Experts agree: it’s time to drop the “e-” and simply call it “commerce.” There isn’t much difference between shopping in-store or online. Ideally, online and offline commerce should be part of a seamless journey that consumers use to find and purchase the right product for their needs. While this sounds amazing, the reality is that retailers are struggling to implement the concept of seamless commerce. “Legacy systems” and “outdated infrastructure” are the biggest barriers to an omnichannel experience. How can retailers overcome these obstacles?
This article in Furniture Today calls it “seamless retail”. Other industry publications call it ‘omnichannel’ or “multi-channel.” All these terms essentially describe what retailers are experiencing every day – consumers don’t go shopping, they are shopping, anywhere and anytime!
According to Forrester Research, “More than half of retail sales are influenced by digital.” E-commerce forces businesses to be agile across many fronts. Big box retail has invested huge sums into developing omnichannel and seamless experiences. Now Main Street retail has to compete.
Find The Disconnect!
Products can show a different price between a retailer’s website, floor tags, and in-store tools. This creates a poor customer experience and diminishes trust. As a result, your Sales Associates in the showroom get to look at countless smartphones, just to admit that the price quoted on the website is indeed much lower than the price on display.
This McKinsey & Company report concludes, “Over half of all customer interactions happen during a multi-event, multi-channel journey. With ideas flowing freely among teams, it’s imperative that data can flow freely as well,” says this article describing obstacles of the omnichannel experience.
Most retailers report that legacy systems and data silos prevent them from offering true omnichannel commerce.
Why Is Product Content Syndication So Crucial?
It all starts and ends with product data. Your merchandise is the most important aspect of your business and the core of everything. Keeping product content, pricing, inventory levels, and data such as alternative images and cross-sell attributions constantly synchronized can be a tedious and repetitive task.
While Sales Associates may be able to wing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data or the lack thereof, this can’t be done for product data and pricing. Consumers want to know what product they’re getting at what price. It is time-consuming to always keep your website, marketplace ads (i.e. Google Shopping and Amazon), in-store devices, and other systems up-to-date. Find a central data repository that allows for changes and dissemination of information to connected services and devices.
It begins with automated feed management that should be provided by the product content syndication platform. Remove discontinued items daily basis to ensure new statuses synchronize to all connected systems automatically. This saves countless hours of processing. The platform should also provide data related to the addition of new items and automated kitting of items. These items include beds, sectionals, groups, and common packages. Find an autonomous partner that is not needed for revisions. A User Interface (UI) can make changes to the “collection” or “lifestyle” association, updates to “fluff” or “romance copy”, and price information.
In today’s digital world, consumers expect product suggestions. Popular e-commerce websites use “you may also like” suggestions that increase the average order value (AOV) or average ticket size, with some systems offering related items to constitute an up-sell. The system can be configured to suggest combinations (like a sofa and loveseat combo). Make sure these associations can be managed effectivity. These valuable combinations are not always obvious and may require modifications.
Use The Right Tool For The Job
While your website is a critical component to the success of your omnichannel, you must use the right tool is used for the right job. However, many retailers believe the answer is offering their website as an in-store tool. They want to offer consumers an “endless aisle” to combat a narrow assortment.
Chances are very high that customers have already browsed your website at home prior to coming into your store. Offering a unique in-store experience gives consumers a reason to come inside and shop!
Your website should be responsive and mobile-accelerated to make sure visitors don’t bounce and actually convert, while your in-store application should provide more than just a SKU lookup. Ideally, it should allow guests to explore, spend time in the store, and discover new items they didn’t consider before coming to the store. All these traits will help to result in a higher average ticket size and an increased close rate.
While some of this lingo might sound difficult to achieve, getting started is actually pretty simple. Cut the job into bite-sized chunks and pick a place to start. The following infographic highlights five key areas that can be tackled individually and very quickly.
Want to utilize a product content syndication platform? It seamlessly feeds unified product and pricing information to your in-store kiosks. Not to mention Sales Associates’ tablets, e-commerce websites, and marketplace accounts. Shoot us a note to chat more about it.