Why User-First Mobile Is the Only Thing That Can Save Retailers Now
Sorilbran Othello
Discovery. Visibility. Pipeline. Legacy. ?? Building Content That Works Harder & Lives Longer. ??? #letsgo
With the In-Store Experience Muted, Retailers Should Make the Pivot to Human-Centered Apps and Ecomm Shops
A few weeks ago, my family and I masked up and ventured out to a local outdoor outlet mall to do a little back-to-school shopping. It was kind of a nightmare, actually. Looking at the signs, I couldn’t immediately figure out the formula for calculating in-store capacity… which annoyed me.
For instance, a fast-fashion store (that I would have sworn closed, like five years ago) had a size of about 2500–3000sf and max store capacity of 8 customers, but a popular mid-priced retailer allowed close to 100 guests max inside its store of about equal size. #shrug
Plus, it was really hot and humid that day. It’s hurricane season in these parts, which made waiting in those outdoor lines to get into stores kind of a bummer. The outcome was I ended up skipping stores I wanted to shop and spending time in stores where I wasn’t super-interested in buying just to have something to do besides wait in lines.
I couldn’t think of one good reason to stand in line to enter Bath & Body Works, one of the kids’ favorite stores, even though I had a coupon in my purse for a free gift. And I marveled that we were able to physically distance and sit down to eat inside a Great American Cookie shop, of all places, which was probably 600 sf with around 12 customers + employees in there.
I also found it hard to enjoy shopping once in-store through my Dallas-Cowboys-branded mask (don’t hate). Cool for a two-hour grocery store trip in the morning. Horrible for a four-hours trip to an outdoor outlet mall. I personally came back with $9 in random items from The Children’s Place, a small store where we couldn’t do much physical distancing. Mostly just hats for the little ones and sunglasses since we didn’t bring theirs. I saw a pair of shoes I liked, but the store wasn’t allowing try-ons… another thing that’s now really inconsistent from store to store in a world where pandemics are an everyday reality.
Which brings me to my point…
Brands Have a Real Opportunity to Redefine the Shopping Experience
I’ve already kind of made up my mind that I probably won’t be heading into any mall situations (indoor, outdoor, or otherwise) again for a while. As a time-pressed work-at-home mom, retailers get one shot to show me how their pandemic setup works.
But I also realize my experience is not unique to me, and it presents brands with both a challenge and an opportunity.
The challenge: The in-store experience isn’t ideal anymore, and most stores don’t have the resources to fancy-up gram-worthy displays. For the time being, the in-store experience is a hassle at best.
The opportunity:You can win customers like me by creating user-first, not channel-first, online and mobile shopping experiences.
After my ill-fated in-store shopping trip, I did a little research and came across this video from Think With Google on how brands should approach mobile experiences at a time when the in-store experience can’t really be optimized the way they were pre-pandemic.
At The Shelf, we talk to brand clients A LOT about the importance of the path to purchase, and understanding that influencer marketing works within the context of a larger digital strategy to personalize and customize the various touchpoints along a buyer’s path to purchase. That’s where influencer marketing shines, because most customers make their buying decisions online.
Here’s a variation of the path to purchase for shoppers under 50, and it’s digital-first.
Now that shopping in-store is more likely to be seen as undesirable for safety reasons or maybe even an inconvenience, it makes the most sense for brands to invest resources into optimizing the online experience, whether that’s taking another look at third-party partners, creating rewards programs (like Kroger’s new cashback program that mimics some of what Ibotta’s doing so I get double cash back on the stuff that’s important to my household like Q Spectacular ginger beer ??), more interactive features within the app like virtual try-on features and object identification lenses so buyers can shop what they see while they’re just living everyday life.
When was the last time you jumped down the rabbit hole that The Home Depot says is their app? AMAZING, man! It's legit what I wish every app would just go ahead and become!
I said all of that to say this:
The goal for retailers now should be making mobile and online shopping as helpful and relevant for your customers as your trendy, knowledgeable sales associates are in stores.
As someone who runs a household and does the shopping, I know I favor apps that are more intuitive and accurate — apps that can show me simple stuff like:
- Current price
- Clearance, sale prices, and coupons I can apply to my purchases for better deals (since I’m not interested in looking for yellow tags in-store)
- Current inventory and product availability
- Automatically showing similar products in case the one I’m looking for isn’t in stock or there’s another product with a more competitive price (you’d be surprised how often retailers skip that).
- Understanding that when I search for ice cream (which I do A LOT), I’m probably interested in popsicles, too — #justsayin
- Size charts for specific brands, not just some rando size chart
- Covering the logistics like return policies and shipping costs without making me look for them
- Color-match AR for makeup... and throw pillows — I’d even be cool with seeing a few well-chosen ads from brands that have released new products right in the app
- Autoship options for stuff I normally buy, AND…
- Remembering what I normally buy and maybe sending me a text message when it’s on sale, man!
- It would also be helpful if I can follow you on IG and Pinterest (or you’d remind me to, anyway) and find cool ideas for different products and their uses. And make those carousels shoppable so I can legit see something and buy it in the time it takes my three-year-old to finish what’s probably her second or third bagel today
At this point, aren’t all of these really just basic features that should be included in the design of any shop-enabled app or eCommerce site? It’s 2020! We should be Jetson-ing by now.
The Real Work Will Be Getting Buy-In
Now, I know that for some organizations, a pivot to human-centered eComm is tough to do because there’s some grandpa at the helm who doesn’t shop online and only uses his phone for news and weather (not hating - those are my peers since I'm younger than Friends, but older than New Girl, so...). Nothing against grandpas, but that’s often the case, especially when it comes to digital marketing and suped-up app design.
So… buy-in at the stakeholder level becomes an issue. I get it. I’m sometimes resistant to learning new tech myself. But at a time like this when shoppers NEED better options for eCommerce, optimizing the online experience really is your only move.
"In 2020, U.S. mobile retail revenues are expected to amount to 339.03 billion U.S. dollars, up from 207.15 billion U.S. dollars in 2018." - Statista
You Can't Afford to Not Be on the Same Page
Brands have to find the best ways to connect departments that have different campaigns running and get them on the same page. Yes, each department will be working to achieve a slightly different goal, but it’s crucial that the departments within an organization work together like the parts of a body — all doing different stuff to help the body accomplish a single, important goal, as determined by the stakeholders.
That’s gonna mean getting rid of the silos that naturally happen between teams and departments, or at the very least having regular companywide hands-on meetings where every department gets a chance to share updates on what they’re doing, what their current challenges are, as well as the challenges they’ve already solved.
It’s gonna mean making sure every team and every member of that team understands what the companywide KPIs are for the quarter and for the year, so that completing daily tasks don’t become the focus, but rather a means to an end.
And it’s gonna mean being nimble enough to do a lot of testing new tech, new strategies, new campaigns, new messaging to see what resonates with your customer at any given moment.
In an environment where change is that “New Normal” we’ve all been waiting for, marketing teams need to make it someone’s job to keep a pulse on the sentiments of the masses. (FYI… that’s pretty much what social media influencers do, day in and day out.)
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Cool pic. Thanks, Artem Beliaikin
Why User-First Mobile Is the Only Thing That Can Save Retailers Now
Aug 5 · 6 min read
With the In-Store Experience Muted, Retailers Should Make the Pivot to Human-Centered Apps and Ecomm Shops
Over the weekend, my family and I masked up and ventured out to a local outdoor outlet mall to do a little back-to-school shopping. It was kind of a nightmare, actually. Looking at the signs, I couldn’t immediately figure out the formula for calculating in-store capacity… which annoyed me.
For instance, a fast fashion store (that I would have sworn closed, like five years ago) had a size of about 2500–3000sf and max store capacity of 8 customers, but a popular mid-priced retailer allowed close to 100 guests max inside its store of about equal size. #shrug
Plus, it was really hot and humid Sunday. It’s hurricane season in these parts, which made waiting in those outdoor lines to get into stores kind of a bummer. The outcome was I ended up skipping stores I wanted to shop and spending time in stores where I wasn’t super-interested in buying just to have something to do besides wait in lines.
I couldn’t think of one good reason to stand in line to enter Bath & Body Works, one of the kids’ favorite stores, even though I had a coupon in my purse for a free gift. And I marveled that we were able to physically distance and sit down to eat inside a Great American Cookie shop, of all places, which was probably 600 sf with around 12 customers + employees in there.
I also found it hard to enjoy shopping once in-store through my Dallas-Cowboys-branded mask (don’t hate). Cool for a two-hour grocery store trip in the morning. Horrible for a four-hours trip to an outdoor outlet mall. I personally came back with $9 in random items from The Children’s Place, a small store where we couldn’t do much physical distancing. Mostly just hats for the little ones and sunglasses since we didn’t bring theirs. I saw a pair of shoes I liked, but the store wasn’t allowing try-ons… another thing that’s now really inconsistent from store to store in a world where pandemics are an everyday reality.
Which brings me to my point…
Brands Have a Real Opportunity to Redefine the Shopping Experience
I’ve already kind of made up my mind that I probably won’t be heading into any mall situations (indoor, outdoor, or otherwise) again for a while. As a time-pressed work-at-home mom, retailers get one shot to show me how their pandemic setup works.
But I also realize my experience is not unique to me, and it presents brands with both a challenge and an opportunity.
The challenge: The in-store experience isn’t ideal anymore, and most stores don’t have the resources to fancy-up gram-worthy displays. For the time being, the in-store experience is a hassle at best.
The opportunity: You can win customers like me by creating user-first, not channel-first, online and mobile shopping experiences.
After my ill-fated in-store shopping trip, I did a little research and came across this video from Think With Google on how brands should approach mobile experiences at a time when the in-store experience can’t really be optimized the way they were pre-pandemic.
At The Shelf, we talk to brand clients A LOT about the importance of the path to purchase, and understanding that influencer marketing works within the context of a larger digital strategy to personalize and customize the various touch points along a buyer’s path to purchase. That’s where influencer marketing shines because most customers make their buying decisions online.
Here’s a variation of the path to purchase for shoppers under 50 and it’s digital first.
Now that shopping in-store is more likely to be seen as undesirable for safety reasons or maybe even an inconvenience, it makes the most sense for brands to invest resources into optimizing the online experience, whether that’s taking another look at third-party partners, creating rewards programs (like Kroger’s new cash back program that mimics some of what Ibotta’s doing so I get double cash back on the stuff that’s important to my household like Q Spectacular ginger beer ??), more interactive features within the app like virtual try-on features and object identification lenses so buyers can shop what they see while they’re just living everyday life.
The goal for retailers now should be making mobile and online shopping as helpful and relevant for your customers as your trendy, knowledgeable sales associates are in stores.
As someone who runs a household and does the shopping, I know I favor apps that are more intuitive and accurate — apps that can show me simple stuff like:
- Current price
- Clearance, sale prices, and coupons I can apply to my purchases for better deals (since I’m not interested in looking for yellow tags in-store)
- Current inventory and product availability
- Automatically showing similar products in case the one I’m looking for isn’t in stock or there’s another product with a more competitive price (you’d be surprised how often retailers skip that)
- Understanding that when I search for ice cream, I’m probably interested in popsicles, too — #justsayin
- Size charts for specific brands, not just some rando size chart
- Covering the logistics like return policies and shipping costs without making me look for them
- Color-match AR for makeup — I’d even be cool with seeing a few well-chosen ads from brands that have released new products right in the app
- Autoship options for stuff I normally buy, AND…
- Remembering what I normally buy and maybe sending me a text message when it’s on sale, man!
- It would also be helpful if I can follow you on IG and Pinterest (or you’d remind me to, anyway) and find cool ideas for different products and their uses. And make those carousels shoppable so I can legit see something and buy it in the time it takes my three-year-old to finish what’s probably her second or third bagel today
At this point, aren’t all of these really just basic features that should be included in the design of any shop-enabled app or e-commerce site? It’s 2020. We should be Jetson-ing by now.
The Real Work Will Be Getting Buy-In
Now, I know that for some organizations, a pivot to human-centered e-comm is tough to do because there’s some grandpa at the helm who doesn’t shop online and only uses his phone for news and weather. Nothing against grandpas, but that’s often the case, especially when it comes to digital marketing and suped-up app design.
So… buy-in at the stakeholder level becomes an issue. I get it. I’m sometimes resistant to learning new tech myself. But at a time like this when shoppers NEED better options for ecommerce, this is the move.
Brands have to find the best ways to connect departments that have different campaigns running and get them on the same page. Yes, each department will be working to achieve a slightly different goal, but it’s crucial that the departments within an organization work together like the parts of a body — all doing different stuff to help the body accomplish a single, important goal, as determined by the stakeholders.
That’s gonna mean getting rid of silos that naturally happen between teams and departments, or at the very least having regular companywide hands-on meetings where every department gets a chance to share updates on what they’re doing, what their current challenges are, as well as the challenges they’ve already solved.
It’s gonna mean making sure every team and every member of that team understands what the companywide KPIs are for the quarter and for the year, so that completing daily tasks don’t become the focus, but rather a means to an end.
And it’s gonna mean being nimble enough to do a lot of testing new tech, new strategies, new campaigns, new messaging to see what resonates with your customer at any given moment. In an environment where change is that “New Normal” we’ve all been waiting for, marketing teams need to make it someone’s job to keep a pulse on the sentiments of the masses. (FYI… that’s pretty much what social media influencers do day in and day out.)
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