The art of personal retailing, made easy Online

Posted on by Billy Tucker

image

Pricing alone will never lead to a long term strategic advantage, only service quality and inspiration can.

I’m saddened by today’s retail landscape in Australia. Shop windows shout lowest price, when what I really need are inspirational gift ideas, good sales advice and the comfort that my dicky gift choices can be returned when they turn out to be just that, dicky!

Pricing is a consideration for sure but only in so much as the chosen item is inside or outside my budget, at which point the role of a retail assistant is to upsell upsell upsell!

At this time of year, the vast majority of retail spending is focused on gift buying. But in this world of consumerism on steroids, friends and family are increasingly hard to buy for – combine this with the paradox of choice we feel and no wonder the shelves remain stacked and the gifts received remain, er, dicky. Pricing, though, is rarely the issue.

The solution is probably right in front of me, a personal shopper! But who knows how to use one of those? In the world of online, a Personal Shopper is only a few clicks away. Punch in my budget, a broad description of the loved ones I’m buying for and bam, inspiration is at hand. Maybe my better-half gets an email with options to choose from that will better narrow the items presented back to the buyer, Buble or Gaga, Block colours or print, ebook or paper? Now I have items to choose from that make me look like the hero I am, and I can pick up in store to boot (time for that all-important upsell and gift wrapping service!)

Clearly these are difficult times, and Christmas is an expensive business, so the price conscious shopper with a gift in mind is looking for the best price available. But I don’t believe that is the whole story. By focusing on lowest price retail I worry that our biggest Branded retailers are on a race to zero, yet they’ll remain unable to compete with online – this is a lose lose for all. Online is the key to harvesting Signals for that personal experience, it’s the opportunity for Big Retail to take “personal retailing” to the next level; training consumers to think Online is all about Lowest price and best discount is to underwrite the death of Big Retail.

“Discount heavily and I will love you right now, inspire me with insights and ideas and great service and I will love you for ever”

Footnote:

Two stories in today’s SMH caught my eye, one announcing that Australia’s Retail legend Myer was launching it’s Boxing day sale today to online customers, and the other covering the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue (which has been available since 1926 and growing from strength to strength each year!) interesting contrast between growing retail and contracting retail.

Another story here from ninemsn, Harvey Normal now cannibalising its own revenues through offshore hosted online store, ug.

EDLP or not, retailers are out of control!

Posted on by Billy Tucker

What’s wrong with the picture below?

Photo_080798BA-A992-3405-BE49-18BADCBF466C

The clue is in the row of heads above the shelves of candy.

This discount retailer has positioned hundreds of impulse items along two sides of this isle designed to tempt shoppers while they queue for a checkout.

By my reckoning, the shopper you can see at the top of the picture has a 15 minute wait ahead of them, providing lots of opportunity for the retailer to maximise Basket size.

The longer the queue, the greater the likelihood folks will be upsold. This retailer has knowingly implemented a strategy to reward themselves for poor service. That is broken.

Regardless of their EDLP strategy, poor service shouldn’t be part of it. Institutionalising crappy service is outrageous, deriving benefit has to be the shortest of short term views.

Group Buying – Smoothing demand to meet supply

Posted on by Billy Tucker

A Targeted Voucher Program (like Group Buying) does more than simply increase brand awareness and consumer demand, it smooths demand to make best use of the available Supply, combine this will upsell opportunities and future loyalty and the returns will continue to flow well beyond the life of the promotion.

Running an above the line Brand promotion will make the target business top of mind for a new set of potential customers, hopefully creating lots of new Demand albeit the profile of that demand is likely to look a lot like existing demand, just more of it! For restaurants, that means what little availability there is on a Friday or Saturday will go first, and once they are gone, customers will be unlikely to settle for a midweek or Sunday slot instead, squandering the marketing investment and the opportunity to introduce your business to a new audience.

image

A Targeted Voucher Program is fundamentally different. Why? Typically, when a someone calls a restaurant to book a table they are planning an evening out, they have an evening in mind and are looking for a suitable restaurant to meet their needs, if their preferred night is full, they’ll call the next restaurant on their list; however when they call with a Voucher, they already have a restaurant in mind, they just need to find a suitable evening to redeem it, they have already made a commitment to your business after all (and paid upfront too!)! Voucher holders are willing to book well in advance to redeem their voucher, something an average patron is unlikely to do and upselling your Voucher holder to a weeknight at this point is the first step toward smoothing Demand.

At Cudo, we hear often from business owners that occupancy is significantly improved on Thursdays and Sundays as a direct result of running a promotion on cudo.com.au. The more popular the offer, the greater the impact is on weekday trade, yielding a significant gain in efficiency for the business overall. 

image

Making the most of this type of promotion is the role of the featured business, they have to embrace the promotion and the new interest generated, train their staff to upsell and make the most of customer loyalty.

But irrespective of how small the gap is between supply and demand, combine a Targeted Voucher Program with a booking system and you have a very powerful way to improve short to medium term occupancy – make the most of the Program and it will have a lasting impact on your business.