Seamless commerce is quickly becoming the new standard. Today’s consumer doesn’t purchase from just one touchpoint. They browse online, shop in store or opt for home delivery in response to an email promotion. Regardless of channel, this consumer experience must be smooth and seamless in order to be efficient and repeatable, and it creates new challenges and opportunities for manufacturers and retailers around marketing and logistics/supply chain. Big data and powerful analytics could create solutions that enable a seamless experience, solve for supply chain inefficiencies and ensure effectiveness of digital promotion.
If you can engineer a seamless and efficient consumer experience that enables him/her to purchase easily, then you will keep pace with today’s market (and probably gain a loyal consumer). This is easier said than done in multi-faceted, online, mobile, and physical arenas (sometimes all three at once). Here are three key enablers to move toward seamless commerce in your business:
1. Identify places in your consumer’s path to purchase where technology could be utilized to eliminate steps or optimize the experience. Many retailers, like REI, now provide mobile apps that give local store specifics (like tent rentals) and the ability to access their entire offering of products. Employees check virtual inventory via the app when a consumer cannot find what they are looking for in the physical store, and can order it on the spot. The REI app even gives consumers access to their own loyalty information (including recent purchases and wish-lists).
2. Capitalize on the digital footprints that come along with e-commerce. Your business can maximize its online market by using data and analytics to characterize consumers’ activity on your website. This can help you strategize product and advertisement placement, and decide what should and shouldn’t be utilized in your online presence. This insight is incredibly valuable, and more robust than loyalty programs in a physical store.
3. Personalize any foray into seamless commerce tactics. Never forget that your consumers are people. Making your digital technology innovations the star of the show is a mistake. Instead, leverage programs to deliver great customer service and consumer experiences. Just ask Walgreens customers. When you generate and launch new strategies and tactics, base them on the needs and wants of consumers as human beings.
Using technology to make consumers’ experience more seamless can be daunting, but by understanding opportunities across the consumers’ path to purchase, leveraging the rich data available, and personalizing the experience, you can realize new levels of loyalty and stay ahead of competition in the new landscape of seamless commerce.
The Garage Group brings entrepreneurial approaches to discovering insights and building new product, service & marketing ideas.
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