The current climate in retail is changing from building it and hoping they will come, to creating an experience that can’t be reproduced online.
With the increasing popularity of online shopping, and the endless availability of items available on the internet, customers are now demanding an experience economy for in-store shopping that starts with personalization.
An AgilOne survey of more than 3,000 adult consumers reported that 70% of shoppers want a personalized experience. Take advantage of this and exchange these experiences for item purchases through the adoption of touch screen kiosk technology that truly immerses and provides information.
Considering that 54% of consumers would consider ending their loyalties to retailers who don’t personalize their offers, it’s important to embrace the concept of creating a retail experience that’s tailored to your consumers, as opposed to mass marketing.
Who Are Your Customers?
If you haven’t already, the first step in being able to personalize offers, ads, or experiences to your customers is to understand who they are and what they want.
While having a general idea is good, conducting actual market research into the demographics of your customers provides you with a basis to categorize your shoppers. Understanding exactly how to speak their language is important in order to get into their mind and sell to them.
Considering that 52% of Millennials expect brands to remember their birthdays is just one piece of data that you can collect and use to create a personalized experience through a birthday message or reward.
The technology is now available to extract data from your customers’ cell phone that can be analyzed to target to them. Based on social media interactions and web browsing habits, you can learn about the things that are important to them and translate that information to interactions at your in-store digital kiosk.
According to a report from Google, 71% of consumers say their cell phones are an integral part of research for their in-store experience. Consumers are searching for items, getting inspiration, and comparing prices, all while in your store.
Adapting creative ways to make consumers put their phones away, or integrating their phones into their in-store experience will be the most important tactic for retail marketers in the future.
Deliver Personalized Ads & Offers
In trial tests conducted by Intel, ads that were contextual drove monthly sales by an average of 16%. Ensuring that digital ads that are related to a nearby product or through interactive touchscreen displays are directly targeted to an individual will effectively work towards increasing your in-store revenue.
It can go further than that though; 45% of Millennials are intrigued by the idea of a personal shopper that picks items for them based on their style. Algorithms to create these systems run the gamut from asking for some specific details about what the customer is looking for and basing recommendations on previous purchases.
The more benefits that shoppers experience, the more they purchase from that retailer, and the better their recommendations become. Installing recommendation programs into your digital kiosks gives the customer an experience and a chance to interact with your brand, while learning more about your product.
Developing the Endless Aisle
All too often customers enter a store with the intention of purchasing an item. If they can’t find that item, information about that item, or something else that holds their attention, they’re on their way out the door.
A report from Google announced that 79% of shoppers in a brick-and-mortar store search out answers that would impact their purchasing decision. Of those, only two out of three found the answers they were looking for. Without answers, the customer would frequently experience frustration with the brand, and in return take their business elsewhere.
The implementation of interactive digital kiosks that link to your online store allow customers to look up more information about the product or similar products. This “endless aisle” application has proven successful in a number of retailers who were able to offer out-of-stock items for purchase, while also engaging the customer and providing an experience that they’ll remember.
Empower Employees
The purchase process for consumers isn’t strictly limited to transactions. According to the Google report, 69% of consumers used physical stores for all phases of information gathering. While 55% focused their in-store interaction on purchase, a total of 65% relied on their store experience for inspiration and research.
Empowering your employees to effectively deliver top-notch customer service experiences and effectively employing the above steps will ensure that those first-stage researchers are taking the next step and purchasing in-store.
One way to further power your employees to offer a more personalized experience is through loyalty programs that provide them with information on the customer. A simple name and ability to pull up past purchases can make every interaction a more pleasant one.
Enabling your touch screen kiosks to enroll your customers in your loyalty program provides a quick and easy set-up, and the ability to start developing a continued personalized experience.
Continue the Experience
Once your customer has interacted with your digital kiosk, entered their email address, signed up for your loyalty program, or purchased an item, your interaction with them doesn’t end there.
The customer service experience now extends outside the walls of your brick-and-mortar store with follow-up emails that can include their receipt, a personalized offer for next time, and the option to connect on social media.
In order to continually personalize your customer experience, you have to implement a system that keeps all your customers information in one place, from an account or loyalty program you can continue to gether integral data that you can use to personalize their shopping experience.
Any marketing executive will know that once you’ve employed a new system, it’s integral to continue A/B testing it to constantly improve your offerings and the integration of customer information to personalized systems on your touch screen kiosk.
Baanto’s Shadowsense™ perimeter overlay technology provides a truly interactive touch screen display that will be sure to provide your customers with that shopping experience that they’re looking for. Collecting their data is easy with intuitive controls through touch, swipe, and pinch, which you can then use to target advertisements through remote monitoring and updating capabilities.