Customer Centric Omni-Channel thrives on Communication
Recently I attended a great e-commerce event in Dublin “ECAI.ie” free plug 🙂 ,,there I got to talk with a cross-section of eCommerce professionals from the future stars of the industry with wonderful ideas and energy to the well seasoned established pro that is still looking for the answer of how to run an Omni-Channel seamlessly . To begin with, I sat back and listened to all their stories and after a while, the same issues kept on coming up and a pattern formed that is always the main issue globally in every eCommerce event that I have been to except it was communicated in different languages,
Bounce rate, Conversion and finally how do I get my customers in my bricks and mortar shops to go online…
Let’s dissect each one of these issues and see where it takes us.
- Bounce Rate: the percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. The key to this is the message you are giving out does not hold their interest and this might be due to Price, Content and Value but the message is simple “learn to communicatewith your browser in real-time”.If you had a bricks and mortar shop your staff would be trained to talk with your potential customer. Why is it now that you have a Web shop that you feel you can allow a possible customer to leave without at least saying Can I help you !!
Answer: Chat bots are one solution, but will they fix the hard to navigate site issue/the cost issue/the future communication issue/ the need for alternatives issue.
Real-Time personalisation contains div containers on site that just show the browsers interests.
Personalisation Algorithms can find patterns in your browsers movements and match them with every other browser that took a similar path and react with Real-Time suggestions offering alternatives here and now.
Real-Time Personalised Exit Intent Bar communicates right as your browser is about to leave “cursor is hovering over x” and you say Can I help you ….“Do you want us to send these products to your email and save time on your next visit?
If you come back next week and shop with us for the first time I will give u a Discount code to welcome you …Would these Alternatives sway your decision and make you shop here? “Now we are talking “
- Conversion Rate: Conversion marketing is the act of converting site visitors into paying customers. So it’s about what you do to close the sale, how you communicate again is key.
Your customer has come to you to buy a product “from you” SUCCESS
You have spent time and money building your name in this sector and you’re a reliable go to website or else you have bought traffic through all the normal means of SEO.
What happens next?? This is that moment in the movies where tumbleweed rolls past …
Yes you let the customer to decide what happens next, FAIL
You have spent money getting these customers onto your site you have communicated with every tool out there and now that you have succeeded in attracting their attention you stop talking? Why
Some guys mentioned that they also had an abandoned cart trigger email which is a start in the right direction but it’s only addressing about 11% of the issue!! Who is looking after the other 79% of browsers that you have paid for in some way to get them onto your site??
-To convert more you need to communicate to every single visitor, gather and save all their browser history and all the relevant data related to him. So that you know your potential customer’s needs to get it in front of them, solve their problems and close the sale.
Answer: Get Personal, Get to know your customer inside out and then Communicate.
Real-Time Personalisation will know your customers Favourite Brand/Colour/Budget/Genre/Age, just to start with and then will know what products go well with other products to upsell or figure out the next best offer.
Real-Time Trigger emails will talk to registered browsers if they leave in the middle of a search to try and get them to come back and close the sale and will even offer alternatives and advertise your latest offerings all in one simple email.
- How do I get my offline online so I can get them using my site
This is a great question but I think worded incorrectly as it should read…
How do I get my offline online so I can start talking to them?
The Omni-Channel is becoming a huge factor in eCommerce with even the likes of Amazon opening Bricks and Mortar stores.
Definition: Omni-channel is a multi-channel approach to sales intending to provide customers with a seamless experience regardless of which channel they purchase. What distinguishes omnichannel is its true integration between and across sales channels
Because the Omni-Channel has so many routes to market and is customer-centric, it needs a very professional communication strategy to hold it all together and this is not an easy task.
You need to be on top of your game to juggle each route and need to know your customer to be successful.
Bringing offline customers online so you can communicate is very important for a number of reasons
- Because it will help you to deliver messages to them before they go in store (New Products/Sales/Promotions)
- Because you can build a file around them and know their needs and satisfy those needs
- Because you can use things like Replenishment Algorithms and know when their toothpaste is nearly empty and be that store that cares so much it sends you timely offers to keep you as their primary source of “Toothpaste” and everything else you bundle with it.
- Because Communication is power and puts you ahead of your competition.
So what do we do?
Answer:
- Set up a loyalty card app at the counter … There are many very good app companies working in this space and are relatively inexpensive to run. Set up a link between your data and a loyalty card trigger email that will personalise a Real-Time message to your customer every time they shop in the store. Invite them to click and collect on the next shopping opportunity to see what it is like .Give them personal attention and personal recommendations that will make it easier for them to trust going online. Attract, Engage, Nurture and Convert but most of all Communicate
