When the pandemic/recession ends and everybody gets back to spending their disposable income on fancy dinners and plush vacations, retail is going to take a hit. On top of that, a lot of retailers are worried that a huge jump in consumer spending will head to online sales.
Two things we know for certain:
1) The current surge in retail will level out.
2) Customers will always value personal interaction.
Remember these two numbers:
70% of consumers prefer to shop in person.
20%, the increase in consumer-spend in-store versus online.
Here are some other truths to hang your confidence on: Consumers want to touch and hold the products they are about to buy. Especially high-end merchandise. They enjoy the interaction with helpful sale associates and most importantly, they love technology that alerts them to special sales and that are personalized to their life and purchase history.
If you are afraid of losing your brick and mortar location to an online store then you are probably treating your store like a website.That means: no personal service or friendly sales staff. Very little opportunity to sample or try on the goods. No personal touch.
In-store success is based on one thing: the customer experience. If you can’t do that better than a website then you should probably shut things down and go try out for American Idol. Your chance at success would be about the same.
So, if you can’t sing like Lady Gaga start focusing on how to improve the customer experience---with the right technological tools, and the best customer service possible.
Clientbook. Turn every customer into a client.