Brick and Mortar Retailing- Surviving in The Age of The Laptop and The Mouse

Are heavy discounts, throw away prices, click and buy-COD giving you sleepless nights? Are you a brand retailer finding your way in the ecommerce madness.

Yes?

Well you are not alone. Last year’s Big Billion Day is still fresh in our minds with retailers crying foul and predatory pricing strategies going on, many of the Brick and Mortar stores suffered huge casualties.

Online has suddenly become the new Nightmare on Elm Street for Brick and Mortar guys with some complaining of

• 40–50% or higher decrease in footfalls.
• Increase in Show Rooming.
• Lesser conversion per footfall.

Lots of buzz words going on Omni Channel, ROPO, something called Beacons etc. etc. have confused the retailers of about the best practices.

Well, I am here not to discuss about these, lots of ppts. and studies are already there on Google about them.

What I want to talk about are problems that customers face while shopping for fashion and how can then Brick and Mortars compete with the Mobile and The Mouse?

Lets do a small exercise on behalf of your customers.

Read the next words and think of the first picture that comes to your mind?

Online shopping.

And Now

Offline Shopping.

What image did you get? Most of you would have these images in your mind

Online shopping

Offline shopping

See! a perception has been created in our minds that online is so easy to navigate and that offline (Oh My!!) so many big stores, so time intensive, so tiring.

So, how to escape this villainization by the E Commerce guys?

As Brick and Mortar people we have one edge over the online firms that is Superior customer experience and all of our tech and non tech strategies should have Customer Experience at its core.

Do you know the biggest problem I have as a customer to shop from you? It is not discounts but the limited accessibility to your stores and lack of information.

Your stores are open on weekdays from 10 Am to 9:30 PM, I have office from 9 AM to 6PM. I do want to try and buy from your store but what if you don’t have the design I am looking for and I get even more tired scurrying from the aisles of clothes.

But hey! I have this cool app on my phone and I shall just look up the catalogue of online retailers here and buy directly from them even if the size may not fit and the delivery may be wrong but atleast I’ll have information at my fingertips.

How can Brick and Mortar re-establish their position and Embrace technology-

1. Don’t be the retailer who is not online. Setup a website for your customers but unlike online retailer bring out your own flavour into it.
2. If you cannot invest in full omnichannel capabilities start by linking your store inventory to your website and atleast provide your customers an ease of discovery and surety of the apparel availability on their visit.
3. Interlink your different stores and provide customer with the item he/she wants from those stores, an interested customer should never leave your shop empty handed.
4. Include a free home delivery just like restaurants believe me your customers will love it. They atleast can now shop and relax at coffee shops without juggling so many bags.
5. Keep track of the prices of your inventory in store and at other market places.
6. Embrace show-rooming it is bound to happen. If your customer states that he/she wants to try offline but buy online, you can make the purchase there in store on your website and get it delivered.
7. Personalise, Personalise and Personalise I cant say enough of this! Keep track of your customers via your loyalty system. Keep track of their birthdays and give them special discounts on those days.
8. Whatsapp- I know you must be already doing this but whatsapp is more effective than SMS as we have started ignoring the sms, Whatsapp however is still relevant. FYI don’t make groups though, use the broadcast list feature.
9. Invest in look books. Yes Look books are amazing ways to increase your sales. Nothing is more fulfilling for me than finding a matching pair of Jeans with my new crop tops or mandarin collars.
10. Emphasize on your amazing hand to hand exchange policies as compared to online where customers have to wait almost 3–4 days for the exchange process to complete and new item to be delivered.

Use technology but remember the old adage

Or as the Japanese put it

Okyakusama wa kamisama desu

P.S.- Just FYI if you liked the article we are working on a revolutionary new way for offline shopping called StylSpot ( www.StylSpot.com ). We index your complete store inventory and work with top stylists to convert your whole inventory into Looks, our backend software suite provides amazing analytics (think of *People who bought this also bought* for Offline Stores) and we are premiering at Select CityWalk Saket and DLF Place this 29th of Januray 2016. In case you are a brand and want to get in touch with me at Facebook or Twitter or Linkedin.