Virtual showrooms, immersive experiences, the ability to learn about product information directly from QR codes, RFID technologies to recommend products for up-selling and cross-selling: in the face of the eCommerce boom, the retail worldis trying to preserve its competitiveness by focusing everything on digital transformation and innovation, thanks in part to marketing automation strategies in retail.
The goal? That of meeting the needs of an increasingly digitized and demanding consumer, looking for experiences to live rather than products to buy, able to move with increasing ease, seamlessly, between the online and offline worlds.
But how to overcome these new challenges and, above all, how toenhance the experience at the point of sale in an omnichannel perspective thanks to the contribution of marketing automation in retail ? Let’s find out together!
In-store customer experience: the new retail frontier is built on data
The key word is once again “personalization“: whether it is the offer of a product, the possibility of completing the purchase by paying with one’s smartphone, rather than that of taking advantage offline of a promotion acquired online or the simple possibility of accessing personalized services through interactive totems, it matters little. What the consumer expects is to have ashopping experience that is thought out and designed “to measure.”
It is evident, how in such a context, the use of Customer Data Platform, such as Blendee, and the implementation of omnichannel marketing automation strategies play an essential role.
In a special way, the use of Customer Data Platform and the integration of these as the different data sources (eCommerce site, CRM, ERP, POS) allow salespeople to know, down to the smallest detail, the interests, needs, tastes of their customers and users, being able to have a complete overview of their entire customer journey.
Marketing automation in retail: the impact of a drive-to-store strategy
Profiling its audience, but not only: the contribution of a marketing automation strategy in retail can be really relevant and have impact, first and foremost, in the implementation of drive-to-store activities aimed at integrating online and offline campaigns.
- Geolocalized and personalized Google ADS and Social ADS campaigns: thanks to the use of a Customer Data Platform such as Blendee, it is possible to create targets for geolocalized campaigns directly in the platform combining, thus, the profiling criterion related to the area of origin or navigation with other criteria more relevant to users’ interests, their previous purchase experiences, thus obtaining much better performing audiences for one’s campaigns.
- Triggers and personalized emails: once the user is registered for the newsletter, it is also possible to ring them up for promotional initiatives or events directly usable within the store, imagine, for example, the presentation of the new collection, rather than a special private sales campaign.
- SMS marketing and Push Notification: just as it is possible to reach the user by sending personalized emails, in the same way it is also possible to engage them bysending SMS and Push Notification. Let’s not forget that very often, the phone number is one of the most frequently requested data for fidelity card activation, another important driver for increasing customer loyalty and their connection to the store.
- Personalized behavioral messages: activities and campaigns created from a drive-to-store perspective can also be realized thanks to the contribution of personalization activities implemented on-site. It is, in fact, possible to engage the user even when they are browsing the site, proposing offers or promotions that can be spent directly in the nearest store.
Broadly speaking, we can say that in the context of customizing drive-to-store strategies, the contribution of marketing automation and artificial intelligence can be really relevant in order to:
- Show and provide the most attractive products for the individual customer;
- Think offers dedicated to the segment they belong to or to the individual customer;
- Suggest more consistent products in relation to previous purchases;
- ringaggiare the user with proposals on new arrivals and customized offers if a sale does not materialize immediately.
From drive-to-store strategy to 360-degree personalization: the customer at the center of evolution
Although drive-to-store strategies are probably one of the contexts in which retail marketing automation features and customer base profiling activities are showing their full potential, there are two activities in which the contribution of marketing automation can prove truly crucial: personalization and automation of quotes and personalization of in-store appointments.
Let’s start with the first: customization and automation of quotes. Precisely because of the ability to collect data and information from multiple sources at the level of a single customer view, it is possible, even for salespeople, to access extremely complete and detailed master data sheets on the individual potential customer: imagine, for example, the products consulted in the online catalog, rather than the purchases previously made at the point of sale or the offers they have chosen to join.
All this makes it possible to customize the offer even at the stage of creating the quote or commercial offer, but not only that: the very management of the flow related to the commercial proposal in this case can be customized and managed automatically.
From quote personalization to appointment personalization at the point of sale: information collected online regarding browsing behavior, interests, and expressed needs can be useful for salespeople to personalize appointments in detail to improve their effectiveness.
By reflex, of course, the information that salespeople are able, instead, to collect off-line can likewise help enrich the very profile of the user, such that the online experience can be more personalized as well.
Just in the context of the personalization of the appointment at the point of sale, we feel it is only right to point out how this activity can really be fueled by digital campaigns: leads and requests may well arrive from the website and solicited precisely with on-site personalization activities. Behavioral messages then, but above all profiling forms aimed at collecting valuable data and information precisely for salespeople.
Marketing automation in retail: the point of sale becomes experience!
From shopping experience to brand experience: in the era of omnichannel and customer experience, what we expect is to have a fluid and hybrid shopping experience, where the advantages and peculiarities of the physical store are combined with those of the digital world, so much so that we increasingly speak of aphygital approach.
Here, then, are cutting-edge technological solutions that help make the point of sale an experiential, immersive, all-encompassing place and bring back to the offline experience all the immediacy and personalization inherent in the digital world.
In such a context, marketing automation strategies implemented with the contribution of ‘ artificial intelligence thus become crucial for building even more detailed and complete customer profiles and consequently designing increasingly personalized customer journeys.
Discover how you too can personalize the shopping experience in your store with Blendee!
