Here’s What the 2017 Holiday Shopping Season Can Tell You About Changing Customer Expectations
3 overarching trends, according to Salesforce retail partners
The holiday shopping season is fully upon us (just in case you’ve been living under a rock since Halloween), and if you’re like me, that means chasing down gifts for my sons, making sure the decorations are just right, and preparing to host family and friends. But between all of that, I couldn’t miss the golden opportunity to catch up with our resident experts on the season: three of our amazing retail partners on AppExchange.
As the the former GM of Desk.com for three years, the topic of customer experience has been a bit of an obsession of mine for awhile now. So I’m always interested to hear from the frontlines on how customer expectations continue to evolve — especially at a time when they are sky high during the holidays. And, now being the head of AppExchange, I’m particularly interested to learn more about how retailers are getting creative with technology on the backend in order to deliver an exceptional (and seamless) customer experience on the frontend.
See what our friends at LYONSCG, DemandJump, and LoopCommerce had to say about the most notable trends of this season — and their advice for retail partners as they plan for the shoppers of 2018.
Goodbye Cyber Monday, It’s Now About Cyber Week
The rise of mobility and accessibility, combined with the decline of brick-and-mortar stores, made it more important than ever this year for retailers’ digital channels to outperform traditional methods of shopping.
It’s critical to start detailed preparation — holiday readiness checklists, team meetings and technical audits, among other factors — early on in the year to ensure the success of online sales. Tony LaRusso, Director of eCommerce Support of LYONSCG says, “Retailers are taking holiday readiness much more seriously this year, and they prepared for the holiday rush well in advance.”
And retailers aren’t the only ones jumping the gun, interestingly enough:
“Consumers did not wait for Cyber Monday to do their online shopping. We saw significantly higher digital transactions Thursday — Sunday leading up to Cyber Monday. And a lot of customers did not bother going to stores on Black Friday, opting to avoid the crowds.” — Danielle Savin, Director of Digital Strategy, LYONSCG
Their advice for next year? Start planning for “Cyber Week” in 2018. You can never have too much time, especially as preparation measures become more complex over time.
How to meet rising expectations? “Delve into data.”
Our friends at DemandJump wholeheartedly agreed with the increasing importance of the mobile experience, advising merchants to “introduce features like mobile wallets and personalized marketing outreach to stay relevant as the shopping experience continues to digitally morph.” But they also raised an interesting point:
“The lines between channels, categories, services and experiences are being erased by technology and customer expectations. Today’s consumer expects high-end brick-and-mortar apparel stores, the neighborhood grocer, and Amazon, to all offer the same seamless shopping experience.” — Julie Lyle, CMO Advisor, DemandJump
Not only do customers expect to be engaged with across multiple channels, but they expect a consistent experience across these channels, presenting an additional challenge for retailers. DemandJump’s advice? “Delve into data,” says Lyle. “With a plethora of customer information being pooled from everywhere, like Dash buttons and email responses, make sure you employ technologies like artificial intelligence to help make the most of this information for the 2018 holiday season.”
AI in the forefront — and storefront.
As retailers are privy to more shopper data than ever, modern technologies such as AI, AR and VR will become a must — not only for turning a wealth of data into a seamless experience, but for ensuring their products stand out. “Today, retailers are having to compete with the ‘Amazon Experience’ to stay relevant for today’s consumers,” says John Grech, Head of Retail Partnerships at LoopCommerce. Grech points to Sephora’s mobile app that allows you to try on makeup with AR, and Wayfair’s VR app for visualizing furniture in our home before you buy it, as examples where retailers can get ahead:
“These types of investments will corner segments of the market that retailers can win at. Weaving these innovative technologies into the shopping experience showcases how retailers are focusing on more than just price, but on the shopping experience as a whole, so that consumers can easily access and ‘try out’ products before clicking the buy button.” — John Grech, Head of Retail Partnerships, LoopCommerce
One thing’s for certain: as we move into 2018, AI technologies will become an essential ingredient for taking personalized shopping experiences to the next level, with functions like product suggestions and shopping cart reminders, and with creative solutions that allow merchants to stand out in a marketplace of ever-rising consumer expectations.
Salesforce also delved into a few of the most important trends and data of this holiday shopping season, and our findings were right in line with our partners’: a heavy reliance on mobile, rapidly increasing expectations of personalization, and a massive jump in the application of AI technologies. And this is where I’m particularly excited to see the role that the AppExchange will play as our retail partners — large and small — plan for the 2018 shopping experience, and leverage innovative new solutions on the backend to create even more personalized and unprecedented experiences for their customers.
Follow Leyla on Twitter at @LeylaSeka.
