While headed home late after a hectic week at work, Carol suddenly realizes that her friend’s birthday bash is THIS weekend. In a split second, she also realizes that she hasn’t bought a present for her friend, nor does she have anything to wear to the party, which is at the swankiest new club in town.

The stores are already closed for the night and she doesn’t have much time the next day to traipse all over town looking for the perfect present or outfit. As soon as she gets home, she goes online to do her research. She spends her evening looking for both the gift and the outfit, then goes into the store the next day to pick them up.

The above story is far from being rare. More and more shoppers are using online stores as to research their offline purchases in a phenomenon called ‘webrooming’. In fact, a recent research study found that 81 per cent of shoppers research their purchases online before buying offline. People are busier than ever and the choices are more plentiful than ever, so shopping around online to be more strategic about where to go to buy in-person makes perfect sense.

This phenomenon is the opposite of the much-dreaded act of ‘showrooming’ – when customers come into a store to research products they end up buying online. Showrooming customers are motivated by one thing: price. They could be swayed by superior service or loyalty to a brand, but their first instinct is to save a few dollars.

Webroomers aren’t as motivated by price, though they could be swayed to go to the store with the sale or better deal if other factors are absent. Other factors include convenience, certainty, and great service.

If, as in the example with Carol above, your retail location is more convenient for the customer to access than another retailer with a slightly lower price, she may choose your store instead. Certainty is about things like fit and size and quality as well as the product being in stock and not having to wait for a delivery. These are things that you can’t control as much. But the third factor, differentiated service, is something you can.

As mentioned in our article on learning from the retail renaissance, customers today are seeking out retail experiences. Customer service is core to a great retail experience. But, then, how do you create the kind of experience through customer service that will drive the webrooming customer into your store more often?

Here are seven ways to shift your customers from showrooming to webrooming:

Number One. Anticipate Their Needs

via GIPHY

You may not know that Carol’s best friend has a fancy birthday party coming up, but you do know when seasons and sales are coming up.

December is definitely fancy party season, for instance. Whether you carry the outfits to help dress your clients for the parties or the gifts they will bring for the hosts, sending out a reminder email with personalized suggestions will not only be appreciated, but put you at the top of the list for these purchases.

Number Two. Create Demand

via GIPHY

Perhaps Carol hadn’t even thought to buy a new outfit for the soiree? She was just going to wear that green dress from last season. She could do that, or she could be tempted to pick up something new because she received your latest personalized message or Lookbook from you with that gorgeous sparkly number.

Even when there aren’t any reasons to buy something new, getting products in front of your customers that you know they’ll love could create that demand.

Number Three. Be There When They Have Questions

via GIPHY

One of the most popular features for sales associates on Salesfloor is Live Chat. The more you can be present on live chat for your customers, the more likely it is that they will come back time and time again to do their shopping.

Associates can load the Salesfloor application on their mobile phone and tablet and join the chat queue as often as possible to signal to their customers that they’re always there for them.

Number Four. Make an Appointment

via GIPHY

It may sound pushy, but you’d be surprised at how few sales associates actually reach out to their customers to pro-actively schedule appointments to preview and plan for the upcoming season. This type of outreach is not only unique, but it’s also welcomed by many busy clients who schedule almost everything in their days.

Sending a quick message right before a busy shopping season or at the launch of a new line that says, “I’d love to set up an appointment to show you our new collection,” will help your clients feel looked after and special.

Number Five. Set Aside Picks Just for Them

via GIPHY

In addition to offering a personal shopping appointment, make sure you also mention that you have picked out items that you think they would like (and include a description in the note) or send them a Lookbook (if you are on Salesfloor) of the items. Of course, you need to make certain that the items actually suit your customer’s taste and style, but making that extra effort tells them that this isn’t an impersonal mass email.

Number Six. Offer Up In-Store Incentives/Events

via GIPHY

In the retail renaissance article, we mentioned that many of the popular retailers these days create events that incentivize customers to come into the store, even if they aren’t shopping for anything in particular, the event gives them a good excuse to swing by.

You can be as creative as you want with these events, but keep your clients’ interests in mind. Could you offer a seminar? A networking night? A book signing by an author popular with your clientele? Creating an ongoing series that would be of interest to your clientele would go far to building ongoing relationships.

Number Seven. Build Lasting Relationships

via GIPHY

Speaking of building ongoing relationships, this is probably the most important point that underpins all of the above. The more personal touch points you have with your clients, the more loyalty they will feel towards you.

By reaching out on a regular basis and keeping track of all of your clients’ history and needs – something that Salesfloor helps you focus on – you build stronger and stronger relationships with each and every one of them.

via GIPHY

Almost everyone is a webroomer nowadays, but if you want to drive those researching online back to you as many times as possible, you need to keep top of mind. Using platforms like Salesfloor and some creativity will help you do that.

So, thinking of the upcoming holiday season, how many of the above tips can you implement to drive those webroomers into your store?

What Can We Learn from the Retail Storefront Renaissance?

After waiting in line, you walk in to find a bustling, energetic space filled with people. You observe the crowd to include a mix of hip, young couples, casual academic types, and others who look like they just stepped out to lunch between client briefs at their creative agency. You worry that you may not be cool enough to be here, but there is a positive, excited buzz in the air and a hostess welcomes you with an enormous, warm smile. You relax and start to look forward to the experience. This is definitely different.

You’d think that this was a description for the newest hipster cocktail bar or art gallery, but you would be wrong. This is the scene entering the Warby Parker retail location in Soho on a breezy, fall Sunday afternoon.

If you aren’t familiar with Warby Parker, it is a prescription eyeglass and sunglass retailer founded in 2010 as an e-commerce lifestyle brand. In basic terms, they offer cool, inexpensive eyewear that also makes you feel good about buying from them because for each pair sold, they donate a pair to someone in need.

In 2014, seeking to extend their commitment to personalized experience online to the offline world, Warby Parker opened their first location in the Soho district of New York City. Less of a retail outlet, their stores are designed to be more of a brand experience. From ‘wasting’ prime space by repeating merchandise on multiple shelves through the store and selling local author’s books, to minimizing their branding on the storefront, everything seems to be more about the experience than driving sales.

[Photo New Orleans Warby Parker Storefront: Warby Parker]

But it isn’t just a bunch of cool kids hanging around looking at glasses. This approach drives some serious sales as well. The Wall Street Journal estimated that Warby Parker was raking in $3000 per square foot each year in these ‘brand experiences’. For reference, the national average of sales per square foot in the US is $341 in retail malls, and $400 per square foot in specialty retailers according to The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).

So, what’s the secret? In a time when well-established US retail chains like The Gap, Office Depot, Barnes and Noble, Sears, and even former millennial favorite Aeropostale are announcing major store closures, how is it that someone like Warby Parker has lineups to get in? And what can retailers learn from them to get more customers in-store?

Three Lessons from the New Breed of Retail

Most experiences of retail are, frankly, pretty unremarkable. It’s still surprisingly rare to walk away from a store with a memory worth sharing – other than the purchase itself. This leads to commoditization for customers. When there is nothing more than the product to remark upon, the impetus for the purchase will become the best deal.

But when it comes to those stores that are filled with people from open to close, such as Warby Parker, but also Shinola, Apple, J.Crew, Frank & Oak, Sephora, and Harry’s, the price isn’t as big of a consideration. Why is that?

There are three overarching themes that have completely shifted the customer relationship with the retail brand to note. They are:

Adapting to the local customer’s community
Using technology to streamline customer service
Prioritizing experiences over sales

One. Adapting to the local customer’s community.

[Photo Shinola Ann Arbor Storefront: Vasenka Photography, Flickr]

Connecting with the local community is something Shinola – an upscale lifestyle brand that sells watches, bicycles and leather goods – understands intimately. Much like the Warby Parker stores, Shinola stores are filled from open to close and their sales show for it. Even Jimmy Kimmel is a fan of the brand, promoting them on the show after purchasing one of their bikes for his wife.

Though Shinola was originally a shoe polish brand founded in Rochester, New York in the 1800’s, the name was acquired by a Dallas, Texas based venture capital firm in 2001 and rebirthed in Detroit, Michigan in 2011 as a lifestyle brand. The choice of birth city for Shinola was intentional. It’s tagline is “Where American is Made,” harkening back to the roots of Detroit. By making the decision to base its home and create jobs in a city once known for manufacturing (and now hurting for the offshoring of manufacturing), they ignite a local pride that has propelled the brand into the hearts and minds of American customers.

In the case of Warby Parker, each store that is opened takes on the flavor of it’s new neighborhood, with painstaking efforts to blend in beautifully with the local culture and tastes. They pick locations locally thought of as ‘cool streets’, a term coined by commercial property realtor Cushman Wakefield – essentially where the cool kids hang out. Even the books they choose to promote on their shelves are hat tips to local authors.

By understanding the local context rather than imposing a generic brand standard on a local population, they communicate that they are not invading, but rather, becoming locals to serve the locals. This creates trust and an instant familiarity (even a sense of ownership) with the brand.

Two. Technology Enhances Customer Service.

All too often, technology is introduced to a retail environment as a way to make sales more efficient and streamlined, but the leaders know that technology should be used to streamline the customer experience first and foremost.

For Warby Parker, customers can upload their prescription information online, then come into a store to try on the frames. When they get there, the sales reps can access their entire history: shopping date, prescriptions, wish lists, and general profile.

This is also how Salesfloor is used by thousands of retail associates engaged with the platform. A customer can choose to buy from their local associate or browse online and pick their own favorites, then come into the store where their associate will know exactly what they are looking for, potentially setting aside more suggestions ahead of time.

This hyper-personalized use of technology creates a deeper relationship between the associate and the customer, who doesn’t feel sold to, but instead feels understood.

Three. Prioritizing Experiences Over Sales.

[Photo J.Crew Men’s Shop: Shinya Suzuki, Flickr]

Shinola holds regular whiskey tastings in their stores. Warby Parker holds regular events in their stores, such as a tribute to Buddy Holly (a famous spectacle-wearing icon). J.Crew has a flagship men’s store that also has a bar inside. Sephora gives customers makeovers and has regular live makeup tutorials. Frank & Oak – a contemporary online menswear brand out of Montreal, Canada – has a barber shop and a cafe in their stores. Apple has regular classes on how to use products.

What all of these popular stores have in common is that they have multi-uses for their retail spaces – not for sales events (though they do that, too), but for social and learning events. These events give customers yet another excuse to come into the store. There is no pressure to buy at these events, but if you were meaning to get a new shirt or headphones, they are there to help with this, too.

But it’s not only special events that drive people in-store. Every day, these stores focus on creating an environment that prioritizes the experience over sales. This may seem counterintuitive to what we’ve learned over the years, but several studies point to people more willing to pay for experiences over stuff nowadays. And why is this? Because experiences create memories and bonds and are shareable:

“I will literally say, ‘I don’t want to spend $150 on this dress — but let’s go to this awesome sushi restaurant where I’ll spend $200,’ ” Allen-Mehryar said. “I don’t get buyer’s remorse when I buy food,” she added, because dining out is something she gets to share with friends and family.[Shoppers are choosing experiences over stuff, and that’s bad news for retailers, The Washington Post, January 8, 2016]

By couching products in an experience, you give the customer something more than “stuff” to buy…you give them a story.

[Photo Apple Store Opening: Paul Robertson, Flickr]

The more the customer gets accustomed to personalized, localized care, technology that streamlines their interactions, and retail that feels more like an experience, the less they will be satisfied with unremarkable ones.

Nordstrom has seen this and has hired the creative team behind the store experiences for Shinola and Warby Parker, Partners & Spade. And it’s not about whisky tastings and barber shops, either. It’s about understanding the shifting desires of the customer in an increasingly commoditized space. When everything looks and feels like everything else, they will gravitate to something that treats them different.

So, what is that experience that you think will drive more customers in store?

The Bots Are Coming…But What Does It Mean For Retailers?

Over the past year, multiple messenger bots have launched, but does that spell the end of human interaction in retail? Not likely.

“Using a single app to find a date, schedule an oil change, or notarize a document also enables WeChat to collect a staggering volume of personal data. They know what you talk about, who you talk about it with, what you read, where you go, why you’re going there, who’s there, how you spend money when you’re online, how you spend money when you’re offline…”

In a video produced for their Times Video channel, the New York Times demonstrates the data capabilities of WeChat, the super application that has taken over China. In the video, they weave a fictional, but completely realistic story that shows everything a user can do without ever leaving the app.

From ordering and paying for food to investing to coordinating outings with friends, WeChat is the app that has swallowed everything in China.

It isn’t a leap to assume that North American companies like Facebook, Apple, Google, and Microsoft have set their sights on a similar future. Though bots have been around since before the web browser, there has been a real push for brands to develop within the giant platforms.

Facebook, in particular, is aggressively promoting bot development within their messenger platform. At F8, their annual developer platform conference in April 2016, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg stated, “We think you should be able to message a business just like you’d message a friend, so today we’re launching Messenger Platform so you can build bots for Messenger. It’s a simple platform that’s powered by artificial intelligence so that you can build natural language services to communicate directly with people.”

According to reports, while the platform was popular for developers, the consumer adoption was very low. It turns out that people don’t really want to talk to a computer after all. Many of the existing chatbots try to understand natural language and emulate human interactions, but the artificial intelligence is no match for real human responses.

So, what does this mean for you as a retailer and the future of customer service?

Bots and Humans Need to Work Together

We believe that bots shouldn’t be seen as a way to automate customer interactions and replace humans, but as an opportunity to enhance human interactions.

The WeChat future is a bleak one for retailers focused on customer service. These bots are almost completely designed to take the human out of the interaction. However, artificial intelligence and bots should not be about replacing human interaction, it should be about enhancing it. This means that bots open up a new opportunity to enhance, not replace, relationships with your customers.

Here is a fictional scenario where bots and humans could work together to create a fantastic customer experience:

Your customer needs a new pair of jeans, and engages your chatbot to do a search through your catalogue.

The chatbot offers up a bunch of options in her price range, but she’s not sure if any of the styles fit her body type, so asks the chatbot to send her personal shopper a message to get advice. The personal shopper gets a message on Salesfloor and responds to the customer that the Hudson Jeans option in the mid-rise would be a great fit.

The customer has experienced the convenience of browsing the catalogue quickly while never leaving her messaging app, but the personalization of being able to connect with her associate on Salesfloor when she needs extra care.

If you can use bots to increase human presence for customers, rather than removing human presence from the equation, you will truly become omnipresent.

Bots Still Have a Way To Go

Whether it’s bots in Facebook’s Messenger, Apple’s iMessage, Google’s Allo, or something else entirely, it’s pretty clear that we’re moving towards an artificial intelligent, on-demand future where consumers will expect to do all of their organizing, chatting, reading, watching, and shopping from where they want.

However, early signs of where we are with artificial intelligence (AI) technology tell us that we have little to fear when it comes to bots taking over from humans.

In March, Microsoft launched an experimental bot with very advanced learning AI on Twitter under the name TayTweets. The idea was that the bot would listen, learn and adapt to the human conversation, responding in natural language and, hopefully, demonstrate that a computer could emulate a human being in a modern-day Turing test. In less than 24 hours, the bot had learned the very worst of human behaviour and Microsoft had to shut it down.

Though it is certainly true that AI has come a long way and is advancing quickly, it’s doubted that computers will ever be able to learn the subtleties of human interaction and the individuality of human needs – things that most people are inherently good at picking up.

Our Future with Bots

Our prediction is that bots will become another important way to communicate with customers, so it is important that retailers start thinking about how to implement bots into their channel strategies.

We don’t want to say too much yet, but we’re definitely thinking about this ourselves. However, as we think about how to meet the needs of future customer expectations, we are thinking about bots as a way to create MORE opportunities for connecting customers to associates rather than finding ways to replace this important relationship. Like the fictional scenario presented above, we imagine chatbots as a great way to lightly engage with your customers wherever they want, then hand them off to humans when they want that, too.

So, we welcome our bot friends and look forward to working with them in the future. How do you see this partnership between bots and people evolving?

The Omnichannel Retail Associate: 4 New Trends

Article originally featured in: Masterclassing.com

Luxury retailers have invested so much to create a premium experience inside the store, with a specific focus on personalized service from their most valued asset: sales associates.

Think about shopping for a Mother’s Day gift at a premium department store. If you were to visit a store, you would be greeted by a friendly, helpful sales associate ready to assist you with expert advice. The objective would be to find the right gift based on your particular set of needs. This dedication to personalized service is the cornerstone of shopping at a luxury store.

Now consider the same shopping scenario, online. Regardless of your needs, the website would likely feature the typical Mother’s Day merchandise to all visitors: lingerie, perfume, spa products, etc. But what about the premium experience? Where is the personalized service? How is it that in today’s omnichannel world of ‘supposed’ seamless experiences, that customers are driven to what essentially resembles ordering from a product catalogue 30 years ago?

Until recently, retailers have not leveraged their most important asset when it comes to online shopping. Although the sales associate is what connects the in-store experience seamlessly to a premium web experience, the sales associate has been excluded from serving the online customer.

With the help of the right technology partners, today’s leading omnichannel retailers are creating new ways for customers to shop online with their local store and associates. In order to achieve this, they are redefining the role of sales associate to be as responsible for the online customer experience as they are the in-store customer.

4 new ways retailers are using omnichannel associates to serve online customers:

Customers have a new place to shop online with store associates. Real-life associates are a retailer’s biggest asset, converting higher than any other selling channel. For example, sales associates at Saks Fifth Avenue can create their own personalized version of the retailer’s website, so customers can shop online the same way as they do in-store. Associates are empowered to curate their own products and to serve the online shopper regardless of time or physical location. Recent data for customers who purchased online directly from associates show a 75% increase in average order value.
E-commerce is being differentiated with personalized service from local stores.Online shoppers should experience the same level of personalized service that they receive in-store. Who better to serve the online customer then the local store associate that has product training and knows how to sell. By creating a bridge between online customers and their local store, retailers can differentiate their service offering online, increase conversion rates and create relationships at scale. Retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales have started connecting their website shoppers to real associates in local stores, resulting in a 10x lift in online conversions.
Associates are marketing directly to their local customers. Your associates know more about their local customers than anyone else. With the right tools, retailers can use associates to market directly to customers with expert advice and personalized offers. For example, when clothing advisors from menswear retailer, Harry Rosensend email marketing messages to their customers, email open and click rates skyrocket by up to 300%. Customers prefer to receive a personalized message from their sales associate compared to an impersonal, national newsletter.
Influencers are being empowered to become virtual associates. Retailers are creating their own communities of sellers who drive sales within their local and social networks. Equipped with their own version of the retailer’s e-commerce site, these virtual associates can promote the brand and drive sales. Imagine a network of stylists and personal shoppers being able to represent the entire assortment of a luxury department store to their local customers?

In the last year, customers have demonstrated that they want to shop this way and retailers have proven how valuable their associates are when it comes to online shopping. The result has been an increase incremental sales, online conversions and new customer acquisitions.

How are you leveraging your stores and associates?

Write to me at [email protected] with your ideas or add your comments below.

3 Benefits of Enabling People-Powered Ecommerce

Article originally featured in: Multichannel Merchant

In an increasingly competitive shopping landscape, brick & mortar retailers have a unique opportunity to leverage an advantage that none of their web only competitors have; their store associates. Retail associates are the driving force behind the in-store experience and the personalized service shoppers need to not only make purchases, but also become repeat, loyal shoppers.

While all retailers acknowledge the power of their people when it comes to their brick-and-mortar locations, they’ve practically ignored their most important asset when it comes to online shopping. Who better to personalize the online experience and serve the online customer than the associates that do it everyday in-store? Although sales associates are what should connect the in-store experience seamlessly to a premium web experience, they have been excluded from serving the online customer.

This doesn’t make sense, especially considering the numbers. It’s shown that store associates are the best converting channel, with 20 to 40 percent conversion rates on average. Online is a retailer’s biggest traffic channel, converting at 1 percent on average. So why aren’t retailers combining these two to get the best of both worlds?

The role of a store associate should be to serve their local online customers just as much as their in-store customers. These omnichannel associates can provide online shoppers with a much better experience and can bring retailers the following three benefits:

Delivering personalized service to the online experience

Currently, shopping online is a very impersonal experience. Shoppers are left to sort through hundreds of product pages and have limited expert guidance. They only have customer reviews and vague product detail blurbs to rely on when making a purchase decision. This lends to a poor customer experience that causes shoppers to ultimately make their purchase on whichever site they can find the product on for the cheapest. Little to no service online has a major impact on conversions and average sale value.

Bringing sales associates online to help shoppers on their path to purchase creates a more compelling customer experience. Instead of asking for help from the traditional customer call-center, shoppers can get product recommendations and expert advice from real associates, from local stores. By connecting store associates to customers online, retailers close the gap between their web and store experience.

Building relationships with customers at scale

When it comes to developing relationships between shoppers and retailers, brick-and-mortar stores are second to none. In-store sales associates are already trained to foster a connection, provide expert advice and create a superior experience that will turn the shopper into a repeat customer. When it comes to online, it’s more challenging to sustain these relationships. Currently, the only personal interaction online shoppers have with the retailer is when they call someone in the support call center. Even then, this isn’t a true relationship between the customer and the retailer, and the call center agent isn’t a person the customer can visit in store the next day.

By providing store associates with their own personalized versions of the retailer’s e-commerce site, retailers can create a new place for customers to shop online with local associates even after customers have left the physical store. What’s more, they’ll be able to create similar relationships with the millions of online shoppers who maybe have never set foot into their store – opening up a new customer base by increasing contact acquisitions. This means the associates are no longer limited to their physical sales floor or to having the customer in the store. They can sell anytime, anywhere, because associates can market directly to specific shoppers and transact online 24/7.

Retaining top talent and evolving the role of today’s associate

It’s not just customers that benefit from retailers integrating in-store sales associates online. Retailers, themselves, benefit immensely, as well. By giving their associates the opportunity to broaden their customer contacts and sell in a way never before seen, retailers are redefining the traditional role of an in-store retail sales associate. They make selling more interesting and exciting by giving associates more potential to make an impact on the business.

Additionally, retailers who are able to do this successfully will be seen as innovators in their space. The skill sets of today’s generation rely on texting, instantaneous communication and the integration of the internet in all facets of their everyday lives. By bringing these skills to life in sales associates’ everyday job roles, retailers are setting up their employees for success and giving them the power to leverage what they know best in order to drive the most sales they possibly can and create meaningful relationships with their customers.

It’s clear that the most effective way to connect with web customers is to bring store associates online so that they can serve customers with their expert advice and personalized product recommendations. Empowering the associate to provide real personalized service online allows them to grow their relationships and make an impact on the business online and in-store.