Retail Experience Highlights - 7/13/12
Here are the Retail Experience Highlights shared this week ending 7/13/12 on Twitter.
I wish you all a great weekend!
Retail Experience and the Consumer
Industry Must Respond To Generational Shifts - The rise of Millennials and the aging of Baby Boomers represent significant challenges for established food brands and traditional grocery stores, according to new study from investment bank Jeffries and business advisory firm AlixPartners.
Showrooming Debunked By Sales Data: CEA
Study: Social media losing some pull with shoppers - At the same time, more shoppers are choosing online bulletin board Pinterest, over Facebook and Twitter as their go-to-spot for following retailers online.
Consumers reported following an average of 9.3 retail companies on social media darling Pinterest, which recently raised $100 million in venture capital, to the 8.5 retailers they follow on Twitter and the average 6.9 they follow on Facebook.
Retail Experience Ideas
Word of Mouth Tip #148: Do something worth talking about in your store window - Retailers have a great opportunity with their physical location. It gives them a venue to create events — something the online guys just can’t do.
With startup True&Co, big data meets bra shopping - True&Co, which debuts Wednesday at the D10 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., is using predictive modeling and a simple online questionnaire to help women find their perfect bra.
The founders pitch this as a big data story, but it’s really a story about several trends converging. First is the comfort most folks have with buying things online and now taking that comfort to the next level–personalization. There’s also a sourcing component here that is a pretty powerful statement on how the web makes niche products available to a new audience.
How in-store shopping principles drive omnichannel retail - The success story of Lululemon immediately comes to mind. I was impressed by comments in a recent article which said, ‘when it comes to making decisions, Lulu has gone back to basics. It doesn’t use focus groups, website visits or customer-relationship management software, which tracks purchases…Instead, Chief Executive Christine Day spends hours each week in Lulu stores observing how customers shop, listening to their complaints, and then using the feedback to tweak product and stores.’ I think this type of customer engagement is something all retailers can benefit from.
Integrating Offline/Online Retail Experience
Most Customer Service Tweets Go Unanswered Within 24 Hours - But two retailers – Zappos.com and LLBean.com – replied to 100% of daily customer service questions posted to Twitter by STELLAService analysts in a recent 45-day study of the top 25 online retailers. It’s an impressive accomplishment considering the average for replies within 24 hours was just 44% across the top 25 online retailers.
What’s more, six of the 25 retailers didn’t reply to any of our analysts’ customer service inquiries over the same period, a service decision that could be costing those retailers sales. The recent American Express Global Customer Service Barometer reported that people who have used social media for customer service at least once in the last year are willing to spend 21% more with companies they believe provide great service – in contrast with the general population, which is willing to spend 13% more.
Why Pinterest is Online Retail’s New BFF - A recent study by Bizrate investigates how Pinterest is affecting the way that consumers shop online. According to Bizrate, 37 percent of consumers have heard of at least one of the most popular social image-sharing sites, and Pinterest is in the lead in the categories of awareness and visitation. Thirty-six percent of consumers are aware that Pinterest exists, and 19 percent actually visit the site. Here’s the interesting part: Of those who have visited at least one of the most popular social image-sharing sites, more than 25 percent have made a purchase based off of images found on the site.
More competition could cut into Best Buy's lucrative Geek Squad service
Leveraging Loyalty: How Amazon In Fashion Creates Opportunities For Brands And Retailers -- Part 3 of 4
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Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
Best,
C.B.
