Category: omnichannel

online, in store and direct mail channels

algorithm, customer experience, omnichannel

No AI without HI.

datalovesinstinct

img_0265

After struggling with this topic for many months, the image above says it best.  Let go or be dragged.  As much as Human Intelligence is essential for many, many pieces and parts of business, the benefits of emerging Artificial Intelligence needs to be accepted and embraced.  Humans will keep it on the tracks, but the AI/ML train is leaving the station.  This technology can read and interpret data at a speed and in a depth that humans simply can’t manage alone.  Do your research.  Find your comfort level.  Learn how to drive it and guide it wisely.  And reap the benefits.

 

customer experience, discounting, merchandising, omnichannel, story telling

Damn, This Traffic Jam

datalovesinstinct

Is it ever easy to identify the source of customers?  More sales channels + more marketing channels=less clarity. Where should we invest? How should we invest? What is the route to a unique location with a clear benefit for the customer. The journey will be multifaceted, but each aspect needs to clearly direct the traveler. All methods of transportation (print, digital and physical) need to send the same signals to reaffirm the story of the brand.  The clear message is the customer wants to be reached how they want to be reached…which can be different every day.  Something in the mail, a tease in social media, inspiration from a visual presentation online or in person…all of these play into decision making.

street lights
Photo by Jose Francisco Fernandez Saura on Pexels.com

Digital sign posts are the newest tools in driving traffic.  Much is to be learned there. Flashing an image of an item viewed on a site in future content feeds for weeks is not effective.  If a product was researched more than a week ago, the selection has been made, the transaction has been completed, and the customer has moved on.  Boring customers with redundancy does not maximize the fluidity of digital, print or physical marketing and merchandising.  The challenge is the combination of logic and magic.  Always has been…catching the eye of the very busy consumer in the best way for them.  Collisions of billboards(pop up ads in content), horns (social media ads) and vehicles (emails)  based on redundant images and price wars are not getting it done.  Refresh and delight.

Thank you, James Taylor!  https://www.streetdirectory.com/lyricadvisor/song/ppwlpw/traffic_jam/

 

 

 

 

 

conversion, customer experience, data, ecommerce, four-wall, merchandising, omnichannel

What’s Up with Pop Ups?

datalovesinstinct

1. What is a pop-up shop?

  • According to BigCommerce, a pop up shop is a temporary storefront space operated by an online merchant.
  • The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as : a store that opens suddenly and usually exist for a short amount of time: A temporary pop-up store often appears when retailers take advantage of empty retail space.
  • Shopify.com describes a “pop-up shop” as is a short-term, temporary retail event that is ‘here today, gone tomorrow”. Pop-up retail is the temporary use of physical space to create a long term, lasting impression with potential customers.

2. How does one impress potential customers with a pop-up shop?

A customer needs to make some connection with the location. To connect, there must be an experience. As a physical space with human guides, how does an online business make that three dimensional visit memorable when EQ comes into play?

We know that online businesses greatly value data, as do four wall businesses. Both measure conversion, average transaction value, units per transactions, bestselling merchandise, slow selling merchandise, etc, etc. Both have financial plans and staffing models as well as visual presentations. The skills required in getting the customer over the proverbial threshold, engaged with the product, and serviced to best fulfill their needs require eye contact and conversation in a physical space. As we develop in this omnichannel environment, the expertise of the physical environments needs to be valued to the same degree that the digital expertise is respected. Unless the goal of the pop-up shop is to serve as a glorified billboard with minimal exchange and engagement, it would behoove the online businesses to welcome some four wall experts into their midst when concepting and executing. Best practices in both channels will only enhance the total business with greatly improved customer experience.