New realities Local Retailers should expect

Do you know the New Realities of Local Retail?

There is more and more talk about digital and the physical and local stores.

Today more retailers share and start adopting their actions according to this new trend of reaching customers via both online and offline. And the results are not tricky. The conversion rate increased due to this new mobile era and smartphones usage.

From the study of Google and Nielsen about “Mobile Path to Purchase”, one of the main conclusions is the number of hours per week consumers spend researching on smartphones – 15 hours!!

This conclusion per se is enough to imagine and talk about these big changes which are currently, and will keep changing, consumers behaviors, with impact on local retail.

Nowadays, the first stage of the purchase decision process is mainly online. Consumers look for brand and product/service information online which impacts in-stores visits, as they stop visiting stores for this first approach. However, the majority of consumers keep purchasing offline. They keep going to the store but already with a product or service in mind to buy.

There is another study from Google – “New Research Shows How Digital Connects Shoppers to Local Stores” which we advise the reading because it helps to understand this exact aspect. How digital is helping increase conversions to and in-store.

One of the best case studies in retail, which is clearly taking advantage of this trend and evolutions is Sephora.

All these trends lead to something better and crucial to customers – customers’ experience. It may sounds weird but actually it is not about “where” customers buy but “how” brands can influence and make them buy at that precise moment. 

This leads to three new realities to local retail:

1. Digital drives in-store traffic

When talking about in-store traffic is related to online and offline. Even if customers in the first stage of the purchase decision making process prefer the internet for an initial research and to get some feeds and reviews on a product or service, it is still true that a great majority of customers afterwards go to the store to acquire what they want.

In terms of local search results, there is a study from Google that says one of the most important and valuable information for users is the “product availability at a nearby store” and of course the price.

2. Smartphones are in-stores assistants

This new era and evolution is taking us to a constant connected world with easy access to information. However, for retailers this is not that easy to translate when related to customers’ in-store experience.

Statistics from a “Mobile In-Store Research” study, from Google, show that customers who use their smartphones and mobile devices to search for more information about brands and products, usually go directly to their websites and apps.

Some of them actually prefer their own devices rather than ask directly to store assistants.

3. Omnichannel shopping requires omnichannel measurement and analysis

Omnichannel what?

This concept is basically related to this new trend and the fact that customers tend to search online, purchase offline, and vice-versa.

We are currently progressing to a multichannel and cross channel trend, i.e. to buy from several channels at the most convenient moment, on local stores or online.

But what about the quantitative analysis of the marketing activities?

It has been tough to retailers to accurately measure and allocate budget to digital marketing activities.

For some retailers is still difficult to understand the way digital drives in-stores traffic and the other way around, how the stores visits affect online sales.

To account for the real return on investment for digital marketing in the total sales it is crucial to consider a combined analysis of this two worlds – digital & local stores.

Only then it will be possible to ensure this return on investment is not undervaluing and the marketing mix decisions not suboptimal.

We should not disregard the future! We already live in a constant and on-the-go communication and connection to the digital world.

Read the full article here.

Loyty Smarketing!