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Closing Retail Sales with One Guaranteed Virtual Reality

Posted by Tom Lombardo | Thu, Oct 16, 2014 @ 10:00 AM

Merchant Virtual RealityI don't exercise. If God wanted me to bend over,
he would have put diamonds on the floor.

-  Joan Rivers

It makes sense to reach for something only if you know it’s there, but given all that’s happening in retail it may be difficult to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s virtual, and it may be very difficult to discern how the blurring distinction between virtual and physical shopping can be manipulated to the advantage of your business and your customers.Fortunately the diamonds are real: According to a recent Federal Reserve report, American residential households have increased their domestic investment by nearly 7% in the last year, bringing it almost back to the level it was before the recession. And as they do this, they keep their overall consumer credit burden relatively low and stable – two essential ingredients for a long, happy resurgence.

Perhaps less fortunately, changes in the retail landscape are also real – frighteningly real, making it clear that retailers who get it right stand to win outsized success while those who don’t may put their businesses at risk.

Showrooming Is the Future of Retail

Since showrooming highlights the virtual challenge to the physical retailer, and since the smart phone is the showrooming culprit, it makes sense to ponder its inventor, Apple Inc., for clues about where this trend may be going – and what you can do about it now.

In 2001 Dell, Gateway and other computer manufacturers focused all of their merchandising and selling energies on their websites, making sure that customers could assemble any machine they wanted for delivery to their door.

Apple offered the same service, but that year the company also opened retail stores in Virginia and California, completely bucking the industry’s online focus. Its incredulous competitors lampooned the stores as showcases for Apple’s design-oriented vanity and predicted with absolute certainty that Apple would shutter them after a few quarters of losses.

They were wrong and Steve Jobs was right: in the years since, Apple opened another 423 stores, each of which produces more income per square foot than practically any other retailer.

And through it all they kept right on selling products online.

The main takeaway: when the line between virtual and physical reality becomes blurry, it does not mean that virtual reality is taking over.

It means that the relationship between the two is changing, and that money can be made in both.

The Line Between Cool and Weird Is Also Blurry

Virtual Reality for MerchantsSome analysts see brick-and-mortar stores enjoying a renaissance because of virtual shopping. Entrepreneur magazine says that “the ease, convenience and excitement previously reserved for online shopping will soon be pillars of tomorrow’s shops.”

Analysts spend a lot of time talking about flashy new technologies like interactive displays, responsive posters and even “beacons” that will track a shopper’s location while they wander around – inventions that might change the shopping landscape or that might have a “creep factor” high enough to backfire and drive customers out the door.

They also think local stores won’t turn over inventory – instead, they will offer the specialized customer care that can only be accomplished face-to-face, and will then pass the sale to whichever online vendor has what the customer decided upon. Store owners won’t sell merchandise; they’ll sell leads.

Be Like Steve

While waiting for these phenomenon to mature, savvy merchants will avoid investing in untested technology.

Innovation doesn’t need to involve something new – Apple’s stores prove that. But how can you use something tried and true to show your customer that you’re integrating the physical and the virtual to better serve them?

Well, the National Retail Federation says that “developing remarkable but frictionless opportunities for customer interaction is vital,” which might bring us right back to your customer’s smart phone.

Maybe now is the time to reinvent the art of hovering.  Your customer wants to be left alone to browse creatively – and she wants your help immediately when she has a question or an idea.

So you hover. Or, you used to hover – because maybe now a text message melds the physical and the virtual in a way that pleases your customer.

Text for HelpMaybe now your shelf talkers can say something more – rather than just listing sizes or brands, how about including “Need help? Text 555-5555,” inviting your customer to interact with you in a way she is accustomed to and giving yourself the opportunity to collect precious contact information.

And for the Joan Rivers in your clientèle, who know how valuable their number is to you, let them know they’re reaching for something real. Make it a trade. In exchange for the text they’re going to get service right away. In exchange for their number, let them know they’ll receive a special invitation, via text of course, to a Black Friday special or to an exclusive post-holiday clearance sale – whatever’s most likely to get your customers back into your store at an appropriate time.

Shoppers who appreciate your efforts to integrate the virtual into the physical will assume that you’ll continue to cater to them as the virtual and physical shopping experience matures.

And that could be the most important part of your long-term business development because, as Shopify Chief Platform Officer Harley Finkelstein told Entrepreneur magazine, “We are in the midst of something right now…In 10 years we’ll be able to say this is when retail changed.

Not Either/Or But Both

In ten years we’ll also know what it changed into, but one thing we can know for sure is that it will have a virtual and a physical component. 

On the physical side, don’t overlook payment methods as a deal-closing aspect of the sale. Over the course of the recession Americans closed 400 million credit card accounts and 1 out of 5 began using checks more, two facts bracketing a new fiscal conservatism.

From the customers point of view checks provide the highest possible level of record keeping accuracy and payment security. And from your point of view, the security your customer reserves by tendering a hand-written check works in your favor as well. A signed check verifies your customer’s intent to pay and cannot easily be reversed.

If you work with a check processing company that provides free loaner equipment, you can cost-effectively meld the physical and the virtual by running the check through a Remote Deposit Capture device, verifying it, scanning it and depositing it all at the same time. And if you work with us, we can guarantee every check, so even if the check is returned you get paid (and we deal with the problem).

Accepting checks can be just like reaching for diamonds. Learn how here.

choosing check service

Topics: Retail

Written by Tom Lombardo