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Expert Salespeople Matter Like Never Before in Retail, & ...

Posted by Tom Lombardo | Fri, Nov 07, 2014 @ 01:30 PM

Expert Salespeople Matter Like Never Before in Retail
& Webrooming Supplanting Showrooming

omnichannel retailThe paradox of online shopping has finally snapped. Once upon a time shoppers thronged to the web to get instant gratification in the form of tantalizing Tweets and photos and videos and reviews which would all culminate with an inspired, self-defining selection and the thrill of buying an awesome new thing – only to end up not having it.

Instant gratification decayed into shipping options, and the free one takes the longest. The waiting seemed interminable. You can only reappraise the Tweets and the photos so many times. “Liking” reviews starts to feel overly hopeful. The days drag on, and still no box.

So it’s no wonder that twenty years into the Internet era 90% of all retail business still takes place in a physical store.

And it’s no wonder that customers are now pulling the digital shopping experience into the physical one – the opposite of what pundits predicted ten years ago.

Omni-Shoppers Fandango in the Webroom

Steve Jobs once said, "You‘ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology - not the other way around," which may explain his 2001 decision to enter the retail space when his competitors were either failing there (remember Gateway?) or ignoring it altogether (as did Dell and several others). Today Apple stores earn more per square foot than any other retailer, including Tiffany’s, but it’s not because of their cool design and popular products.

It’s because they train their staff to delight their customers. Their famous “Genius Bar” – whose Geniuses undergo rigorous training and on-going testing – doesn’t even sell. Its only mission is to make people happy.

Revenue arises as a byproduct of that, and recent studies have identified well-trained salespeople as the single most important aspect of the in-store part of the buying experience – especially now.

To understand just how important, we could divide the shopping journey into four phases: discovery, testing, purchasing, and delivery or pickup.

Webrooming ShowroomingMore than a third of your customers go through the entire journey in your store, often over the course of several visits, but more than half of them are “omni-shoppers” who went through at least one of those phases online, meaning that all told 85% of the people you will sell to between now and New Year’s will have a definitive experience in your store where the sale is either closed or lost by a salesperson.

In that same study 85% said they’d spend more if only they had some expert help – and when they found it, not only did more than nine in ten buy, nine in ten said they’d shop there again.

Even more incredibly, three out of four of them would book a personal, in-store appointment just so they could have the undivided attention of the expert salesperson again.

And what’s number one on their wish list? Excellent recommendations. Most customers go “webrooming” online for the discovery part of the journey, often checking Amazon and other sites to obtain product and pricing knowledge. Then they go to physical stores looking for the right salesperson who will know everything they know and who will have a creative response to their desire for something just a little different.

It’s certainly worth the time and money to train your sales staff, but if omni-channel shoppers will inevitably visit your store’s website at some point in their journey, making sure it works as hard as your salespeople becomes business-critical.

The Less You Worry About It, the Better It Will Work

A lot of owners and managers become frustrated at this juncture, largely because the terminology around websites can be as intimidating as the technical aspects.

For example, one Deloitte study suggested that you “create an integrated digital platform that allows access to user-specific data across multiple devices,” which might sound like an insurmountably expensive investment of money and time.

But it’s not.

An “integrated digital platform…across multiple devices” is a “responsive website” whose layout changes depending upon the size of the viewer’s screen. That way it looks good on a desktop, tablet or smartphone, and to create one you certainly do not need to learn any computer code. Several providers have solved that problem and you can get a website for free or inexpensively that will let you set up the essence of what you need in a few hours. (While we don’t use or recommend either, squarespace.com and wix.com seem to be trending well and you might start there.)

Responsive Website DesignSimplifying things, the Deloitte study also found that when “it comes to the digitally-influenced shopping environment, less is more.” Your visitors don’t want a plethora of “stuff” on your site, indicating that using just the simplest features included in your provider’s toolkit may actually enhance your site’s sales and revenue performance. And be sure to link the digital and physical experience, which is also simpler than it sounds: if you have product descriptions on your website, have the same product descriptions next to the items in your store.

In the context of the Deloitte study, “access to user-specific data” means two things: first, it means that there’s a simple, customer-centric menu on your website with as few options as possible so people can easily find the information “specific” to them. The more pictures, the better, and photos you take with your smartphone will almost certainly be more than adequate for your website. Be sure to include photos of your staff as well – let your onmi-shopper know that you’ve got the experts she’s looking for.

Second, it means special treatment for shoppers who have connected with you, which usually means you have their email, or their phone number, or they Like your Facebook page, or they follow you on Twitter.

Make Them Come to You

Independent Retailer found that when webroomers switch from research to looking for you on their smartphone, 80% of successful searches turn into sales, and three out of four of those sales will happen the same day or even within a few hours, indicating how important a responsive website is and also giving us an insight into how you might deliver your special treatment.

It’s easy to incorporate a “Follow me on Twitter” button on your site and to let your visitors know that you Tweet special offers. Last year Twitter saw a 79% increase in users between 55 and 64 years old, so the platform now encompasses your entire market. In a blog post, Twitter claims that 81% of their users “love holiday shopping,” and that a quarter of them plan to spend more than $1,000 this year – a lot more than the national average. They also say that most of them plan to take advantage of a limited-time offer Tweeted to them over the holiday season.

And who’s to say the offer has to be a discount? Perhaps creative engagements designed to delight – such as after-hours appointments with your expert salespeople – might create a profitable level of local buzz. Customers looking for unique gifts may appreciate knowing when you receive a shipment, especially if you include a photo, and exclusive first-looks at new merchandise may actually do more for your relationship than would a price cut.

 Of course, once they’ve made a decision and want to buy, you want to be sure you can accommodate their preferred payment method. Baby Boomers buy a lot of gifts and they’re just as wired as Millennials, who are fiscally conservative since they grew up during the recession.

Both groups have increased their use of checks and may very well intend to conclude their digital shopping journey with a centuries-old payment method because they know it is highly secure, exceedingly accurate, and completely private. And you can virtually eliminate any risk of lost revenue by engaging a check guarantee service that will pay you even if a check bounces. Learn more here.

Check Guarantee Insider's Guide

Topics: Retail

Written by Tom Lombardo