The Boundaries between Virtual & Physical Space are becoming blurred. In this scenario, what should a retailer do?

Hi Taseer,

I think Retailers need  to take a new approach on doing business in a time where consumers are empowered with getting information online BEFORE engaging with them and then having the chance to leave their own reviews and opinions. Retailers need to adapt and put the Consumers at the heart of their strategies with the key being to create an integrated strategy that will make the consumer's experience seamless.

You had mentioned the fashion industry, there is no doubt that there is an increase in competition and online orders. It is becoming easier these days to create an online platform with no physical counterpart to sell fashion online and we can see a lot of new entrants. However, this particular product in my opinion needs to be 'touched' and 'felt' before deciding to buy. I could say from experience and from monitoring the experience of others that a lot of disappointment accompanies online orders for fashion items.

Thus, a fashion retailer with physical presence can benefit from this by using the online space to connect with customers, monitor their needs, measure sentiment, adapt his offer but most of all CREATE A NEW EXPERIENCE. I would think of an example of allowing customers access to the collections (the whole store inventory), the new arrivals etc where they can view it from the comfort of their homes, where they can view each and every item versus the crowded store and display. This can help them make an informed decision before visiting the store, gives them an added value and elevates their experience.

In conclusion, the earlier retailers see this as an opportunity rather than a threat, the better.

Hope this was helpful.

Edit: I would also invite you to look at Sephora's case study and how they managed to benefit from technology to enhance their shopping experience.I found this interview in particular very helpful:

http://www.wired.com/2012/07/sephora-bornstein/

Dear Taseer,

Thanks for inviting me to answer. The answer to your question in one word is Social Commerce. Its all about linking the physical and virtual space for the consumers. There are a lot of ways to link this gap. Following is one way to bridge the gap and harness the power of virtual space for your benefit

Recommendations: Today consumers purchase decisions are made up more on the social recommendation rather than the physical/virtual advertisements. Get your business registered on one of the big recommendation website (i.e. trust pilot)

News and updates from your store: Use Pinterest, Twitter or FB to showcase your upcoming products and in return get more personalized feed back besides of creating free attention.

Create/Promote Events: Announce events with your favourite charity organizations or something thats interesting in your consumer's age group and promote them on the social channels.

Offers/Promotions: Social media communities love great offers, reward your fans with special offers/promotions on special events

Engage: This is the most important part, engage with the customers. Post interesting content and drive engagement, let the customers come close and open up. This will create brand ambassadors and influencers for your brand. If you want to move one step ahead provide quick customer support on social channels, this will reward you with public praise and earn you more recommendations.

Funnel your Sales: Once you have satisfied customers and a positive sentiment among your followers. Start funneling these conversations from the social channels to your website where you are selling your goods or inviting them even to the physical store.

Evaluation: This strategically is the most important piece if the puzzle, get the right KPIs and Metrics setup in order to see whats working and not. Then adopt on it for better performance in future.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards

Zeshan A Jaffari

you'r talking about how is life is changing from offline to online, it's very important to put in the consideration how retailers deal with this situation, i think retail industry will not disappear as the consumer need at the end of the day some physical evidence, in addition retailers can use retails as inventory instead of  the main inventory.

and from my point of view it's very hard in some industry to delete retails from their perspective like the fashion as the consumer need to try the product even if he/she likes it. and otherwise we will find an internal competition between the online team and the offline team ( trade marketing departments )  

at the end retails are important and i believe if we analyze the market now, you will find that every online store or company trying to have some offline communication and who knows maybe in the future we have them offline too

- Retailers need to have strong digital media strategies.

- It is important that retailers have some sort of E-commerce setup in place.

- They need to have talented community managers to maintain social reputation

- Retailers that have big marketing budgets should even look at mobile first strategy to generate leads (email marketing)

- Retailers should pay great attention to the following:

  a) Facebook for promotional campaigns and contests

  b) Twitter to handle suggestions and complaints

  c) Pinterest for the above any any other multimedia heavy marketing campaigns. I feel this is extremely important.

- Personally I feel that every retailer no matter what their size should have a loyalty program and a cashless strategy if they want to attract millennial and teenagers. These loyalty programs need to be accompanied by well defined location based service strategies e.g Foursquare.

Thanks for your viewpoint Mohammed. Really Appreciate. If you see nowadays, there is a heavy competition going on even in the fashion industry. and now most of the things you can buy it online even clothing, footwear, jewelery, etc. The trend is fast grasping the online community.

Yes, I agree, physical retail stores will definitely continue to be there but at what cost, thats the real question. By the way, I am also a follower of Physical Retail Store.

Thanks again Mate!