Today, more than ever before, customers have a multitude of choices at their fingertips.
Creating exceptional experiences for customers has become a make-or-break and holds the power to sway their loyalty, satisfaction, and ultimately, their decision to return.
This week we dive deep into all things related to customer experience and the current state of the industry.
Today’s Rundown
Customer experience hacks: Simple hacks that will save you and your customers time.
Furniture industry: What can the furniture industry learn from another sector?
Retail Traffic Index
Here’s a look at last week’s foot traffic compared to the same time last year.
Next in Customer experience
Unfortunately, over the last few years, we have seen consumers raise their expectations for retail experiences.
Shoppers now expect much more than a simple brick-and-mortar experience, they want to be wowed.
Consumers, and younger consumers in particular, are gravitated toward experimental retail experiences. Younger consumers are so accustomed to e-commerce shopping, that unless there is a unique experience, there is little to no reason for them to not shop online as they normally would.
Although the experience is most important to consumers, savings is a close second. A recent survey by TotalRetail found that 24.8% of consumers, the largest group, say that a store offering exclusive in-store discounts is the surest way to coax them into a new store.
At the end of the day, brand loyalty is declining and anything you can do to make the customer feel special will go a long way.
One industry to another
As the retail industry as a whole, and more specifically the furniture industry, continues to change, Retail Dive sat down with various store owners to ask what they think could be learned from other industries.
John Conroy of Morrisofa Europe says, “The tech sector sells a full concept rather than a product – for example, buying an apple iPhone usually leads to buying Airpods, an iPad, apple Watch, and iPod to go with it. Why do we only try to sell a sofa, rather than a professionally designed roomset?”
Another owner pointed out the importance of supplier-driven assets. Mike Whitman, the owner of Iconography, states “Decent photography is an expensive investment, and proper 3D models are even more costly. Small independents simply can’t afford to source this themselves, either in time or money. If suppliers want their products to be chosen over their competitors (either by the end-customer or by retailers), then they need to be providing that retailer support.”
Each industry provides a unique take on what is going on in their world, and how the industries overlap and can learn from each other.
Retail Snippets
40 under 40: Retail TouchPoints reveals the latest 40 under 40 award winners.
Organized crime: Retailers are sounding the alarm on organized retail crime.
Random Irrelevance
Netflix lockdown: Netflix’s password sharing crackdown officially hits US users.
Look up: This new supernova is the closest to Earth in a decade. It’s visible in the night sky right now.
Local honors: Beaverton student named by White House as a U.S. Presidential Scholar.
