Across the nation, keeping customers happy in-store is make-or break for retail stores, especially with their biggest eCommerce competitor, Amazon looming around the corner. To compete, brick and mortar retailers need to ensure they are staying competitive and innovative in the digital landscape.

Total retail sales during 2017, in the United States grossed nearly $5 trillion, which sounds like a impressive figure, but it’s not when compared to what an eCommerce site can do on a single day or year.

For comparison, Amazon was estimated to earn 44 cents out of every e-commerce dollar spent in the United States last year. So, how can a physical retailer maximize on a single day or weekend, and not overextend their resources to achieve success? It all starts with connecting the digital and the physical sides of retail.

A brick-and-mortar retailer should never underestimate their ability to connect shoppers with brands or products seamlessly, as that is their key to success, often resulting in a more positive purchasing and in-store experience.

This is only possible when a retailer takes the time to actually listen to the signals of their customers. By listening, a retail marketer should be able to provide unique shopper-specific promotions that reflect individual wants, needs, behaviors and preferences —  without putting an overwhelming strain on their own time, effort and resources.

Utilizing tech to better reach customers

Consumers now look for an in-store experience that reflects the convenience online shopping provides. To achieve the best of both worlds, a retailer should simply treat a physical store as if it were digital — which can be done using existing technology that most retailers already have in place.

By maximizing on the technological tools used in-store to gain knowledge about their shoppers, a retailer becomes more equipped to meet shoppers needs on a a deeper and more personal level. Whether they are using beacons, LED lights, wifi or other indoor positioning systems a retailer becomes empowered with the inherent and unique, shopper specific data that those technologies provide.

Using this data gives a retailer the opportunity to know more about what products their shoppers are buying, where they are spending time (or dwelling) within the store and what specific brands they are interacting with along with for how long.

When a consumer uses a retailer’s mobile app, either in-store or while at home planning their trip, they can perform the same activities that they would be doing if they were shopping online — including clip coupons, search, make a list, browse, and even read product reviews & recommendations.

Utilizing these tools gives a retail marketer the key additional knowledge needed  to personally meet shoppers needs through in-app marketing. Here are some additional ways in-store tools can be used by a retailer, to reach consumers through the use of mobile marketing:

  • Integrate brands: A retailer’s mobile app is a valuable source for data and insights, for example: searched keywords, or items throughout different times or seasonal attraction throughout the year. A retailer can leverage this information to create an opportunity for a brand to purchase  a “name or search word” within the app. By doing so, a brand can highlight their specific product to consumers and boost said product to the top of the  search results, for example: Clorox brand buying the term bleach.
  • Offer unique sales and promotions: As we know, today’s shopper expects ease and convenience, along with a personalized shopping experience. An easy and simple way to achieve this is to provide customers with unique promotions and offers dependent on their location within the store, or based on browsing history, coupons clipped or even items they’ve historically added to their shopping list.
  • Provide recommendations: Whether a consumer is in-store or in-app, a retailer will be able to offer bundled items, give insight to coupons and provide suggestions to each individual shopper based on previous buying patterns. A shopper will even be able to be reminded to purchase a specific item not on their list, due to the last time that purchase was made.

By employing these digital tools a retailer will not only be able to ensure increased profitability throughout the year — but also go beyond the effort of personalization, and offset costs. A retailer would no longer need to buy data year around (a.ka. Mobile ad ID’s and cookies) from 3rd parties, just to power advertising efforts. When enabling these in-store tools, a retailer can create an even more meaningful shopping experience for existing consumers, while allowing opportunities to attract new shoppers through not only a physical store-front, but digital as well.

About the Author: Mr. Marti is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Point Inside. Founded in 2009, Point Inside began mapping large public venues, such as airport and malls. With the vision and leadership of Mr. Marti, Point Inside has changed the way people shop; enabling a self-service experience for the digital shopper and increased efficiency and productivity for store operations and associates.