Uniform customer experience will ensure retailers thrive in the new world order

Customer buying behaviour is going through a tectonic shift. We saw the first few months of the pandemic record a significant rise in online purchases of essential commodities due to the many curfews and lockdowns.

  • Published On Sep 30, 2021 at 09:13 AM IST
Read by: 100 Industry Professionals
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By Rohit Kaila

Customer buying behaviour is going through a tectonic shift. We saw the first few months of the pandemic record a significant rise in online purchases of essential commodities due to the many curfews and lockdowns. Studies have shown sizeable growth in consumers purchasing from online platforms across all categories. This has now eventually caused a further reaction or 'shock to loyalty', wherein these consumers are now changing how they shop in response to health and safety protocols.

Indian customers rank amongst those with the highest propensity towards eCommerce. Anywhere, anytime shopping has now become paramount to the retail journey in India as well. Globally, retailers have been prioritizing customer preference and leveraging data from understanding shopping behavioural patterns. The need of the hour is to revaluate business priorities; build a positive, creative and convenient online and offline shopping experience.

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In recent times, the significant increase in crossroads between eCommerce and social media is telling of the growing demand for convenient and simultaneously creative retail experiences. With almost 90% of social media users actively following business accounts, leveraging shopping experiences on these platforms is a notable movement adapting to the shift in consumer buying patterns and their preferred shopping styles.

Assessing all the online and offline platforms frequented by target consumers, showing up at these platforms and making them shoppable is the future of retail. Even more important is to avoid treating these touchpoints as sales channels but rather as a strategic unified shopping experience.

The erstwhile highly relied tool of emphasizing the focus on different channels, alienates the customer’s retail experience. The focus must change from a standard and one-dimensional approach to a multipronged strategy that prioritizes accessibility, an easy interface, and predictability of product availability. To achieve this integrated experience, technological innovation is the key. Data security and fraud detection also takes precedence as customers manoeuvre through multiple eCommerce platforms to ensure a hassle free and happy shopping experience.

Customers are ready to experience these new retail fantasies. Today, demand is no longer for quantity but rather the quality of the experience. As we move towards integrated platforms, intelligent systems powered by technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will play a huge role in understanding consumer buying patterns, predicting their needs and designing systems that can deliver. For instance, retailers could use AI based demand forecasting solutions to customise products and provide a personalized shopping experience.

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While emerging technology has revolutionised how the retail and e-tail experiences are connected, with AI pattern systems, smart baskets, digital assistants, virtual reality tools, among others, one of the most important aspects would be creating cross-channel convenience. Services such as click-and-collect (where a customer places an order online and selects for an in-store pickup), smart substitution, on-demand booking for expert help, in-store CRM, loyalty reward policies are crucial to resolving bottle necks that hinder the overall retail experience.

Retail experiences are bound to become increasingly channel-agnostic. This change needs to manifest in the way retailers’ function:

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A marked increase in prioritizing and owning the customer experience over just owning the channels: Retailers will have to focus on the why and how of a given purchase to ensure consistent demand as opposed to prioritizing accessibility by offering multiple channels
Embracing technology: Data and analytics will become integral tools to traverse the bridge between having different channels and channel agnosticism. By building comprehensive and robust systems of solutions along with business intelligence tools that are deployed across all points of the customer experience, retailers can initiate their channel-agnostic retail journeys
Measurement and reporting: A constant feedback mechanism that measures and marks customers' shopping behaviours and habits will ensure that the standard of experience is consistently being improved. These measurement and reporting systems will need to touch all points of the online and in-store journey
Personalization at scale: Data and AI are enabling true 1:1 personalization at scale across digital channels. Research shows customers are more likely to shop with retailers that offer a high level of personalization. Cross-channel personalization has become the norm. Customers expect you to know their preferences to help them save time and make life easier

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Retailers need to put substantial effort to retain customer loyalty in this new business scenario. The necessity is to build increasingly curated, engaging, and captivating experiences that result in highest sale conversion and customer retention. Those that can harness uniform personalized interactions will be able to create value for not just their new customers (who are digital natives) but also their existing customers who have started shopping online more than they had earlier. Retailers must rethink their customer engagement strategies by using insights from the vast amount of data available today to understand each consumer, to ensure they not just survive but thrive in times of change. Those that don’t, will be losing out on a great opportunity to capture mind share and draw in consumers.

The author is Vice President – Engineering, Walmart Global Tech India

  • Published On Sep 30, 2021 at 09:13 AM IST
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