In 2012, on the two biggest shopping days of the year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, sales grew by 26% and 20% from the previous year. Don’t believe the apocalyptic news hype, retail is not dying, not even close. Retail is evolving to giving the customer exactly what they want, when they want, and how they want it. If customers don’t want to go to your store, they shouldn’t have to. If they want to shop on their phone or tablet, you need to fully support that.
This is exactly what sellers are struggling to do – make all customer touch points equally accessible, with a completely shared experience, so customers can be engaged at the moment of their purchasing decision.
Time is a Luxury, Methods are Not
Sellers have always tried to maximize customer spending through upselling and cross-selling. Methods which were successful in the past need to be replaced with newer techniques for today’s more aware, less patient customers.
Shopping on the internet is the best example. The probability of customers checking out the offers they receive via email is lower than when they see those offers in real time on the screen when they are shopping online. [Read more...]
