One
of the biggest challenges for Retailers is customer conversion. In large
formats such as Malls, Department Stores & Hypermarkets, the opportunity is
huge but in reality the conversion rates are quite poor. It’s a completely
different story at supermarkets and fashion retail stores. The conversion in
E-Commerce is a completely different effort altogether. In this article, we
explore various opportunities for Retailers to engage with customers for better
conversions.
Drive
footfalls
One
of the most important things for a Retailer is to drive footfalls in to their
store, no matter if they are located on a high street or a shopping complex
such as a Mall. This could be done through creating interesting visual displays
on the shop front, attractive shopping offers, images of brand ambassadors, new
launches of products (and services), “Happy hour” shopping boards, to name a
few. The key here is to drive footfalls in to the store and leave the
Conversion to the shop staff, which is of course, easier said than done.
Retailers should look at various ways through driving more and more potential
customers to the store as well as get back past customers to shop repeatedly
with them. In E-Commerce, potential customers leave a digital footprint and
most of them do not know that, however e-tailers follow the trail and
repeatedly reach the said potential customers through various ways such as
Re-Marketing through Google & Facebook. You may wonder how does the same
product that you saw a few days back on a popular website still shows up on
your Facebook screen – this is it. Indeed, its eerie that our digital footprint
is captured, but hey, when you get a product for free, you are the product,
remember!
Tie-Ups
with other Retailers
Many
times, Retailers collaborate with each other and co-promote their products and
services. For Ex., when I launched my Hyperlocal venture Oyethere.com, we gave
away free vouchers for beauty treatments from Naturals Salon, India’s largest
Salon chain along with each purchase. At times, the Gift Voucher value was the
same as the shopping value of customers and they were really glad that they
actually got back their money back. During Diwali 2016, a clutch of Retailers
in Chennai got together and created Chennai Shopping Festival where more than
300 retail stores participated and promoted the event driving footfalls to each
other’s stores. It is quite common to see larger international properties such
as Dubai Shopping Festival, Singapore/HKG Shopping Festival and so on where
Retailers come together and distribute store traffic to each other. Ecommerce
giants like Snapdeal create Shopping Days which bring together thousands of
retailers together and offer best deals to customers.
In-store
Experience
Once the potential customers enter the retail
store, that is where the magic of converting passers by to customers lies.
Through store props, product displays and discounts or promotions, Retailers
encourage customers to buy the products or services then and there. It is
important to remember that the conversion period is very limited since
customers might be in a hurry or may lose interest if the offering is not
attractive. Therefore it is important to ensure Customer Conversion efforts are
looked into carefully and continually by Retailers.