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Purchase Power to the Consumer
Submitted by:
Brian J Brower "The Organic Factor"
What is it that keeps your customers in shopping mode this year? Where do they go after leaving your store? With our experts reminding us of the economic crisis, Internet business is ready to take a 9% increase over last years Internet shopping season. Have you been faced with exhaustive questions about consumer products found online during research? Did you ask them what brought them in to your store? The direction of your questioning can be very helpful to understanding your customer's multi-channel behavior.
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Where did you find the product information?
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Were you ready to make the online purchase?
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Have you visited our website?
If your promoting the website as as purchase destination, you place your company in the game. When your customer has no idea you have a website, your handing them to the online competition. Where did you find the product information?" seems to be a bit broad, however the most direct in gaining a little insight into how much research was done. The customer will most likely also tell you where they are in the buying process. The second question is effective in reminding us our customers like to "See, Touch, and Feel" before they spend. The third question helps shift the customer mindset, and emphasizes the true value of purchase power across retail channels. Integrating your customers in store, and online experience, brings the added benefit of earning the customers business. The information gathered from the questions above could be utilized as the extension of the user defined shopping experience? During the last two months I have found most of our loyal customers are pretty intimate with the company website. The accepted generic steps of transition for there purchase in the Brick & Mortar starts with the Internet in the research phase of the buying process. Then followed by see, touch, and feel, which allows a sales professional to answer all questions and capture the consumer's dollar. Where ever the purchase is completed, in the store or over the company's website, taking these stakes off the table lowers the risk for losing the sale to your competition.
There is a very big disconnect when relating to the customer's experience on-line and in-store. An example of this displacement happens when in-store (brick & mortar) management is positioned to compete with there more dollar efficient Internet retail business(web store). The competition itself is great, yet it pulls emphasis away from the overall effect of the store's purpose, the products, and the manufacturers represented. The overall direction of the customer is driven to purchase in the store, when they stop in, and no where else. What would the retail store stand to lose by promoting there website? By providing the dot com location, the principal of the opportunity becomes the company's ability to capture the consumer's dollar. The very reason we should start to understand these steps our customers take and what is happening between these two channels of retail business prior to purchase. Retail store owners that have not started to embrace this multi-channel behavior are still looking in from the outside of their own business.
There are ways to generate this multi-channel information, the most widely accepted is creating short surveys. Just by engaging a customer and mentioning your website places emphasis on the value of your company. This creates awareness across channels and it also provides more purchase power for the consumer. Whether your a new sales associate, or seasoned sales professional, take the time to understand how your customer found you, where there shopping, and how to keep the dollars, from going to your competition.
The Internet continues to provide retailers simple yet effective marketing strategies to initiate growth beyond the retail store front. Keeping a finger on the pulse of the Industry, is the only way to provide excellence.
Brian J Brower -Internet Marketing Consultant
