Increase eCommerce Conversion this Holiday Season with Personalization

3 key strategies to make more sales on your website with personalization strategies

 

Did you know that 72% of consumers find that online gift shopping has made life easier during the holiday season?

As a retailer, you can’t afford to ignore the various ways that eCommerce can boost your online sales.

In particular, personalized marketing technologies allow brands to engage with consumers online and increase conversion rates. Here are three effective strategies to increase your eCommerce conversion rate this holiday season:

 

1. Optimize website user experience with personalization

Shoppers that engage with personalized website content are more likely to convert. Research found that even though visitors who clicked on product recommendations accounted for only 5% of clicks, those clicks represented 30% of Cyber Week revenue.

You can deliver a personalized experience by displaying relevant content based on a customer’s preferences, browsing behaviors, and purchasing history while augmenting the shopping experience with features such as wishlist, past purchases list, and personalized gift guide.

In addition, you should leverage existing customer data to streamline the checkout experience, reduce cart abandonment, and optimize conversion rate. For example, by pre-selecting options based on customers’ past preferences, providing one-click checkout using existing customer data, and pre-filling forms using information from customer profiles.

 

2. Promote personalized offers with Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to engage with your email subscribers and customers who are already familiar with your brand and therefore, more likely to make a purchase.

Leverage your customer database and segment your email list to send emails with offers tailored to specific groups based on their past purchases, customer lifecycle stages, or other data such as preferences, interests, geographic location, and demographic data.

You can set up behavior-triggered workflows, which are initiated by how recipients respond to your previous emails. You should also leverage email retargeting — which can help eCommerce websites increase their revenue by as much as 400% — to re-engage visitors who came to your site but didn’t take action.

 

3. Implement an Omnichannel Personalization Strategy

While 86% of consumers would make an in-store purchase, 75% also order gifts online. Instead of engaging with a brand on one specific channel, consumers do so via a variety of touchpoints — whenever and wherever that’s most convenient for them.

Multichannel shoppers tend to spend more per transaction, so it’s important for retailers to be present in multiple customer touchpoints so they can engage with shoppers at the right place and in the right time.

To increase the effectiveness of your omnichannel marketing strategy, use a customer data management tool that collects customer information so you can understand how shoppers engage with your brand. You can then generate insights on how to deliver the most relevant offers through each channel based on customers’ real-time interactions with your business.

 

Implement your eCommerce personalization strategy at scale

Personalization marketing is a proven way to increase eCommerce conversion rates. In order to implement this strategy at scale, you need the ability to fully leverage all customer data so you can deliver the most relevant content and offers.

Our customer data management platform and its syndication layers, which enables real-time acitiviation of content and offers on multiple channels, allow you to effectvely engage your customers by leveraging the power of personalized marketing.

Request a demo today to see how our solution can help you increase eCommerce conversion this holiday season.

3 Ways Personalization Can Boost Retail eCommerce Revenue

How to increase sales with email marketing, automation, and website personalization

The eCommerce retail market is competitive. If you want to stand out, you need to offer more than just better products and lower prices.

Consumers are looking for an outstanding brand experience. One of the best ways to meet their expectations is by delivering a personalized shopping experience based on insights generated from customer data.

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The good news is that today’s marketing technologies have made collecting and utilizing consumer data very feasible and cost-effective.

Here’s how you can use marketing personalization to boost your retail eCommerce revenue:

1. Create personalized email marketing campaigns

Did you know that a well-executed email marketing campaign can deliver an ROI of up to 3,800%?

Even with so many digital marketing channels vying for consumer attention, email is still one of the most effective ways to reach your customers. Many marketers recognize the ability to target email content as the key to increasing click-through and conversion rate.

Consumers consider personalized and relevant content a must when receiving communications from brands.

In fact, 86% of shoppers who have experienced personalization believe that it influences their purchasing decisions to some extent while personalized emails generate on average 6x more revenue than non-personalized email.

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2. Guide customers down the sales funnel with automation

When a prospect joins your email list, they’re showing interest in your brand and products.

However, many aren’t ready to make a purchase right away so you should take the opportunity to deliver targeted information that will nurture your relationship with them and accelerate their journey down the sales funnel.

Besides their names and email addresses, you can also collect information that’ll help segment your list. This will allow you to deliver targeted content and offers through different email workflows to increase engagement and conversion.

In addition, you can set up automation to deliver specific content based on user behaviors. For instance,

  • An email can be triggered when the recipients click on a certain link in an email.
  • A reminder can be sent when a registered customer leaves some products in their cart.
  • A special offer can be delivered to promote related items when a visitor shows interest in a product but doesn’t make a purchase.

3. Personalize website content based on purchase history and real-time behavior

Customers are fed up with irrelevant content on eCommerce websites. 75% of consumers said they’d be more likely to buy from a retailer that recognizes them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, or knows their purchase history.

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There are many ways to deliver targeted content and generate product recommendations on your eCommerce website to increase conversion rate. Examples of these include:

  • Offering product recommendations based on a customer’s past purchases, preferences, and habits.
  • Displaying relevant or related products based on the visitor’s previous browsing sessions or real-time shopping behavior.
  • Displaying content and products that are relevant to the visitor’s geographic location.
  • Delighting frequent buyers and loyal customers with exclusive offers and discounts to boost customer lifetime value.
  • Creating specific landing pages for your social media and Adwords campaigns to deliver a targeted and consistent user experience.

Customer data – the foundation of effective personalized marketing

The success of personalization marketing strategies hinges upon your ability to extract meaningful insights from your customer data and apply them to your campaigns.

To build a strong foundation, you need a powerful data management platform (DMP) to manage your customer data and a sophisticated “decision engine” to help turn the information into actionable insights.

3 Ways To Maximize Sales On Black Friday

Want to get a piece of the $3.45 billion Black Friday pie? Here’s how to get ready.

In 2016, US consumers spent $3.45 billion on Black Friday. Is your retail business set up to make the most out of this year’s Black Friday Cyber Monday sale period?

With more eCommerce retailers competing for shoppers’ attention, you can’t afford to cook up a last-minute promotion and hope for the best.

It’s more important than ever to plan ahead and get your retail business ready for Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

Here are a few things you can’t afford to ignore:

Start early

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has found that 40% of shoppers start doing their research for holiday shopping as early as October.

Plan to start promoting holiday shopping related content and products, such as holiday gift guides, during that time. Set up website personalization strategies that leverage data from your customer profiles to ensure that you’re displaying the most relevant content and offers to your visitors.

In addition, make sure that you have contingency plans in place. For instance, figure out what your options are if your shipping company is delayed by a higher volume.

Not only should you be planning for things that may go wrong, you must also plan for when things go well. For instance, can your website handle a surge in traffic? Is your fulfillment system set up well enough to handle a large number of orders?

Last but not least, forecast your sales and communicate with your suppliers to ensure that you’ll have the right products in stock to fulfill your orders.

Plan your marketing efforts

Decide on the products you want to highlight, plan out your sales schedule, and coordinate all the promotional efforts to maximize your sales:

  • Schedule email marketing campaigns ahead of time and don’t forget to include personalized content and offers that are most relevant to each recipient.
  • Set up your social media promotions and use strategies such as email retargeting to deliver a personalized omnichannel shopping experience.
  • Connect with influencers early on so they can work any mention of your products or promotions into their schedule.
  • Do some social listening to find out what’s trending this holiday season and identify which products to promote.
  • Design a holiday-themed giveaway or contest with a viral component to help increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website.

Be mobile-ready

During the 2016 holiday season, half of the web traffic and 30% of retail sales came from mobile sites.

If your eCommerce platform isn’t optimized for mobile, you could be missing out on sales and losing revenue this holiday season.

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Mobile devices offer great opportunities to deliver personalized shopping experiences that will help you increase conversion rate.

Other than website personalization, you can deliver an omnichannel experience by using technologies such as geofencing (if you have a physical store) or mobile apps and leveraging data from your customer profiles.

You can also facilitate the mobile purchasing process with features such as tap-to-call or auto-fill by using location services to deliver a seamless customer experience.

Don’t get left behind this holiday season

An omnichannel personalized shopping experience will be the key to success for retailers this holiday season as well as for the ones in the coming years.

Thankfully, implementing these strategies are getting much easier with sophisticated technologies that will help manage customer data, personalization automation, and omnichannel personalization so that you don’t have to do all the heavy lifting yourself.

Strategies to increase holidays sales of your online store – Part 1

The Key to Boosting eCommerce Conversion Rate This Holiday Season (Part 1)

While the total retail growth may be slowing down, the US retail eCommerce sales jumped 17.8% during the 2016 holiday season and are expected to climb 15.8% in 2017.

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As an online retailer, how can you capitalize on this trend?

To answer that question, we need to look at customer expectations.

More and more consumers are looking for a personalized shopping experience from their favorite brands.

A recent survey has found that 86% of customers say personalization affects their purchase decision while another study showed that 74% of shoppers get frustrated by seeing irrelevant content or product recommendations.

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Thankfully, you don’t need to do all the heavy lifting to deliver a personalized shopping experience to your customers.

With the aid of technologies that allow you to collect and analyze customer data and automation software that helps you deliver the right message to the right customers at the right time, you can leverage the power of personalization to increase your online store’s conversion rate:

Product recommendations

Using information such as the customer’s preferences, shopping habits, and past purchases, you can recommend products that are timely and relevant.

One merchant has seen a 248%  increase in conversion rate by displaying personalized product recommendations on the homepage.

For the holiday seasons, during which customers are likely to be shopping for gifts, make sure to factor in their real-time interactions with your website and offer recommendations that are related to the products they’re looking at or searching for.

You can do so by mapping their real-time browsing behaviors to aggregated consumer data to predict the type of items they may be interested in.

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Don’t forget to feature new and popular products that are your bestsellers. Chances are they’d make a great gift and you’ll be saving your customers a lot of time and headache!

Upsell and cross-sell

Displaying items related to the products that shoppers are looking at or have put into their carts is a powerful way to increase your average order value.

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You can recommend items often bought together with the product, complementary to the product, or offered as a bundle with that product.

Past and recurring purchases

Make shopping easy for your customers by displaying the past purchase list so that they can pick up their favorite items quickly.

You can pair the past purchase list with personalized product recommendations to help shoppers discover new products that are likely to be relevant to them.

In addition, for items that need to be replenished periodically, you can offer a subscription service so your customers can “set it and forget it.”

Your customers will appreciate the convenience and be more likely to buy more from you while you will generate a recurring revenue from these subscriptions.

Streamlined checkout

For shoppers who already have an account on your eCommerce site, you can streamline the checkout flow so that they can complete their purchases quickly and conveniently.

Use the customer data on file to offer one-click checkout, pre-populate forms, allow shoppers to choose shipping addresses (e.g. for sending gifts directly to recipients,) offer the ability to add recommended products, or apply loyalty points to their orders.

A faster checkout experience will not only improve customer loyalty but also reduce cart abandonment and increase your conversion rate.

Seamless customer experience made possible by personalization

A robust customer data management system and personalization software is the key to delivering an outstanding customer experience that will help you increase sales this holiday season.

In the next installment of this series, we’ll look at how you can use targeted content and email marketing with personalization automation to boost your conversion rate.

 

Strategies to increase holidays sales of your online store – Part 2

The Key to Boosting eCommerce Conversion Rate This Holiday Season (Part 2)

eCommerce will be driving the growth of US retail eCommerce this holiday season. On the flip side, online retailers will also face increased competition as more businesses and merchants recognize the opportunity.

In Part 1 of this series, we showed you how to deliver an outstanding shopping experience to increase eCommerce sales through personalization on your online store.

In this article, you’ll learn how to extend the personalized experience beyond your eCommerce platform to create an outstanding customer experience with targeted content and email marketing automation.

Email isn’t dead!

Contrary to what many are saying, email is far from dead.

In fact, it’s one of the best marketing tools for the busy holiday season when consumers are bombarded with generic messaging from online and offline channels:

  • Email works well with mobile, which accounts for 48% of holiday shopping traffic.
  • Email offers instant buying options.
  • Email can marry targeted content with a specific call-to-action aimed at driving sales.
  • Email automation allows you to deliver relevant offers effective and efficiently.

Here are a few ideas to help you increase sales by using personalized email automation:

Saved cart and reminder emails

Cart abandonment statistics from a recent report show that desktop has a 61% abandonment rate, tablets have a 71% abandonment rate, and mobile has an 81% abandonment rate – which translates into over $4 trillion of merchandise left unpurchased in shopping carts!

To recover some of the sales from abandoned carts, you can send out reminder emails to shoppers who have registered on your site.

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This is a very effective sales recovery tactic. Research has found that nearly 50% of all abandoned cart emails are opened and over 33% of clicks lead to purchases back on site:

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Targeted content

Gift guides create some of the most popular content during the holiday season. Take it to the next level by personalizing them for specific segments of your audience.

Create gift guides that focus on different target markets and send personalized emails to specific segments of your customers, directing them to the content.

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You can further customize shopping experience with an interactive gift selector, such as a quiz on your website, to help shoppers narrow down their choices.

Besides gift guides, publish other holiday-related content that maps to shoppers’ preferences and customer lifecycle and share it with your audience via email and retargeting campaigns.

Deals and discounts

Another way of utilizing email marketing to increase sales is ending personalized offers to your customers.

Email segmentation makes it extremely cost-effective to deliver deals and discounts tailored to the preferences and purchasing behavior of your audience.

By delivering relevant offers, you can increase conversion rate and drive more sales.

Personalized email automation also allows you to send out action-triggered messages. For instance, you can recover abandoned carts by offering a special discount on the specific items in a shopper’s cart via email.

Make personalization automation work for you this holiday season

Personalization is the key to cutting through the clutter by delivering an outstanding customer experience designed to drive sales and improve loyalty.

Thankfully, today’s marketing automation technology means you can put these strategies into action in no time. So, don’t let another year go by without upping your online retail game!

Three Reasons Why Email Marketing Really Works

Benefits of Email Marketing

In a world where social media, blogging, and SEO take precedence, email seems like it would be on its way out the door. However, with the business world obsessed with acquiring consumer data, email marketing is not only useful but essential to companies.

Email marketing is one of the most effective and reliable channels for marketers to interact with customers. Here are three reasons why email marketing really works.

1.Easy Way to Reach Mobile Customers

Email marketing is an easy way to reach consumers on mobile without investing in new technology or software. Email channels already exist and are a traditional medium of connection, making it simple to reach consumers. According to a report by Pew Research Center, 52% of cellphone users in the U.S. access their emails via mobile phones. With many consumers constantly on the go, email marketing offers companies a way to send a greater volume of content to consumers in a quick and efficient manner.

Email is also accessible on devices other than mobile phones. According to a study done by Forrester Research, consumers opened 42% of retailers’ emails on smartphones and 17% on tablets. Essentially, nearly 60% of email marketing messages also double as mobile marketing messages. This versatility puts email at an advantage in comparison to text messages and SMS messaging. Consumers are more inclined to open email messages because emails are more accessible. Texting, on the other hand, is only available on mobile devices. Email is also free for the consumer and company while texting risks the chance of an incurred charge on the customer’s end. This diminishes the satisfaction of customer experience and can drive customers away. Also, email marketing is an easier access point for consumers and conveys more content that is useful to consumers.

2. Email is a Transactional Medium

Consumers see emails as a way to get offers, coupons, promotions, and in-stores sales. Email marketing deals drive in-store sales, making product emails key to getting consumers to engage with a product. A study performed by Nielsen found that 27% of online shoppers subscribe to emails in order to save money. 64% of consumers have printed out coupons found on email marketing campaigns.

Since customers expect to see offers and promotions in product emails, they are more likely to be in a buying state of mind. In turn, this can turn into increased revenue opportunity for companies. E-coupons are becoming a huge business with the growth of online sales, and email marketing is at the heart of it. Email marketing reaches out to online bargain hunters and provides consumers with a way to save online and in store. The transactional framework that email marketing provides also allows companies to personalize more toward consumers, engaging them more and further increasing sales opportunities.  

3. Tells You What Works

Email marketing allows companies to see what works and what doesn’t. The data obtained from email marketing provides metrics to see how emails are performing and what companies can do to improve email strategies. These insights allow companies to market their products smarter and better. Learning what works because of email marketing also gives companies a better understanding of the needs, interests, and desires of the consumer base. Companies can see the clickthrough rate of an email, which can then provide data as to how shoppers interact with the online shopping platform. Companies use the information provided by email marketing to not only cater to what consumers are looking for, but to better improve the interaction between consumer and company. By using email marketing, companies can track customer activity and better serve their interests.

Some say email marketing is dead. However, email marketing works. It keeps customers engaged and opens channels of communication between the company and its customers. With email marketing, companies can be in the right place at the right time.

How 3 Top Brands are Using Personalization

These days, customers want to feel that they’re being heard and understood by their favorite brands. In fact, 73% of consumers want a more personalized shopping experience. Personalization allows brands to create a unique experience for their customers — in turn, demonstrating that they are being heard, and hopefully contribute to increased sales volume.

And, it is working. According to a study done by Infosys, 86% of consumers are influenced by personalization when making shopping decisions. Consumers are motivated to purchase more when they are made to feel relevant.

Thus, personalization has become increasingly important for brands and their success. Let’s take a look at three brands that are succeeding by bringing personalization into the consumer journey.

Burberry

This 156-year-old brand has pioneered a different kind of personalization for customers. Partnering up with Pinterest, Burberry has given customers a way to build personalized boards with product content provided by Burberry.

The “Cat Lashes” promo initiative offers a personalized experience for customers based on their makeup preferences. Users take a quick questionnaire and get personalized makeup looks and tips through a personalized Pinterest board. Burberry promotes their Cat Lashes Mascara through the Pinterest boards. The personalized boards also offer tips on how to create relevant looks for each customer while also using the Cat Lashes Mascara.

According to an internal study, 42% of consumers have bought products based on promoted pins they saw on Pinterest. Burberry’s “Cat Lashes” initiative is, therefore, capitalizing on Pinterest’s broad consumer base. The personalized boards serve as a promotional hub for the Cat Lashes Mascara, as well as related and relevant Burberry products.

GILT

Gilt.com was listed in Fast Company’s Top 25 Innovative Companies in 2010and ranked first in fashion that year. How did a company, which launched in 2007, garner so much success in just five years? The reason is that the online retailer personalizes sales and promotions for each customer and app user.

The luxury flash sales site has installed a personalized user page online and on the mobile app. This personalization feature is called “Your Personal Sale,” and goes beyond the daily e-mails a shopper receives. The personalized sales, generated by an algorithm, takes into consideration a customer’s entire shopping experience. Based on factors such as purchase history, geographic location, browsing behavior, and personal preferences, “Your Personal Sale” finds fresh items and deals daily. Personalization goes one step further, with Gilt.com also considering size, categories, and brands that customers frequently engage with. Each personalized sale lasts 24 hours, after which a new set of deals and sales are presented. According to CIO Steve Jacobs, personalized sales are “the next phase of the flash sale model.” The company leverages the sense of discovery the app provides, “tailoring [the] shopping experience just for them.”

Gilt.com brings personalization to the online fashion and retail platform and makes a conscious effort to tailor products to its customers. According to  Jacobs, “people are coming back more frequently, and they’re excited to see what’s in their sale tomorrow.” Personalized sales pushed the online retailer to be valued at roughly $1 billion just after five years of launching. Gilt’s personalization strategy has propelled the e-commerce company to enormous success.

Spotify

The online music platform Spotify is the leading music streaming host, despite competitors like iTunes and Google Play.

The introduction of personalized playlists has distinguished Spotify from other streaming sources.

One of these personalized playlist functions is “Discover Weekly.” Discover Weekly is a service which personalizes to each listener’s taste across a variety of genres. A personal playlist of 30 songs is curated and released each Monday based on listening habits. The music streaming service has also launched the “Release Radar” feature. Every Friday, the two-hour playlist is updated with newly released music from artists and bands a listener frequents. In addition, listeners who curate their playlists receive personalized suggestions on their playlists as well. The streaming service learns from personal preferences, songs skipped and replayed, and even looks at micro-genre music preferences to curate the best suggestions for each listener.

Spotify’s lead engineer and algorithm creator Edward Newett says, “we’re trying to show that Spotify understands users better than anyone else.” Within the first 10 months of launching, Discover Weekly saw 5 billion song plays. Senior product owner Matt Ogle says Discover Weekly’s success has “completely changed” the way Spotify interacts with consumers. The great success with user personalization has also increased consumer loyalty. Spotify boasts 40 million paid subscribers, compared to Apple Music’s 20 million paid subscribers.

Personalization is key to a brand’s success and transforms the customer experience. The focus on personalization allows many of these companies to grow as customers engage with brands more and more. With personalization on the rise, it will be interesting to see how industries implement various personalization tactics into their customers’ experiences.

Kohl’s is Winning With Omnichannel Strategies  

combining digital and in-store

As the retail industry is changing, many brick-and-mortar retailers are employing omnichannel marketing strategies to fend off digital giants like Amazon. When it comes to successful omnichannel, a complementary relationship between brick-and-mortar and digital assures companies greater success.

In this third and final retail installment, let’s take a look at how Kohl’s is using omnichannel strategies to create a customer-centric approach.

MOBILE APP

According to STORES Media Editor Susan Reda, “retail’s balance of power resides firmly in the hands of the consumer.” With e-commerce gaining more momentum, many consumers have shifted toward online shopping. The Kohl’s Mobile app is playing a key role in helping the retailer keep up with tech-savvy consumers. Kohl’s effectively leverages the mobile app as an in-store partner and offers a customized shopping experience.

App users who walk into a Kohl’s store have the option of using a feature of the app that tailors to that specific store. The ‘Store Mode’ function personalizes to each customer’s store location and allows shoppers to search for store inventory and see in-store promotions while shopping. Customers can also check the price of store items and see other related goods. The Store Mode function gives Kohl’s a synthesized digital and in-store landscape.

Kohl’s also offers enhanced payment capabilities through the mobile app. Customers can pay with Apple Pay, a one-tap checkout option, in the brick-and-mortar stores and mobile app. Shoppers also have the choice of adding a Kohl’s credit card as a form of payment within Apple Pay. Consumers further have the option of scanning and saving gift cards to the Kohl’s mobile wallet.

Thus, paying for items in the brick-and-mortar stores blends seamlessly with mobile payment features, and customers are provided with a convenient shopping experience. Kohl’s gives shoppers more online and offline purchasing choices, thereby increasing the traffic to stores. The Kohl’s mobile app is a powerful tool which encourages online browsing and in-store sales. The app infuses digital into the in-store experience, creating a smooth customer experience.

STORES AS WAREHOUSES

Kohl’s continues to leverage its physical stores with the implementation of click-and-collect. Shoppers can make purchases online or through the mobile app, and pick them up at a convenient Kohl’s location. The company utilizes the brick-and-click concept, to make the brick-and-mortar stores act like warehouses for online orders. In turn, Click and Collect makes customer shopping more convenient. Click and Collect provides flexibility and ‘real time’ fulfillment for consumers. With consumers coming in store to pick up items, foot traffic to brick-and-mortar facilities is increasing.

The retailer is also using inventory at its brick-and-mortar stores to fulfill online shopping demands. Using local inventory, Kohl’s moves goods that are not selling in stores. Consequently, this speeds up fulfillment since the stores are closer to customers’ homes.
Kohl’s is creatively using its brick-and-mortar stores to make online and offline more connected. As consumers shop online, the retailer uses brick-and-mortar stores as makeshift warehouses, and in turn, makes the shopper’s experience easier and more convenient.

Kohl’s adapted the mobile and brick-and-mortar stores to become highly leveraged and synchronized units. The retailer has used the mobile app and brick-and-mortar adaptations to boost sales and create an inclusive customer experience. Previously, we looked at the successful omnichannel strategies implemented by Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. We have finally rounded off our omnichannel trilogy by taking a look at Kohl’s and how this retailer has implemented omnichannel successfully. While these three retailers are ahead of the curve with omnichannel marketing, it will be exciting to see where other retailers take omnichannel.

 

Combining the Art and Science of Retail: JC Penney’s Digital Evolution

Omnichannel Evolution: From Magazine Catalog to Online Catalog

JCPenney was once one of the most influential catalog retailers and an original omnichannel retailer. JCPenney’s efforts to evolve the brick and mortar business has the company advancing omnichannel execution.The introduction of the digital age has provided JCPenney an incentive to create a more sophisticated and modern view of this catalog.  The evolution of the catalog is connecting with customers on how, when, and where they prefer to shop.  

According to JCPenney CEO Marvin Ellison, the company has “developed true omnichannel capabilities” by advancing the brick and mortar store. JCPenney’s omnichannel strategy focuses around the creation of a successful mobile app and the implementation of a buy-online-pick-up-in-store method. Let’s look at each part of JCPenney’s strategy and how these elements are helping JCPenney’s digital expansion.

Mobile App

As part of JCPenney’s evolution, the company has focused largely on created a user-friendly mobile application, taking advantage of the massive growth of mobile channels. The JCPenney app features a sleek design and easy to navigate interface which connects to each shopper’s personal account. The JCPenney app is designed to connect the digital and in-store experience, as seen in the image above. Consequently, the user base rates the app at 4.5 stars, with over one million users. 

The app is a single mobile hub, facilitating online shopping at the customers’ fingertips. As a result, JCPenney creation of a mobile app has allowed them to connect with digitally savvy customers. JCPenney’s app helps shoppers locate items in stores, apply coupons, and also access their JCPenney Rewards. The app customizes to each shopper’s account, personalizing the app based on browsing history, purchase history, and even location. Customers can also make purchases based on what is available in nearby store locations and can even check available inventory.   Consequently, the user base rates the app at 4.5 stars, with over one million users. The evolution of the brick and mortar store to include a mobile platform maintains a personalized omnichannel experience. 

Buy Online pick up in store

JCPenney is also powering their omnichannel experience with the introduction of buy-online-pick-up-in-store option, also known as BOPUS. BOPUS allows shoppers to complete online and mobile purchases with a variety of pick-up options. BOPUS is available in all 1,000 physical locations and synchronizes with the location capability on the mobile app and online platform. Shoppers can make purchases based on the online catalog or available inventory in select locations. The shoppers can even choose which kind of pick up option they would like.

The shipping options include shipping to any location, same day pickup, and fast home delivery. JCPenney has a history of operating through catalog service desks. The direction towards digital catalog enhancement makes JCPenney is one of the biggest retailers to offer online orders to be shipped to any of its 1,000 locations. JCPenney’s successful blend of online retail and in-store pick up has evolved the purpose and functionality of the brick and mortar store.

The BOPUS option that JCPenney provides has also expanded the consumer market. Shoppers who come in to pick up orders have a higher attachment rate. A high attachment rate means shoppers are more likely to buy an additional item in-store when picking up an online order. Because of the integration of the digital and physical market through omnichannel, JCPenney is seeing greater returns .

JCPenney has implemented new omnichannel tactics to bring their catalog into the digital age. By marrying the physical and online experience, they have successfully rejuvenated their customer journey. JCPenney plans to continue their evolution through next year with the replacement of point-of-sale units with mobile devices. It will be exciting to see how JCPenney further develops through 2017.

 

How Omnichannel Retailers Are Changing the Marketing Game

Starbucks, Sephora, and Disney’s Omnichannel Approach

 

The good old days of customers coming from one channel are over.  With the rapid rise of social and mobile channels as valuable marketing platforms, omnichannel business strategy has become necessary approach for a successful brand.  While it is easy to understand “Why?” the “How?” is less clear.

Before we can discuss what techniques are being used to optimize omnichannel marketing, we need to take a look at what omnichannel marketing really means. Omnichannel is an approach to sales that utilizes multiple channels and outlets of shopping. The primary goal is to create a seamless customer shopping experience, whether the individual is shopping on a mobile device, desktop, or in a physical store. 

Now that we have established a what omnichannel is, let’s take a look at how three companies use it to their advantage.

Starbucks

Starbucks is an omnichannel expert

The Starbucks Rewards program is a perfect example of omnichannel marketing in practice. Starbucks is one of the biggest coffee retailers in the world. Their market reach is incredible, and they have harnessed the power of omnichannel to leverage that huge customer base. The Starbucks Rewards system uses an omnichannel approach to make the coffee buying experience more convenient for customers.  Customers can use the rewards card to make purchases without taking out their wallets and to also reload the rewards balance online, in-store, by telephone, or by mobile app. All changes to rewards accounts immediately update across all channels.  Thanks to the omnichannel approach, Starbucks customers can satisfy their caffeine cravings at any time, on any channel.

 

Online bags can become actual bags when purchasing in-store

Sephora

The makeup retailer has also changed the way consumers interact with products. Sephora utilizes the omnichannel shopping process to create an enjoyable experience for customers. Sephora has implemented the “My Beauty Bag” program to allow customers to manage their beauty products and see purchase history. The “My Beauty Bag” program makes it easy and accessible for Sephora customers to add items to their shopping carts, peruse their browsing history, make savings on purchases, and re-order items. Sephora’s rewards program also allows members to use their Beauty Bags on their mobile device, computer, and send digital gifts.

While making in-store purchases, customers can use the Sephora app to complement the brick and mortar shopping experience. Sephora is also changing the in-store experience as well, by introducing the Beauty Tip Workshop. Customers now have the opportunity to access their Beauty Bags, see recommended items and looks, and make purchases based on the items shown in the store. Sephora is expertly using omnichannel to revolutionize the cosmetic shopping experience.

Disney

Disney brings omnichannel to the world on tourism and retail. The magic of Disney is brought to multiple channels thanks to their approach. Disney’s process pays attention to even the smallest of details to make a flawless and consistent shopping environment across channels. When booking a trip through Disney’s website or app, customers have access to the My Disney Experience tool to help plan the logistics of the trip. From dining options, to park attractions, to securing passes, the My Disney tool helps customers plan for the entire trip. Once customers get to the amusement park, the Disney mobile app can locate the attractions and performances across the park and gives an estimated waiting time for each attraction and show.

Disney takes the magic even further with the implementation of the Magic Band program. These wristbands not only act as theme park entrance passes, but also act as hotel room keys, Fast Pass check in, food ordering tools, and photo storage devices. These wristbands also include personalized surprises for each band holder. Disney uses omnichannel to make traveling a connected, all-in-one experience.

 

Omnichannel initiatives like these enable brands to create the ideal customer experience across all channels. Starbucks, Sephora, and Disney approaches are great examples of brand’s solving for the ever-evolving needs of the digital age.