How to create a Wow! experience for retail customers?

Anitha Rajagopalan

MUMBAI, INDIA: In the era of customer experience, a new paradigm of solution design is evolving. The sheer number of technologies, products and platforms is overwhelming and businesses and service providers are at a loss to judge what best works and fits a retail customer’s need.

However to get transformational business outcomes, there is a need for careful curation of experiences. My building blocks are clickstream analytics, beacons, geo-fencing, cloud, mobility and tagged things (let us say, trial rooms and carts).

Let us see some examples. I can attempt customer enhancement/engagement by deriving insights from a point solution or a mix of these.

Clickstream analytics + Mobility =>I have insights on a retail customer who had looked at a particular brand of jeans on my website but did not add the product to cart. I can send a cart abandonment email hoping the customer would be willing to go back to my mobile website / app and complete the purchase.

OR, I can dream of customer experience transformation by curating an experience for customer delight!

Clickstream analytics + Mobility + Beacons => I have insights on a retail customer who had looked at a particular brand of jeans on the website but did not add the product to cart. Also, now I know the same customer is spending considerable time at the Aisle 5 (Women’s wear –Jeans) and has moved on towards baby products.

Clickstream analytics + Mobility + Beacons + Tagged Cart and Trial Room => Here is the opportunity is for real-time persuasion
I know from the smart cart that is tagged that the cart does not have the pair of jeans the customer had spent time on. I can decode this business moment and send a push notification on the customer’s mobile app with a $10 off coupon code, urging her to go back to Aisle 5 and pick up the pair and try it on in Trial room 3 (which I know is free).

Clickstream analytics + Beacons + Mobility + Tagged Cart + Cloud enabled Mobile PoS + Analytics driven recommendations =>
Here is the opportunity to create a closed loop experience that results in tangible business outcome (revenue uplift) and truly delights customers with a unique experience imprint!

I station a store associate strategically near the trial room with Mobile PoS to immediately enable purchase as she walks out of the trial room. Additionally, I recommend two other accessories to complete her outfit–a bag and a pair of shoes that are unique to her tastes. I offer a 5 percent discount on the entire product bundle!

What we have just done is orchestrated an end-to-end experience that is beyond a pointed technology solution to solve a particular problem like knowing what the customer did on my website or what she purchased in the store.

The article is authored by Anitha Rajagopalan, Retail and Omnichannel Consultant, Happiest Minds