Big Data is a term that’s not uncommon anymore, as it offers immense potential to completely alter the shopping experience. However, as a fitness retail store owner you might be wondering how its benefits can be utilized for an in-store setting.
Data collection primarily falls in the digital realm; however it has many real-life benefits including immense knowledge about your consumer and their behavior, which can be used to maximize sale goals.
Retail data can be conveniently used to re-stock your store as per your existing customer preferences, while still targeting new customers. An ideal way to provide multichannel shopping experience to your clients, Big Data allows you to maintain consistency across your online and offline store outlets.
Nowadays acquiring customer data is no rocket science. There are many tools that can help you gain as much insight you want on your clients. Wearables and smartphones are being consistently utilized to arrive at a perfect customer satisfaction formula.
Online conversion tools have been gaining a lot of popularity recently, as they enable retailers to keep updated about your visitors, the products they randomly view and the purchases they make. In an event, your customers don’t checkout with their shopping carts, the tracking reminds them to complete their purchase. Combine them with in-house technology, and this info can be the real deal maker.
Big Data has many boons and therefore, it is imperative that retailers invest their valuable time in it. Here are some technologies that you should consider in order to keep your customer data up-to-date and how Big Data can be the much-need kickstart for growing your sales.
Different Sales Platforms, More Data
Though many experts continue to stress on fall of the retail industry as digital shopping has become an integral part of our lives, statistics show that things are not so bleak for brick-and-mortar stores. As per Statistics Canada, online sales only make up 3.4% of total sales – the remaining portion goes to sales from physical stores. Statistics from U.S Census Bureau indicate that 8% of retail sales by American consumers were done online during the period 2016-17. A study on consumer behaviour by Pew Research Centre showed that 64% of Americans preferred to shop in physical stores rather than purchasing from online channels.
Although these figures may indicate that consumers prefer physical retail experience over online shopping because of the benefits they associate with it, such as lottery items like luxury car, furniture and so forth. But the fact that e-commerce’s percentage in total retail sales is quite small cannot be overlooked. The only notable trend about online sales is that they are consistently increasing every year.
Brick-and-mortar stores have a long way to go. It is pretty much the trend and chances of this preferred shopping method getting obsolete anytime soon are low. Many shoppers are open to both online and offline purchasing, as long as the experience is consistent and customer friendly.
This shows that consumers today are expecting retailers to provide multichannel shopping options.
This also means that retailers need to devise smart strategies to provide their customers with a seamless shopping both offline and online. And here is where retail data steps in.
Strategies To Catch Up With Retail Data Momentum
Online retailers have an advantage of convenience over physical store owners to tailor their services as per customer demands.
E-commerce retailers offer programs such as free shipping and money-back guarantee schemes that help convert random visitors into customers.
Though physical retailers may think that they do not have much to experiment with their inventory, they are in fact capable of delivering more than their counterparts. In retail outlets, there are many consumers who try items, get them changed or demand a refund back. Keeping track of all this information can provide retailers with valuable insights that they can utilize to offer a very personalized experience. This information can also be used to improve online dynamics, providing the customer exactly what he is looking for.
Utilize Your Inventory Tactfully
Insights obtained from Big Data are not only limited to providing superior customer service and improved sales. They also help you manage your store.
One of the most burdensome tasks of retail industry is managing its inventory. It takes a lot of storage space and mastering the tactic of not overdoing your inventory while managing to provide for all of your customers can be challenging for many shop owners.
Inventory management software and point-of-sale come in handy in making your business quite efficient. Inventory tracking becomes useful to avoid bottleneck situations, conveniently showing trends whether your product was sold online or in-store. It also reveals shopping behaviours and promptly reminds to re-stock items when supply gets low. It can be a great time-saver as it eliminates the need to manually count inventory every time.
Dynamic pricing can also be utilized to obtain useful data from your competitors. The information can be applied whenever a visitor clicks on your website, marking a suitable price in comparison to the competitors.
Dynamic pricing, though has huge benefits, isn’t the best option for SME’s. Some retailers employ a rebate system, which sends discount codes to users who fill up their carts but leave without making the purchase.
Store coupons are not something new. However, utilizing this data with digital retail information can help track the offer, customers who redeem the offer, other products they purchase and how often they visit your store. This can be quite easily done by using QR codes to create digital coupons. Retailers can also collect purchaser data by using magnetic stripe punch card.
Setting Realistic Goals
Although brick-and-mortar businesses have a long way to go, the fact that they are slowly being overshadowed by e-commerce giants cannot be denied. It is quite clear that retails are no longer limited solely to physical components. Today brick-and-mortar stores have some degree of influence of digital world in the way they operate and deal with their customers. To cater for this growing need, you can introduce some data collection techniques in your retail and get most out of your business.
