Engaging instore customers
Today, customers are almost invisible to a brand when shopping instore.
Understanding the motivation of a consumer can give brands confidence in their marketing activities and streamline their efforts for more effective solutions. But this information isn’t available when customers are shopping instore and that is still over 80% of all purchases, even higher for FMCG.
So how do you get access to this vital information? Information that can shift the needle for your brand. Below are some of the ways that help you engage with instore customers.
Reviews Matter
A sure way to understand how the consumer views your products is through their reviews. However, consumer reviews are biased towards the extremes as, without incentives to provide reviews, consumers are likely only to review a product that they love or hate. These emotions can drive critical reviews of your product that can be detrimental to your brand and your bottom line.
What kind of impact are we talking about when it comes to negative or positive reviews? A quick study found that nearly 91% of consumers refer to a review to influence their purchasing decision. Anything below a 3.3 rating and you risk losing 22% of the sales of a higher rated product. One study found that if three negative reviews are found by a consumer considering purchasing your product then you’re an almost 60% favourite to lose their business.
Incentivising consumers to leave reviews is a sound strategy to maintain social proof of your products and brand, but transparency is key as it is not an exchange for good reviews as this can have a negative impact on your brand. Fake reviews are seldom worth the time and effort to secure a volume of reviews to give you credibility. Consumers that found or were suspicious of fake reviews are an 88% chance to move to another product.
Loyalty programs
In the early 2000s we saw an explosion of loyalty programs as a way to retain and promote products and brands. As of now they are still a very successful way to build value for your brand. A rewards program can normally increase your business by 5-10% and ensure a pathway for communication to the end consumer. They can increase revenue generated by the middle tier consumer that enjoys your product and can see value in a regular purchase.
There are pitfalls to loyalty programs. Cost is a major concern when it comes to a loyalty program with many experts agreeing that a loyalty program, although adds value to your brand, isn’t going to be the game changer you’re looking for as adding value to your sales proposition in a very crowded market can mean that you’re always pushing for relevance. This coupled with your products being sold through 3rd party retailers with their own programs means you’re climbing a ladder with your hands tied behind your back.
If you can create value in a loyalty program that is simple and effective to the consumer, you can ensure a stable repeatable business that keeps your engagement and relevance front of mind. For others, there is an alternative to work in with existing loyalty programs and platforms as a cost effective strategy to entice customers to your brand and build brand loyalty for your products.
Purchasing 2nd party data
Retailers compile a massive amount of data on consumers that contain valuable pieces of information that can determine where your marketing efforts need to be focused. The collection of this data and its security is a continually debated topic as privacy concerns continue to be a focus for consumers. Purchasing this data from retailers can be very expensive and it is recommended that a brand have the adequate resources to be able to process this information into an actionable outcome.
Marketing professionals warn that purchasing this information may seem like the best decision to identify concerns or confirm a hypothesis but this is a quick way to unnecessarily drive up the costs of your products. You should always consider the scale and collection of the data in regards to your needs. Will a snapshot of the data be enough for you to drive an outcome?
As mentioned previously, security remains a primary concern for consumers and so it is critical that your brand is set-up to be a trusted, compliant data partner to the retailer holding the information. Data breaches are a sure way to do irreparable damage to your brand and messaging.
Embracing technology
Ecommerce technology provides so many more data points to help you define what and where you should be putting your marketing dollars. It can help you identify the consumer that is more likely to purchase, and why they chose you over a competitor. That’s the power of ecommerce, but until now that technology operated outside retail stores.
Shping is a shopping companion app used by over 330,000 Australians and is fully embedded into the shopper’s journey every step of the way, from awareness, to consideration, to decision, to transaction. Shping provides consumers with technology to make informed, smarter shopping decisions.
For many brands, Shping facilitates the direct channel of communication with the end consumers, enabling brands to gain first-party data, gather consumer-generated content, enhance product knowledge of consumers and drive sales. With this direct channel of communication, brands are no longer removed from the conversation and have the power to influence a purchasing decision when it matters most.
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