Ecommerce is such an important channel for so many brands today and customers love to buy online for the quickness and convenience it offers. So how much disparity can there be between the customer experience online, compared to brick-and-mortar stores?
According to the recent 2016 Omnichannel Retail Associate Study released by Salesfloor, a significant gap does exist the two shopping experiences.
According to the study, 58% of shoppers indicated that online shopping lacks the level of service offered in stores, particularly recommendations and guidance from associates, which shoppers still expect to receive when they shop online.
Loyalty360 caught up with Oscar Sachs, CEO and co-founder of Salesfloor, to find out more about the disparity between customer experience online and offline.
What was your single biggest takeaway from this study?
Sachs: The biggest takeaway from this study is the significant gap we were able to identify between the online and brick-and-mortar shopping experiences, including the growing demand for improved service from retailers. We found that 87% of shoppers say their in-store purchase decisions are influenced by store associates. In contrast, more than half of shoppers feel that service is lacking online. Shoppers are looking for personalized recommendations and guidance on products from their local store associates while shopping online, just like they would in a store. Retailers must help associates build relationships at scale and make them available beyond the physical store to serve personalized service and market directly to customers.
What was the biggest surprise (either positive or negative) from the study?
Sachs: One of the most insightful findings is that shoppers are more willing to share personal information to receive email marketing communications from retailers if they know it will be from an individual sales associate. In fact, 62% of shoppers would rather receive personalized marketing emails from an individual associate instead of from a retailer’s national, generic marketing newsletter. Again, we see the desire to have the in-store experience replicated on the web. Just as a sales associate would come up to you on the sales floor, associates should be proactive in providing personalized recommendations and suggestions through a variety of online channels.
What’s also surprising is, despite the fact that 87% of shoppers say their in-store purchasing decisions are influenced by recommendations from store associates, few retailers are actually bringing their sales associates online. If the same in-store sales process could be replicated online, retailers would see a huge increase in sales.
What is your assessment of the current online purchase environment? What is being done well and where do the challenges lie?
Sachs: Retailers currently are doing very well at developing compelling ecommerce sites with the very basics of customer service – live chat, automated product recommendations, etc.
The challenges in the online purchasing environment lie in making it as close as possible to replicating the in-store experience. Right now, there is little to no personalization in online shopping. Retailers must find ways to allow customers to shop online with their local sales associates and stores, empower in-store associates to market directly to online shoppers and foster personalized service across all channels, but especially online where it’s lacking. By and large, retail sales associates have been excluded from serving the online customer. This needs to change sooner than later.
Is there adequate cohesion between online and brick-and-mortar to make for a seamless customer experience?
Sachs: In some aspects, yes, but in other aspects, no. The main gap in omnichannel retail right now is that retailers are hyper-focused on supply chain initiatives and are lagging in other omnichannel strategies. This study proves that one of the biggest opportunities for retailers is to integrate their sales associates, who are trained experts, online. Stores have a much higher conversion rate than online and 87% of in-store purchases are influenced by an associate. Retailers need to offer this seamless, omnichannel customer experience across the store and web channels by empowering their sales associates to serve the online customer before or after they visit a physical store. But currently, we really don’t see many retailers doing this yet.