63 search results for “Alexandra Sheehan”

With a new year comes change. New industry trends. New consumer behavior and demands. New tools and technologies to incorporate. New opportunities.

And with all that is new, retailers are forced to adapt to meet demand and stay ahead of the competition.

To help retailers learn what to expect and how it may affect their business, we reached out to 10 retail experts and asked them:

“What is your prediction for what will change in retail in 2017?”

Our experts talked about data, convenience, personalization, mobile, and digital. While the answers varied, there was one major recurring theme: Retailers and consumers are getting smarter.

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Only 32% of shoppers go to stores because they enjoy the experience, while more than three-quarters avoid stores altogether. With metrics like these, it’s time for retail brands to think outside the box to improve the in-store experience.

One way to refocus your attention back to the experience of in-store shopping is through experimenting with different store formats. But experimental concept stores can do more for your brand than simply improve the customer experience. New store formats can also help you build buzz about your biz and test out new ideas.

So, which ideas are worth trying? And how do you come up with these experimental ideas? Check out these five retail brands that have tested their own concept stores to learn from their example.

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You’ve identified your target audience. You’ve tailored marketing messages to them and hit all your sales goals. But now you want to reach new audiences and tap into new customer bases.

Maybe your current customer base has hit a wall with spending, or external factors have made your products undesirable to a specific segment. And if you want to scale your retail business, growing your customer base is one major key to success.

There are plenty of creative ways to tap into new audiences and grow your customer base. From creative social advertising techniques to simple referral programs, here are 10 ideas on how you can reach new customers.

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More than half a million small businesses open every year. While that number is encouraging for entrepreneurs, it can also be scary to already-established retailers.

With the competition growing, it’s becoming more important to find ways to stand out.

Differentiating your retail business from others in your industry can help you make a stronger impression among prospective customers — and attract more sales.

Finding ways to differentiate your business from the rest requires a little bit of research and creativity — there’s more to it than just offering great value. You need to take a holistic approach to make sure the entire brand experience differentiates your business and turns new customers into forever fans.

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As a brick-and-mortar retailer, the cost of staying “open for business” is much higher than for online-only merchants. And while staying open 24/7 might initially sound like a good way to boost sales, it may not always help the bottom line. You have staffing, operating, and other associated expenses with keeping the doors open.

But that doesn’t mean that once you flip the sign from “open” to “closed” that you have to stop generating revenue. In fact, there are ways that other retailers have thought outside the box to both directly and indirectly affect sales in an upward trajectory outside of normal business hours. Below, we’ll take a look at four ways you can keep the cash rolling in after you shut your doors.

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In 2005, Shop.org first announced Cyber Monday. At first, it was a way for online retailers to compete with the Black Friday sales in brick-and-mortar stores. But the online shopping holiday quickly grew in popularity.

In spite of its popularity (and ability to shop sales in your pajamas), Cyber Monday hasn’t made brick-and-mortar stores obsolete. In fact, many physical stores capitalize on the online-shopping day. About a third (30%) of consumers bought products online that they then picked up in-store last year, and 80% of spending was done in-store.

And while Cyber Monday sales increased 12% last year, in-store spending is also steadily rising. The key for brick-and-mortar retailers is to adapt to meet the needs of online shoppers and maintain a competitive edge so they can compete during the crucial Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend.

How can retailers accomplish this? Here are seven tactics to help physical stores get the most from Black Friday Cyber Monday and successfully compete with online-only stores.

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Multichannel selling means making your product(s) available for purchase via more than one outlet. This includes both online — your ecommerce store, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, social media, etc. — and offline channels — your brick-and-mortar store, wholesale distributing to other stores, pop-up shops, etc.

As consumer behavior evolves, multichannel is more important than ever. Merchants can no longer focus their efforts entirely on offline or online sales — both are necessary. Retailers who don’t keep up risk missing out on the opportunity to capture additional sales. Only 7% of shoppers are online-only, compared to 73% who use multiple channels throughout their shopping experience. And what’s even more telling is that this year, 25% more consumers plan to buy online and pick up in-store during the holidays.

It’s no longer viable to be online-only or in-store-only. Not only do retailers need to have a presence on You need to have a cohesive experience across multiple channels to allow customers to buy anywhere, anytime.

Why Multichannel Sales Are Crucial

As noted above, consumer trends show that they’re increasingly using multiple channels throughout the purchase process.

But those aren’t the only numbers that are going up: Multichannel selling can also help you increase your bottom line. Retailers with two marketplaces for selling generate 190% more revenue than those with just one.

Despite this proven success, many retailers are slow to jump on multichannel sales. Almost two-thirds (73%) of retailers say multichannel is important to them, yet less than 40% have made it beyond the initial stages of creating the experience. This means there are plenty of opportunities for retailers to differentiate themselves from the competition.

The success in multichannel selling lies in being where your customers are. 82% of consumers conduct online research before making a purchase — be the source for that research. Offer well-written product descriptions with lots of detailed specs. If you’re not sure what kind of information customers want to know, turn to Google related searches or forums like Quora to see what phrases and common questions pop up.

Show pictures of your products in use and from multiple angles, including zoom functionality, so shoppers can see the small details of your product. Get more customers reviews and then publish them throughout your site, especially on product pages themselves.

Half of consumers compare prices online first; so consider offering price comparison tools on your site. You can build your own price-comparison API, and there are also plug-ins — like Product Compare and Product Differentiator — that serve this very purpose. 90% of shoppers use their mobile phones while in-store, so it behooves retailers to create their own mobile experience.

Instead of pushing customers where you want them to be, meet them where they already are. More importantly, anticipate their needs during each stage of the buying journey, and help them meet those needs.

FURTHER READING: It’s easier to anticipate your customers’ needs when you understand their buying journey. Learn how to create a customer journey map for your retail business.

How to Start Multichannel Selling

Start With Strategy

Consider the channels you want to explore. Here’s a quick list to help get you started:

Offline Sales Channels

• Brick-and-mortar stores (these are still important — although customers like to research online, almost half prefer to purchase in-store)
• Pop-up shops
• In-person selling events (markets, fairs, festivals, etc.)
• Distributors/other retail stores that sell your product (i.e. wholesale)
• Print catalogs

Online Sales Channels

• Your online store/website
• Social media
• Third-party marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, or eBay (44% of consumers go directly to Amazon to search for a product, and Amazon has more average orders than any other third-party marketplace)
• Comparison-shopping sites
• Coupon sites

After you’ve nailed down what channels to explore, you’ll have to set a strategy and specific goals for each. Strategy helps you define goals against which you can measure success. Goals serve as the target towards which you’re working, and you can change those goals as new trends emerge or you see success on some channels rather than others.

Make sure you nail down your metrics for success (number of products sold, overall sales, engagement, clickthrough rates, site traffic, etc.) and set benchmarks to work toward for each channel. Document everything you want to accomplish, and how you plan to do it.

Understand Your Customers

Not all consumer groups are the same. It’s important to not only identify your target market, but to also understand their needs, how to talk to them, and how your brand and products serve them. From there, you can anticipate which channels your customers are using at different stages of their purchase process, as well as which audience segments are on which channels.

For example, Instagram users skew younger than Facebook users — so if you’re targeting 18–24-year-olds instead of consumers 60 years and above, Instagram would be the channel to prioritize of the two. Additionally, Amazon Prime members are typically wealthier, so if you have an affluent target market, consider making your products available for purchase through Prime.

Conducting some market research can help shed some light on your target customers, including their needs and preferences. From there, you can make informed decisions on which channels work best for your audience and your business.

Deliver a Consistent, Positive Experience

Multichannel selling isn’t just about generating new avenues to convert customers. It’s also about creating a consistent experience all of those channels. That means every channel should display consistent branding, offer a similar buying experience, and have cohesive customer service.

One survey found that almost 90% of companies plan to compete mostly on the customer experience alone. In fact, most consumers rank customer service as the No. 1 priority when purchasing from a brand, and poor customer service costs retailers $41 billion every year.

But what does it mean to deliver a consistent and positive experience? One way to approach it is the Golden Rule: Treat your customers as you would like to be treated by the brands you support. Remember that they are people, too, and when they’re treated as such, you have a better chance at capturing a loyal customer across multiple channels.

Take Michael Platco’s interaction with Warby Parker, for example. The Snapchat influencer shared to his public story about how his glasses broke while he was traveling. Warby Parker reached out with a researched solution (super glue would take around four hours to dry) plus a new pair of glasses. They were able to find his customer information and deliver a replacement of his exact prescription and style of glasses. That dedication to high-quality customer service started on Snapchat, moved to YouTube, and finally through fulfillment — but remained consistent across all of those channels.

Make Your Brand Stand Out

There are many ways to differentiate your brand. Having a strong brand identity gives consumers something to relate to. And when consumers have shared values with brands, 64% of consumers are more likely to build a relationship with you.

Want more guidance to get your brand to rise above the noise? Read our 4 tactics to difference your retail brand from the competition.

Implement the Right Tools

Expanding into multichannel selling means you have a lot more inventory to monitor, and sales to track, and data to analyze. Implement a point-of-sale system, inventory management, accounting, and other software that can not only fit your business needs now, but also your future needs.

Finding tools that can scale with your business and handle adding new (or removing old) selling channels is essential. The more you automate, the more time you can spend on growing your business.

Hire and Train the Right Team

With more selling channels also comes the need for more manpower. This comes in two main forms: In-house staff and outsourced contractors. For some business functions, such as accounting, you can hire experts. Retailers venturing into multichannel selling for the first time might look into hiring a tax professional to consider sales taxes and fees for each channel, as well as legal staff to understand any new legalities that come up with adding selling channels.

Internally, retailers need to have the right team in place to meet the needs of a growing and changing customer base. Warehouse and inventory management becomes more essential as retailers track sales for more than just their physical or online store.

Ensure your internal teams are communicating with one another, too. You don’t want the marketing team promoting a specific SKU when your warehouse team knows there are only a few left in stock.

For help hiring and training your employees, check out our article on retail staffing.

Start Small

Perhaps the best piece of advice for the retailer looking to get started with multichannel selling is to approach it one channel at a time. Don’t be afraid of failure — every new channel is just another opportunity to learn more about your business and the market.

Which channels did you try selling on first? Which channels have generated the most sales in your business?

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Though not the most exciting facet of your retail business, inventory management is crucial to your success.

Without it, you’re missing out on revenue opportunities, not to mention tossing money out the window.

In fact, retailers lose $1.75 trillion annually because of out-of-stocks, overstocks, and returns — problems that could be minimized with an effective inventory management solution.

Because inventory management is a crucial issue for store owners, it’s crucial to ensure you have the right measures in place to keep your shelves stocked and revenues flowing. So, let’s take a look at the ins and outs of inventory management, and how retailers can best optimize their processes.

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This season of giving to others is quickly becoming the season of giving to oneself — largely with the goal of self-improvement via New Year's resolutions.

After weeks or even months of purchasing items for others, it’s time to treat yourself. And if it’s for the betterment of health, happiness, or overall well-being, there’s a better chance for retailers who fit within related verticals.

Almost half (45%) of Americans usually make New Year’s resolutions. And though most of those ambitious resolutions fail, that doesn’t mean that consumers aren’t putting their best foot forward — at first.

GoBankingRates conducted a survey to see what resolutions people plan to make for 2018, and they found the following to be the most popular:

1. Save more, spend less
2. Pay down debt
3. Enjoy life to the fullest
4. Live a healthier lifestyle
5. Increase my income
6. Spend more time with friends and family

Many of these resolutions support one another. For example, losing weight may help one to enjoy life to the fullest. Saving more may offer you the opportunity to spend more time with friends and family. 

And developing these self-improvement goals doesn’t just benefit those making those ubiquitous New Year's resolutions — these objectives can lead to higher demand for products and services in specific retail niches. If a product can help a consumer reach their goal, you can bet they’re willing to invest in it.

So as 2018 approaches, retailers offering the following products have a unique opportunity to capitalize on some of our top resolutions.

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According to data from Cisco, 96% of consumers prefer to shop at stores that have free WiFi, and they’re also more likely to return. And Oracle found that almost 60% of shoppers actually demand in-store WiFi.

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