Strategies for Enabling Multichannel Success Throughout the Consumer Life Cycle

The new empowered consumer has high expectations for retailers. A consistent, relevant and engaging shopping experience no matter when, where or on what device or channel they're shopping is demanded. In order to remain competitive, retailers need to think about how to not only meet these expectations, but to exceed them. The key is to engage consumers across the entire life cycle in which they interact with a brand, from point of first becoming aware of the brand to the point of engendering greater loyalty once they've made a purchase.

The Consumer Life Cycle
Retailers can drive engagement and exceed expectations at each stage of the consumer life cycle. Here's a look at each step:

1. Awareness. Most consumers aren't going to seek out a brand they're not aware of, therefore being creative in the earliest stage of the consumer life cycle is critical. Ways to generate referral traffic, construct relationships with new customers and build awareness include:

• Using QR codes or near field communication to present consumers with educational production information and special promotions. Barneys New York used QR codes as part of a "Back Stage Campaign" in early 2011 when it displayed ads in The New York Times that linked QR codes to backstage stories of products. This tactic energized the approach to traditional advertising and helped drive brand awareness among consumers who may have otherwise not been reached.
• Enable social sharing via feedback buttons on all product pages as well as other points of consumer interaction with your brand — e.g., prompt customers to share after a purchase or use of a promotion. Bare Escentuals allows its product pages to be shared across Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, in addition to using the “Like” button. Facebook recently announced additional feedback buttons, including “Want,” “Own” and other social verbs which will add additional value to what retailers can do.

2. Discovery. Once a consumer is aware of a brand and likes what it has to offer, they'll seek to discover more by visiting its website, its stores or interact with the brand through another channel. Multichannel retailers can make the most of the discovery process and capture potential sales by ensuring consumers find what they're looking for in the right variations (e.g., size, color, model, etc.) and avoiding stock-outs. Here are two ways to accomplish this:

• Provide access to online inventory directly in-store (i.e., buy in-store, fulfill online). Mobile commerce has revolutionized the possibilities of creating endless aisles for consumers by giving them and sales associates direct access to online inventory through web-enabled devices. Consumer-driven mobile websites and native apps as well as retailer provided in-store apps such as iPad retailing apps and kiosks are examples of buy in-store, fulfill online. City Sports is using iPad kiosks to route in-store shoppers to its website to access products online which can't be found in-store (in addition to providing an interactive shopping experience).
• Provide access to in-store inventory directly online (i.e., buy online, fulfill in-store). Extending the concept of an endless aisle to online shoppers is just as important as it is in-store to ensure consumers find the products they're looking for and retailers capture potential lost sales. Nordstrom gives visibility to brick-and-mortar inventory as part of the online experience, helping to drive significant results.

3. Engagement. Consumers who discover products don't necessarily choose to engage further with a brand. Retailers need to drive a deeper level of engagement no matter where the shopper is — online or in-store — to continue to build the relationship and convert the consumer to a paying customer. Ultimately, success comes down to how well retailers are able to personalize the shopping experience and provide relevant and timely content without “excess noise.” Examples include the following:

• Enabling store associates with customer information to conduct personalized selling in-store. Mobile devices, particularly tablets, have revolutionized what's possible with in-store personalized selling. Store associates can engage consumers anywhere on the retail floor (not just at fixed point-of-sale terminals) and provide product recommendations based off of their purchasing history and preferences. Ideally, this is achieved by combining real-time POS and online data for a single view of the customer. Pacific Sunwear is using an iPad retailing app in over 300 of its stores to help store associates personalize the shopping experience, including walking shoppers through a variety of outfit combinations and suggesting products based on their preferences. J.C. Penny, Converse and Sephora are also using iPad retailing apps to personalize the shopping experience.
• Delivering personalized selling in the online experience. Personalization extends outside of brick-and-mortar stores to traditional websites, mobile websites and any other interaction point. Dynamically segmenting online customers to serve up relevant content such as products and promotions as they navigate your site as well as tying in rules-driven recommendation engines are effective online personalization techniques. Similar to in-store personalization, online personalization would ideally combine online and point-os-sale customer data. Frederick's of Hollywood effectively uses customer segmentation and recommendations powered by online data to personalize selling online.

4. Purchase. If a retailer successfully engages a consumer, the consumer will seek to make a purchase. Differentiating at the purchase phase of the consumer life cycle can oftentimes determine the difference between a completed purchased and one that's not. Consumers expect a “buy anywhere, get anywhere” experience. Satisfy these expectations by doing the following:

• Allow consumers to buy products online and pick them up in-store. Consumers often seek to connect the online experience to the physical in-store experience. Buy online, pick up in-store is a more convenient, less expensive (no shipping charges) and faster way for them to procure products. The strategy also works to retailers’ benefit since consumers who pick up in-store often make incremental purchases on top of what they've already purchased for pick-up. Home Depot recently introduced buy online, pick up in store chainwide.
• Give consumers who are purchasing in-store the option to have products delivered at home or to the store. If a product isn't available in a store, giving consumers the option not only to discover the product elsewhere (e.g., other stores or online) but also delivered the way they choose can make them more likely to purchase. Consumers may want the product delivered to the store they're ordering from, another store or at home. Providing these options at the time of purchase via self-service or though the assistance of a sales associate can greatly increase the likelihood of purchase.

5. Loyalty. Retaining customers is the result of your efforts throughout the customer life cycle. Here are things you can to do increase loyalty post-purchase:

• Let customers return products they purchased online in-store. Consumers don't differentiate between a retailer’s brick-and-mortar store and online store when they want to return a product. Making the return process seamless so that online purchases can be returned in-store (and vice versa), including a full credit card or cash exchange, will increase the chances the consumer will make repeat purchases.
• Deliver personalized communications and offers based on previous interaction with your brand. Personalization is just as important post-purchase as it is at the moment of engagement. Use purchase history, customer preferences, location and other data points learned throughout the consumer life cycle to deliver personalized communications and offers, whether it be through email, mobile alerts, in-store or other means. Kiehl’s is using location-aware SMS alerts to notify consumers of special offers when they're near one of its stores. This has helped to drive in-store traffic.

Payback is Differentiation
Enabling multichannel success throughout the customer life cycle requires focus and rethinking of how retail operations are conducted. For some retailers this means change, including some change that could require significant investment in technology, new processes and organizational realignment. For others, it requires small changes and little investment. Whether a large or small investment, building out multichannel capabilities throughout the customer life cycle will pay you back with a more consistent, relevant and engaging shopping experience for consumers and greater differentiation for your brand.

Gary Lombardo manages mobile, multichannel and social commerce product marketing for Demandware. Gary can be followed at @garylombardo and reached at glombardo@demandware.com.