Chapter 4

Retail strategy: Enhancing the customer experience

A company’s retail strategy refers to the organization’s approach to promoting its products and its brand as a whole. This means, your retail strategy should also aim to immerse your target audience in the branded experience you intend to provide them.

Overall, your retail strategy should determine your approach to the five pillars of retail:

• Product: The actual products you sell within your retail store

• People: The people your company exists to service; your target audience

• Platform: For eCommerce companies, your SaaS provider; for brick-and-mortar businesses, your store’s format

• Planning: A thorough analysis of your business’ goals and plans for the future

• Profit: Your approach to generating sufficient revenues to operate profitably

In this section, we’ll address the following questions:

• Who needs a retail strategy?
• What’s the difference between a retail and eCommerce strategy?
• How do you create a smart retail strategy?

Who needs a retail strategy?

Anyone aiming to succeed in the retail world needs to have a retail strategy.

Even those looking to just make ends meet and operate around the status quo of their industry won’t be able to reach this relatively low standard without a proper retail strategy in place. Taking an “if you sell it, they will come” approach in today’s highly-competitive climate breeds disaster.

Ask yourself: Is my goal to make one-off sales to passersby at unpredictable intervals? Or is it to create an active community of engaged consumers who are always looking to get more from your company?

What’s the difference between a retail and eCommerce strategy?

First, starting an online retail business requires much less in terms of upfront investment. The need for a physical location and setup alone makes brick-and-mortar retail the more costly option from the get-go. Modern eCommerce platforms enable retailers to get their online stores up and running with relatively little investment.

Second, there are major differences between the customer experience of a physical retailer and that of an online store. Though brick-and-mortar stores can provide a more immersive sensory experience to the consumer, eCommerce stores must rely on providing a digital experience to site visitors. 

(Note: One is not necessarily “better” than the other. It’s a matter of your customers’ expectations — and your ability to meet them.)

Third, in terms of “on the ground” operations, brick-and-mortar and online retail differs in a number of ways, such as:

• How sales reps and support staff engage with customers
• How the customer pays for and receives orders
• When the store is actually open (business hours vs. 24/7, for example)

Many — if not most — successful retailers understand that the modern consumer typically wants to experience both an in-person and virtual experience from the brands they do business with.

The first step, in this regard, is to go multi-channel. This means developing an immersive experience for both your brick-and-mortar and eCommerce customers, respectively. 

The downside of multi-channel operations is that, as tailored as they are to the respective customer’s needs, both channels remain isolated from one another. Modern consumers want to experience your brand both on- and offline.

That said, you’ll want to go beyond mere multi-channel operations, and adopt an omnichannel approach to your retail business which means… 

Providing an interconnected, streamlined, and cohesive experience to your customers regardless of the channel

• A customer visits your website, where they discover the exact product they’re looking for. They read up on the product’s specifications on the product page and subsequently decide to buy it. 
• But, they want to receive the product immediately, rather than have to wait a week for it to be shipped.
• So, they put it on their on-site “wishlist,” and head to your closest brick-and-mortar location. 
• Once they arrive, they pull your website up on their phone and show a sales rep the exact product they’re looking to buy.
• The sales rep points them to the appropriate location within the store, and also makes suggestions for supplemental products.
• Without hesitation, the customer scoops up the original item — along with a couple low-cost impulse purchases based on the salesperson’s suggestions. 
• The customer leaves the store 100% content with their purchase and ready to immediately put the items to good work.

Not only is this an example of omnichannel retail, but it’s also a perfect example of a brand creating an online-to-offline experience for their customers. 

Despite the convenience of online retailing, there’s no way to simulate the in-store experience via an eCommerce website. The next best thing is to nurture your online shoppers to your brick-and-mortar stores in some way — then immerse them in your brand’s overall experience once inside.

How do you create a smart retail strategy?

The ultimate goal is to meld the online and offline retail experience for your customers. The question is: How do you do it?

To answer this question, let’s break down the best practices of both ecommerce and brick-and-mortar retail.

eCommerce retail best practices

No matter what industry or niche you operate in, your eCommerce website should follow a number of universal best practices:

• Developing a website that’s easy to navigate, interact with, and learn from
• Ensuring site visitors can engage with your site regardless of which device they use
• Providing robust and clear information (both text-based and multimedia)
• Delivering social proof and other positive insights regarding your products and brand, as volunteered by your current customers
• Allowing customers to complete their transactions with relative ease
• Offering various means of support as needed — both proactively and at your customer’s request

What’s more, you’ll want to take full advantage of other digital channels (e.g., social media, podcasts, YouTube, etc.) to further immerse your online audience in your brand’s digital experience.

Ultimately, though, your goal should always be to drive your audience back to your website — and headed toward conversion.

Brick-and-mortar retail best practices

The brick-and-mortar retail realm has changed considerably over the last few decades.

Since consumers, today, can quickly hop on the internet to make a purchase at their convenience, they no longer need to visit a physical retail store in order to do so.

Physical stores need to offer more than just products for purchase.

Rather, your brick-and-mortar retail locations need to provide experiences that your audience cannot get elsewhere. In fact, many well-known retailers have started revamping their physical locations in order to do just that:

• Video game retailer GameStop plans to open lounge-style retro arcades and event-based locations in place of their traditional retail storefronts
• Fast-fashion retailer H&M is currently experimenting with the idea of providing tailoring and repair services at select locations
• After recently filing for bankruptcy, Toys R Us is now in the midst of reopening brick-and-mortar locations that allow for high levels of interactivity

This isn’t to say that you should do away with the traditional aspects of brick-and-mortar retail completely. While you still want to allow customers to purchase your products as usual, your best bet is to also provide “a little extra something” for those looking to get more out of your in-store experience.

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