It’s easy to paint a picture that technology is seducing shoppers off Main Street at Christmas time and onto online stores like Amazon. But smart retailers are increasingly answering the question - ‘How do we use digital to drive sales online AND offline?’
In association with leading specialist retail and shopper agency Live & Breathe, we present 24 tactical tips and fast fixes to help CMOs use digital to drive footfall into stores.
For mobile optimized websites and apps
Do:
Add 1-3 key holiday messages or offers front and center of your mobile website and/or app.
Check:
Does the mobile version of your website work well, especially on larger smartphones and phablets?
Check:
Can you remove any steps to make browsing products easier?
Do later:
Consider a Beacons trial to drive usage of loyalty card/app and any related offers in-store.
Do later:
Consider a Beacons trial to allow shoppers to click a ‘Remind me in-store’ button on your website, which then triggers a product or offer reminder when they walk into store.
For Click and Collect
Do:
Make sure your Click and Collect service is communicated clearly across all relevant channels.
Ask:
How can you clearly inform online shoppers that, compared with competitors, your Click and Collect service is the safest way of shopping right up to the last minute – guaranteeing your shoppers’ gifts will arrive.
Ask:
What extra can you do to highlight Click and Collect both in-store and online?
For website/email marketing
Do:
Collate and communicate ‘social proof’ from bloggers, key opinion leaders and online reviews around key products and services.
Check:
Have you delivered messages focussing on high margin lines – e.g. non-food items for grocers.
Check:
Are your transactional emails (e.g. ‘Thank you for your purchase’) also giving information about in-store offers and extra reasons to shop in-store too?
Ask:
Can you use online purchases to drive further physical sales or Click and Collect pickups? For example, can you send out vouchers to use in-store, or give gift cards that can be used in the January sales?
Ask:
Can you run an exclusive social media voucher that can be redeemed in-store?
Ask:
How can you use targeted emails and web content and banners to drive sales of top performing products and under-performing lines?
Do later:
Make sure online offers are personalized and emails are highly segmented, allowing you to suggest online and in-store offers based on segmentation and purchase history.
For in-store digital
Do:
If you make in-store tablets available, make sure detailed information is easily available about your products, including positive price comparisons and customer reviews.
Check:
Is your in-store Wi-Fi working and easy for shoppers to access?
Ask:
Is your online and in-store pricing aligned?
Do later:
Investigate in-store digital media to help drive information and inspiration in-store, show reviews and positive price comparisons, and use as a media services space.
For social media/video
Do:
Have plenty of community managers staffing your social media channels, (especially at evenings and weekends), to help answer shoppers’ queries and give directions to their nearest store.
Do:
Supporting TV campaigns with online video? Add digital overlays to online videos that drive to online ordering and Click and Collect pages of your website.
Check:
Are you communicating your store’s expertise and services as well as products e.g. specialist retailers talking about knowledge and advice that can’t be got elsewhere?
Ask:
Can you run an exclusive social media voucher that can be redeemed in-store?
Do later:
Plan ‘always on’ Facebook contests through an app to acquire rich Facebook Connect opt-in data.
With 41% of consumers currently shopping via smartphones and 35% buying via tablets (Mintel), and shoppers referencing 12 sources of information before making a purchase [in 2013, up from 5 sources in 2010, Google and Inmar], using online and mobile channels to only drive online makes little sense.
Physical retail can rapidly benefit from online and digital channels, especially at Christmas when less sophisticated retailers will miss out the opportunities of an integrated approach brings. Implementing these fast fixes will help maximize spend and improve Christmas campaign results.
For more last minute tips to help maximize your online and in-store Christmas campaign, go to: www.smartfocus.com/mobilexmas