Are retailers doing enough with our data to make online customer experiences truly personal?
If you’re used to shopping on Amazon regularly then you’ll be used to a homepage full of items you’ve already browsed, items inspired by your history and other recommended products based on your preferences and behaviour.
In which we take a look at the experience of using John Lewis from a customer point of view.
Meaning this won’t be a robust test of the ecommerce site’s search functionality, or the quality of its mega-navs, or the persuasiveness of its homepage.
Instead this will involve searching for an item on Google, clicking on the most attractive result, testing the relevancy and helpfulness of its landing page and seeing how quick and easy it is to make a purchase. The customer journey in a nutshell.
Following the relaunch of its ecommerce site at the end of 2013, Halfords online sales have risen 13.7% from the same time last year.
As reported in Internet Retailing last week, Halfords’ online sales represented 12.2% of its total retail sales. Conversion rates have risen by 19% and 92% of online orders were collected in store through its click and collect service.
Impressive figures that certainly position Halfords as a successful multichannel retailer, but what makes the Halfords online experience particularly conducive to improving its revenue?
Recently we’ve featured Halfords in various articles related to ecommerce – social customer service, guest checkouts click and collect – and to be honest this retailer hasn’t come out particularly well.
The consumer voice has never been stronger.
The internet has created a massive increase in the volume of customer feedback data.
Social media, product reviews, customer ratings, online surveys, net promoter score… all these communication channels mean that companies are increasingly having to make their businesses customer-centric.
Understanding the customer journey and delivering relevant experiences has never been this critical.
Recent research by eBay and Deloitte revealed that a third of UK and German consumers used multiple channels when making recent purchases, with this rising to two in three for orders over £100.
This presents today’s marketers with a unique challenge. They need to deliver customer experiences that are coordinated across all channels, with personalised and relevant messaging and content.
Leading marketers must understand the value of these multichannel customer interactions and work towards ensuring seamless customer experiences.
Mobile, social and the Internet of Things are transforming the trajectory of the customer journey.
The straight shot from discovery to checkout no longer exists. Instead, it has been replaced by a zigzagging, interwoven path of touchpoints, screens and interactions.
Google has a big impact on the retail shopping journey, both online and off.
I’ve previously written about the smartphone customer journey, but given increases in Android market share, retail sales, the proportion of retail sales online, and mobile sales, I thought I should take another look.
So, how does the customer interact with Google services in the course of her journey to purchase?
Be prepared for a stat-fest, from search to mobile, YouTube to in-store.
In our first post ‘real time customer intelligence, right here, right now?’ we raised the idea that some savvy marketers have been getting the right message to the right person at the right time for years – we call them ‘Shopkeepers’.
But the ‘recent’ explosion of marketing channels has brought about some fairly complex challenges that even our friendly shopkeeper would struggle with.
So how in today’s connected world can we serve and delight thousands of smart customers on different channels and different devices all at the same time?
Google has a unique viewpoint from which to look at mobile’s part to play in the customer journey.
SERPs, AdWords, Google Maps, Google Chrome, Google accounts – all have a part to play. And perhaps soon Google Wallet and Google Glass.
I attended Latitude’s client summit last week and listened to Harry Davies, Lead Product Marketing Manager, Large Customer Marketing, at Google (helping customers get the most from search).
I’ve tried to sum up some of what Harry had to say, giving an overview of mobile’s involvement in retail in 2013.