Christmas may be a magical time, full of celebration and merriment, but – at the risk of sounding like Ebenezer Scrooge – it’s also a serious business. The festive season can reportedly attribute as much as 40% of some retailers’ annual revenues, so it is absolutely vital that they get it right. However, with the modern customer having higher expectations than ever, it’s never been harder to satisfy shoppers.
So how can retailers ensure that their Christmas is more cracker than turkey? Here are some engagement tactics that need to be factored into the strategies of businesses this festive season.
Improve the in-store experience
If there’s one time of the year when retailers really need to up the ante with their in-store experience, it’s Christmas. That, of course, means decorations and music. But to stand out from the competition businesses have to do much more than dangling some gaudy decorations around the door and blaring out Mariah Carey. With e-commerce taking an ever greater slice of holiday season spend, stores need to make a great impression on those customers that do drag themselves away from their desktops.
That of course means providing top-notch customer service, but it also means acknowledging new customer journeys and behaviors. For instance, stores should support those visitors that are showrooming in-store to make a purchase online – provide free wi-fi, and encourage them to scan an item on their phones, add it to their digital baskets on the store’s site, pay by phone, and then collect later.
Click-and-collect is a win-win for customers and companies, as it’s quick and convenient for shoppers, but also drives them in-store where they can be encouraged to purchase more. Brands that don’t offer this service are putting themselves at a distinct disadvantage. But just as bad is when a retailer gets it wrong.
Unfortunately, last year some retailers undermined their efforts to provide click-and-collect when their warehousing, operations and delivery systems weren’t up to the task. This left some stores with click-and-collect queues longer than those at the tills – a serious issue for a service that promises speed and convenience.
Boosting the online store experience
This brings us onto the importance of retailers’ online strategies. Christmas e-commerce sales in the U.S. are forecast to top $95.5 billion this November and December, an 11% increase over last year’s sales. With customer preference leaning further and further towards online, retailers need to ensure that they provide the Internet experience that their customers want.
This means that retailers need to ensure that they have taken care of the basics. Large brands would be wise to conduct load testing to ensure that their sites can cope with any spikes in traffic. With mobile responsible for an ever-increasing share of browsing activity, all brands must ensure that their sites are mobile optimised, particularly as mobile devices are now fundamental in the path to purchase. And all retailers should be monitoring their checkout process to ensure that it is as simple as possible – in particular, with Christmas heralding a spike in new visitors, remember that demanding new customers create an account to make a purchase is a significant obstacle.
But providing a great online shopping experience also means retailers must take into account other factors. For instance, they must think about returns – product returns always increase after Christmas and shoppers will be keen to know that the recipient can easily change their item if need be, so businesses need to consider how they can make it as simple as possible and ensure that this is communicated.
Delivery is also a critical consideration, and brands would be wise to offer a range of delivery options to cater for last minute buyers. This is a service which has become increasingly competitive of late, with Amazon Prime raising the stakes with its same-day delivery service.
And retailers also need to be sure that this all-important part of the purchase process is being handled in a manner consistent with the brand experience. The quality and timeliness of the delivery is a fundamental part of the overall customer experience, and a failure at this stage can deter shoppers from buying from the retailer again. However, with a growing reliance on the third party delivery marketplace, companies need to consider how much they are potentially compromising their branded experience.
All in all, then, there is much that needs to be mulled (not just the wine).
