A Business Insider Intelligence Report on In-Store Personalization provides these key takeaways.
- Consumers say that a personalized shopping experience can inspire loyalty and increases in spending.
- But brick-and-mortar retailers aren't meeting consumers' in-store personalization expectations.
- The nature of online shopping gives e-commerce the upper hand when it comes to personalization.
- Physical retailers can close the gap in personalization by identifying consumers when they enter, tracking them throughout their journey, and then using that information to inform individualized offerings.
- To make the most of personalized offerings, retailers must consider how content is being presented to consumers in-store, and what the strengths of each channel are.
- If physical retailers fail to improve their in-store personalization, they risk losing sales and market share to e-commerce companies, both online and in-store.
These takeaways remind me why I choose the in-store experiences I currently choose. My favorite place to shop for men's clothing is Alton Lane. The environment is like nothing else. The stores mix a combination of a speakeasy, personal shopper, retail, and tech firm. Their measurements include a whole-body scanning technology that literally leads to the Alton Lane clothing being more custom made to fit my body than any hand measurement could accomplish. While your scanning fabrics, you can partake in a nice Elijah Craig Bourbon or a cold beer. The selections are fantastic and the help is highly skilled. They know their products and their value proposition. They provide an environment as well as an experience. There is nothing else quite like it.
In my personal migration to Amazon, where most of my purchases now take place, I can explain exactly what happened via the use of some tools from the strategic professionals at Blue Ocean Strategy.
When working in Blue Ocean Strategy frameworks, companies begin to analyze why things happen strategically and seek first to identify unknown or non-customers as a way to capture uncontested market space. It's a process. There is little that's random about the method.
One of the first steps is identifying an industry's Key Factors of Competition.
When you layout your industry's key factors of competition, you begin to understand the current state of play in your industry. You wouldn't think of starting a game of any kind without first reading the rules of the game or allowing a friend to describe the rules of the game. Once you know the rules and understand the key factors that competitors use, you can then compete and have a chance to extend play or even win!
It's the same in business. I'm often shocked to find that companies and business owners don't assess the key factors of competition. This is why you see decimation in some industries. The innovators understood enough about the "state of play" of what the non-customer want and are willing to pay for that they offer it in some way.
Back to the state of retail. I share this simple post, not to provide details about the state of the industry. There are lots of resources for that. This post provides a visualization via a Strategy Canvas for what my experience is in the retail business. I'm a consumer, not a retailer. The canvas shows a grid with the vertical axis the key factors from high to low. The factors of competition are shown on the horizontal axis. Three parts of the industry are represented. High-End Premium Retail, Discount Retail, and My Amazon Experience. You could substitute brands or your version of any three and end up with a similar visualization in your own mind.
The image shows a limited number of key competitive factors. I listed the things that are important to me. Factors include price, convenience, inventory, return policy, and personalized marketing.
The strategy canvas makes it obvious as to why I am an Amazon fan and Prime Member. It must not just be my experience given the nature of today's retail environment. For my use of retail, Amazon is killing it on key factors of competition. There are other online platforms killing it as well. For my retail needs, convenience, inventory, personalized marketing, and return policy are key factors. The high-value proposition afforded to me by Amazon is why the Prime Membership could go up another $100 annually and I wouldn't blink.
So what is a retailer to do? The first step, stop comparing your store to the competition. The second step, get a variety of employees together to brainstorm the key factors of competition. In most cases, the CEO will be of no real assistance here. Third, ask a large variety of non-customers where they shop, why they shop there, and what keeps them going back and what they most dislike as well. Just this data alone will set you on the path for some significant gains. If you're interested in true shift to a blue ocean of uncontested market space, buy Blue Ocean Shift, read it and implement the work. Count on a year's worth of work if you're a large company. Perhaps a bit less if you're smaller. Here is the link. https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Ocean-Shift-Competing-Confidence/dp/0316314048
Sherman Mohr serves as Chief Digital Officer of a Blue Ocean Strategy influenced company serving communities of faith. He is a Certified Blue Ocean Strategists.
Inquiries may be directed to https://ourstrategists.com
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