The profile of the new consumer and their behavior are quite different from what retailers have grown used to working with. Today, people who walk into your store come in already informed, almost always knowing what they want and with an idea of the prices they could find at your competitors. The traditional “just browsing” visit may still happen, but it’s no longer the rule.
Modern customers shop at physical POS locations for the experience they get there and the service they receive, and they come with new demands in mind. That’s what we’re going to talk about in this article. Keep reading to find out how to reach these people!
What is the profile of the new consumer?
Digital transformation hasn’t just impacted businesses, which have become more computerized and connected. It has also changed the way we interact with simple services. At this point, it’s rare to meet someone who only uses taxis to get around town or who has never made an online purchase.
Just as we’ve updated our strategies to understand consumers and offer them more value, using resources like BI, the public has learned to demand that brands go the extra mile. Stocking your shelves with a large number of products and keeping them in stock is no longer the only thing to do.
An excellent shopping experience, from the moment customers come into contact with your brand (whether through an ad or because they walked past the store) all the way through after-sales, is what most people are looking for. In-store interactivity, speed, convenience and resources they can take home, such as an app where they can check their loyalty program points, have become essential. This benefits both the store and the people who visit it.
What are the advantages of engaging with the new consumer?
The tools that empower consumers are on the rise, and they’re highly beneficial for businesses. Check out how each of them impacts retail and how they can be applied in your store!
Apps
Even if you don’t have an e-commerce site, an app can make your users’ lives a lot simpler. While the in-store experience is important, what we do beyond it also transforms the customer’s life.
Good after-sales service, for example, can benefit from an exclusive communication channel where consumers talk directly to your brand, whether through a chatbot or with a service rep, without intermediaries or long wait times. The advantage is that, when they’re well served, customers tend to come back to the store and increase their average ticket.
Blogs
Blogs and vlogs are an excellent opportunity to promote a store, producing content that brings consumers to your location. They can explain a product’s features or share what’s new. They’re excellent for bringing to the POS customers who already know exactly what they want to buy and who will definitely make a purchase.
This process of informing consumers is a more effective way of doing marketing, one that requires smaller investments than traditional media and delivers a higher ROI. Betting on digital influencers is another good idea, since the new shopper trusts the information shared by these authority figures.
Digital storefronts
Gone are the days when mannequins were enough to grab attention. Digital storefronts are the new stars of the shop front and can be considered entertainment in their own right.
With so many possibilities, they let your business deliver a message to everyone right on your storefront and captivate passersby who are ready for a new experience. It becomes easier to attract customers and give them an idea of what they’ll find at the POS.
Interactive tools
Interactive resources, such as digital panels and self-service kiosks, make checkout and the buying process more efficient, saving money for the business owner and providing an attractive alternative for customers looking for speed and convenience. They handle 100% of the shopping experience and, when integrated into a store, allow any questions to be answered on the spot by a trained associate.
What can you do to offer a more digital experience?
Using digital tools is the easiest way to deliver enhanced experiences to this consumer. Until recently, when few people had access to technology, rolling out new features was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it impressed; on the other, it could feel strange and alienate the part of the audience less familiar with innovation.
Today, however, we spend a good part of our time interacting with screens, and we want to see them in stores. Digital storefronts, projection mapping and self-service options are the kind of thing we expect when we walk into a store. With the rise of e-commerce, we gained the option of shopping without leaving home. So it’s the experience that motivates us to go to a retailer.
Get to know what your audience wants
To make the most of technology in your store, start by getting to know your consumers better. Try to understand which media they use most often, how they engage with them and what they’d like to do when they walk into a store but still can’t.
Use benchmarking
Research your competitors thoroughly and see what solutions they’ve already implemented. However, use this benchmarking only as a tool to get ahead, and never as something that keeps your retail business from innovating.
Use technology
Think of strategies to get customers to spend more time in the store, such as virtual mirrors and augmented reality. Look for a specialist to help you identify the technologies that best fit your target audience and that will make a difference in your results.
Innovate
Finally, don’t forget to evaluate how these resources can always be used in a different way. They need to reflect your store’s identity and shouldn’t be adopted just so you can say you’re investing in new things. Without a concept and a practical function, technology tends to make a store less attractive, not more.
If your competitor already has a digital storefront, that’s no reason not to invest in one. It’s just a reason to think about how to do it differently, in a way that draws more attention to your business than to theirs.
The new consumer profile isn’t just more digital. It’s also more informed. Keep this in mind and deliver a rich shopping experience, one that’s as valuable as other forms of entertainment.
Enjoyed getting to know the profile of the new consumer better? See why this information is so important to your business’s success!
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