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Retail business is very similar to Darwinian evolutionary theory claiming survival of the fittest. Brands are willing not only to survive but to succeed by any means so the intense competition is not a surprise.
Since the world is going online, marketers get more effective tools available for attracting clients and digital technologies are among them.
In this article, we are going to review the innovative ways to get more customers for your business.
5 Examples of interactive media products that attract customers:
Electronic price tags
Imagine the situation that your next door competitor has suddenly lowered the prices or put some products on sale. The same products, you sell at higher prices. How would you solve this problem? Usually, it takes at least a week to print new price tags and marketing materials. But if you have digital panels, you can change the prices within an hour!
Electronic price tags, connected to CRM or any other inner software, allow changing prices of the selected group of products in a few clicks! This opens a lot of marketing opportunities such as conducting “one hour only discount” or daily discounts on a special group of products. In other words, you will become more flexible and it takes fewer efforts to change the pricing policy if needed.
Beacons
Beacons are considered to be one of the most innovative ideas to attract customers since the emergence of mobile card readers. Being located in the store these small devices can recognize the customers’ smartphones and send them notifications with discounts or promotions.
For example, you walk near the coffee shop where you have a loyalty card or even an app downloaded. And suddenly, you receive the push notification offering you a 20% discount if you take a coffee within two hours. Would you resist such a temptation? Probably not. How does it work? When you are located near the store, the beacon can recognize your smartphone and the magic begins.
Big data for Big Store
Big data is another good example of new technology for business boosting. Some retail chains use this tools for flexible pricing. For instance, the same grocery chain can have premium stores in the city center or in the district with high standards of living. Monitoring the demand and solvency within the limited area allows setting flexible prices for the same product in different stores. Moreover, big data helps marketers to use online advertising to align KPIs in different regions.
But not only products and customers are the subject for analysis. Big data analysis can also be used to keep track the staff and find any anomalies. For example, when one cashier is performing too many operations with loyalty cards (much more than his colleagues do), the fact of fraud might take place.
Mobile Apps Can Boost Customer Loyalty
Developing mobile apps is not a new technique of customers engagement. But using new technologies such as Augmented and Virtual Reality businesses can go far beyond mobile catalogs and loyalty programs. Everyone is buzzing about Ikea AR catalog that allows users to visualize each item in their own interior. You just need to choose a piece of furniture (all items are turned into 3D models) and direct your smartphone to the desired place in your room.
Raising customer service speed
Slow speed of service is one of the most annoying things that lowers customer experience not only online, but also offline. It’s not a surprise that people tend to leave the websites with a long load time. The same is true for brick and mortar stores where long queues to the fitting room are the reason of losing clients. People just are not willing to wait for so long.
Making more fitting room is not always possible, so Gap decided to create the augmented-reality ‘dressing rooms’. User can easily “try on” clothes without even visiting a store. All you need to do is add your measurements as height, weight and size and see the virtual model wearing the item you like.
Another way to speed up the service is adding the possibility of Android and Apple pay to your cash desks or even implement the interactive self-ordering kiosks like McDonald’s did.
Best time for use of technology in advertising
Keeping your business up to date is the core need since the modern customers became very demanding. Digitalization is an integral part of marketing as it’s aiming to improve the customer experience. But the golden rule of any business is: don’t do anything without a strategy. No matter how much hype is made around augmented reality, beacons, or any other technologies, you need to choose only those, that actually fit your business.
Before implementing any digital tools, ask yourself:
- What is the ROI of this technology?
- Does it fit the customer journey?
- Will this technology improve the customer experience?
Conclusion
Digital technologies, that aim to bring the customers experience to a whole new level appear each day. Though, it’s obvious that digitalization of any business is a must. Bring changes that match the strategy of your company until it’s to late!
