Omnichannel Archives - Page 4 of 7 - Omnichannel Personalization SaaS Solution

26 Dec
2016

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.

19 Dec
2016

Serving Up Omnichannel Success

Lessons Learned From Omnichannel Dynamo Chili’s

With different mediums of shopping, companies have to create a seamless shopping experience across the board. As a result, every aspect of the consumer journey, from browsing to purchasing, has to be a smooth transition, both online and offline. People demand an omnichannel experience that is social, quick, easy to use, and valuable to the consumer.

Technological creativity seems to have more of an impact than a brand name. Customers are no longer impressed by a shiny new app of their name being personalized in an email. The 21st-century customer expects brands to create an omnichannel shopping experience that encompasses all online and offline interactions.

Let’s take a look at how Chili’s is using omnichannel and a little technical creativity to create the ultimate dining experience

Wait in line….from home

Gone are the days of waiting in line at Chili’s to get a table. The casual dining restaurant has partnered with NoWait to power their new mobile waitlisting feature on the Chili’s app. Through the use of the app, Chili’s can provide an enhanced dining experience. For diners who wish to enjoy their favorite menu items during peak hours. With the waitlisting feature, diners can reserve a spot in line and check up on wait times from any location or mobile device.

The waitlisting capability has given Chili’s an advantage in restaurant-diner relations. By combining the mobile and in-restaurant experience, diners have convenience and speed at their fingertips. The wait listing feature allows Chili’s to have faster table turnover and accurate estimates for wait times. Guests can not only check up on wait times but can also go ahead and order what they would like while still “waiting in line” while in the app. With combo offers and other special menu offers, Chili’s now gives diners a way to get their food without waiting in line and with little preparation time. Chili’s use of the waitlisting feature creativity uses mobile to optimizing the in-store dining experience.

Embrace Social Media

Across social media platforms, food and beverage mentions are the most popular. The way customers review restaurants on social media fundamentally changes the way restaurants are approaching social media. According to a Netbase report , Chili’s is one of the most popular brands on social media.

So what did Chili’s do right to make them among the top 15 most popular social media brands?

Chili’s embraces the way food and beverages are consumed from a social media perspective. It is no longer enough for a restaurant to have great written reviews. Presentation and picture quality is the new buzz in food reviews. Because of this shift, Chili’s has made changes to the brick and mortar restaurant to garner positivity on the digital landscape. Even the way food is prepared is being changed to be more appealing in photos. For example, French fries are served in stainless steel bins, ribs are neatly placed on plates, and even the plates themselves have been revamped to be prettier in photos.

The goal is to make menu items look more tempting in pictures, increasing the number of mentions and shares online. This improves Chili’s online presence and visibility on high traffic platforms like Instagram.

Tabletop tablets

Smartphones and tablets have made access to information and services available at our fingertips. The demand for convenience and speed has started shaping the way restaurants are tackling food service. While online ordering and delivery have made the eating-out experience easier, customers lose the dining experience. As a result, sit down restaurants are now introducing the tabletop tablet. This system allows diners to place food and drink orders through a provided tablet. Diners now have control of their dining experience. These tablets streamline food service without replacing the personal interactions with servers. With the tap of the finger, dinner guests can now input orders and requests such as waiter service, beverage refills, and chats with the chef.

This year, Chili’s implemented over 70,000 tablets across its restaurants to provide a smooth, reliable dining experience. The smart table top option is tightly integrated with the Chili’s ordering system, ensuring that everything is up to date. The tablet displays the most relevant and updated menu items, prices, and descriptions and can even show customized consumer reviews of the items that you have ordered.

The ability to omnichannel approach to ordering and paying for food through a tablet has boosted the volume of orders. The speed with which customers can pay with the tablet has also increased table turnover. As a result, Chili’s can seat more customers than before.

Chili’s has done a fantastic job of leveraging technological creativity to create omnichannel success. Have you seen other restaurant brands using omnichannel to enhance their customer experience? Let me know in the comment section below.

07 Dec
2016

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

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.

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.

19 Jul
2016

6 Types of Data To Collect From Customers And How to Grow Your Marketing Strategy With It

Personalization has hit the mainstream as the best marketing strategy for growing your business. It’s used by niche companies and conglomerates alike in order to create an experience that entices customers to buy. There’s no denying it’s power.

Have you ever found yourself shopping for a new shirt online, only to be bombarded with matching ads later in the day. The ads may even be the exact products your were looking at from the same sites. They’re remarketing based off information you provided. Someone else who shopped for pants will see a completely different set of ads.

The idea is to use a one-on-one marketing strategy to develop a closer relationship with your customer. Omni-channel personalization, with a focus on these data points, can create a thorough approach to tailoring your recommendations based on what you know about the individual. Levels of use will vary, but the goal is clear:

Marketing is no longer about whose ad is seen the most. It’s about who can be more personal.

1. Name

Names have been called the ‘customer’s favorite word’ and for good reason. Would you rather I address you as “Appreciated Customer”, or can we take it to a more personal level? Well Greg, we’ve got a deal for you.

Businesses have been using customer names since people started peddling wares in Mesopotamian markets. When Greg bought that suit, the owner had already learned his name. The next time he walked in, he was welcomed with it. It made Greg feel more appreciated than when he visited other shops. It created a brand loyalty and he’s significantly less likely to take his business elsewhere.

Knowing your customer’s name is easy when you’re talking face to face with her, but how can you do it when thousands of people are browsing your digital store?

Web developers solved this problem long ago. Membership and e-mail sign ups require a name. Even websites that only share your username have begun using your real first name rather than the word ‘profile’ on your browser. It creates a more personalized experience when the web page displays your name in the corner, even if you know it’s an automated system.

By e-mail lists having this information, subject lines can be constructed to appear like personal messages. Seeing their own name elicits a reaction from the brain, forcing them to slow down and read the text. Campaign Monitor found that working personalization into an e-mail subject line increased open rates by 14.68%. With a list of 1,000, that translates to nearly 150 more people opening your message. That’s 150 more potential sales just because you directed the letter at Greg. Talk about a great ROI on personalization.

2. Location

Where using a name is great, MailChimp would argue that city names are even better.

Locations can be used to expose customers to events in a given area. Is there an expo or event that you want to share with your fans. Directed messages at their location can be the quickest way to do it.

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Sending e-mails about a race in Seattle to people who live in New York City will cause your open rate to drop drastically. Meanwhile, your audience in the greater Seattle area may now attend, increasing engagement with your brand.

Gathering this information can be done through two key methods. You can have customers provide their location when signing up for different features, or you can have them grant permission using a geo-location enabled app.

Marketing Land claims mobile brand ads are seeing a 20% increase in conversions when coupled with location data. Need more reasons? They also found that “69% of Google searches include a specific location.” That’s more data you can use in your marketing strategy.

A study by White Horse Productions, Inc. showed that 8% of the users of social apps running geo-location systems believe “savings in discounts and merchant rewards” are the most important benefit. Though this number seems low, given the sheer volume of traffic that social media receives on a daily basis, this number is astounding. Since 60% of that poll thinks the social aspects are most important, it could be argued that discounts and deals would play a larger secondary role for most.

Businesses like Yelp allow their customers to ‘check-in’ to different establishments. Later, they’re reminded to review the places they visited. This creates more interaction with their site and app, as well as customer pride because they’ve contributed to the product. The ‘check-in’ strategy also brings more engagement on social media, showing up on the newsfeeds for everyone to see.

The largest battle with tracking a customer’s location is the concern for privacy. Many smartphone users will disable the GPS feature because of a fear that the information will be used inappropriately. Unfortunately for the honorable business, this leaves the ability to track location to user sign ups and invoices. Still, it’s better than comprising your integrity.

3. Gender

The purple elephant in the room, gender, has become a touchy subject in today’s social climate. Still, for a business, knowing someone’s gender can translate into better targeting and profit.

A study by G+ proved that targeting genders can be more than efficient. They found that females make more of the buying decisions, including everything home furnishings to cars. They also saw that women are more likely to use a specific brand if it supports a cause.

Using this information alone, you could develop a strategy to target your female customers with ads. Select the cause you’re most affiliated with, expressing a cause, and have better luck at winning them over. Even better is that if it’s a large purchase, you know to focus more attention on that gender.

Learning your customer’s gender also gives you the ability to tailor recommendations on page. If you’re a clothing company that sells to everyone, ads offering skirts will be better directed at women, while men’s products are better with them. This technique would still require a Facebook pixel or local account, but it could pay dividends in the long run.

4. Previous Purchases

Along with the gender focused advertising, many sites will tap your previous purchases to target you. Amazon is excellent at this strategy.

When you’re comparing items, say a sleeping bag, you can go through dozens of pages without making a purchase. Don’t worry, when you open your Facebook later, you’ll find that Amazon has a kindly reminder waiting for you. They’ll use sponsored posts to keep your mental shopping cart alive and even offer recommendations for some of the sleeping bags you were looking at earlier.

You can follow this same approach, or target on a finer scale. When a customer purchases a sleeping bag from your site, launch an automated email chain that offers them related products, like lamps or walking sticks. The odds of a customer buying from you again are higher than the chances of that initial purchase. It’s marketing done easy.

On the other side of the spectrum is the abandoned shopping cart. Maybe a customer became distracted. Maybe they found your prices too steep. By knowing that they didn’t make a purchase, but had intended to, you can attempt to reengage the customer. Remind them of the cart or make new offers. There are a lot of possibilities just by identifying their cart status and it can all be crafted into an automated system.

In the same sense, send emails when discounts appear on items they’ve expressed interest in, be it from a wishlist or deleted cart items. Study everything about a customer’s purchase history and you can learn some specific ways to target the individual.

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5. Interests

If interests aren’t part of your personalization marketing strategy, you’re doing it wrong. They can tell us everything we need to know in order to interact with customers.

Interest marketing is especially effective on social media platforms. Sites like Facebook and Twitter build profiles on all of their users, including everything they like. These likes translate into marketing channels.

By applying ads to social media, you can automatically engage those who prefer the niche you’re addressing without having to sort them out. A billboard is a shot in the dark. Social media advertising, thanks to the ability to target interests, is a point blank shot.

6. Web Behavior

A customer’s behavior on the web can lead to a lot of profitable information. Everything from web content to e-mail interaction can be tracked in order to improve your marketing strategy. Using omni-channel personalization with knowledge of their trends can be even better.

To start, figure out what the most popular key words for your business are. Once you have them, develop landing pages for each. Highlight those keywords as many times as you can in the page to be sure that’s the one they find and let the personalized experience begin. Depending on how many keywords you want, you can continue to develop new pages, offering a deeper connection to your audience.

Those keywords can say a lot in themselves by defining where the customer is in the purchasing stages. If they’re searching for a specific knife review, odds are that they’re looking to purchase that knife. If they’re looking for the 7 best survival knives, they may be a little further away. Through personalization, you can recommend products and advertisements based off where they are in that process.

Tracking behavior is where your content marketing can pay off. Everyone who has run a business with an online presence understands that cookies can be pivotal in your marketing strategy. By tracking which pages your customers are viewing, you can tailor content specifically to their interest. This can be a recommendation to other articles and products based off the category or focused bonus material.

Content upgrades that are directly related to the topic of the page can provide a great window for opportunity. If a customer is reading about repairing chainsaws, a guide to felling trees with one may be enough to get his e-mail. From there, he’s entered your sales funnel, leaving him open to more e-mails and potentially other personalization tactics from you.

Along with getting those messages out, you need to pay attention to how your customers interact with your e-mails. Spot which links are getting the most use and place the customers into a segmented list. Send them more emails that focus on the topic they’re interested in. Reduce the size of your segments if you can, creating various targeted sub-lists while still sending them e-mails from the main subscription.

Collecting data to grow your marketing strategy is as simple as opening a few analytics accounts and paying attention to customer behavior. Run as many tests as you can to learn what works and what doesn’t to maximize your potential.

The information you gather can be the difference between a year of growth or another twelve months of your peers passing you by. Develop a strategy for personalization and take the lead.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet on How to Improve the Consumer Journey

05 Jul
2016

Omni Channel Personalization: The 2016 Trends

Why A Seamless Customer Experience Is More Important Than Ever

The good old days of customers coming from one channel are over. This is due, in part, to the rapid rise of mobile and social as marketing platforms, and with them, came omni channel marketing. They have created a shifting power dynamic allowing customers to experience and interact with brands in ways they were not able to just ten years ago. This could be visiting a store in person, the website, the social media presence, and any combination of using a laptop, tablet, wearable or mobile device. Nevertheless, the imperative question remains: What is the customer experience like on each platform and how can your brand take advantage of it?

With multiple users coming from every channel, businesses need to shift their marketing strategies from a single channel approach to an omni channel approach and be able to accommodate as many people as possible.

Omni channel, as its name states, is a multichannel approach to the sales process, and its primary goal is to bring a seamless shopping experience to the user. The term “shopping experience” relates to mobile shopping, desktop, by telephone, or even in bricks and mortar stores.

Rather than telling customers where to go, you are meeting on their terms where they like to purchase. Not everyone has time to visit a store in person or is tech savvy enough to follow your twitter feed. A successful modern brand needs to be everywhere at once and deliver a consistent experience across the board.

That, however, is much easier said than done.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the FREE Guide to Personalizing the Consumer Journey!

To successfully carry out an omni channel strategy, you need to know as much about each customer as possible. Luckily, there are more and more data points available to corporate marketers allowing them to make informed decisions. Having a consistent experience is great, but at the end of the day it needs to translate into increased sales, and working with an experienced team can mean that your business can see ROI results in days, not years.

Omni Channels – Everywhere At Once

It has always been important to know as much as possible about your customers, and it is even more important now. Whereas in the past you could rely on a survey or questionnaire done in a store about what customers thought, these days not as many people want or need to go into brick and mortar store. In fact, 7 1% of shoppers believe that they’ll get a better deal online, so why get up to drive to a store when a better price is available from the comfort of the couch. To compete in today’s market, businesses need to have some form of digital presence.

Why Consistency Is The New Black

A modern brand can be thought of like a mosaic, with each tile representing a different channel. If customers are told one thing from one channel, it is safe to assume they should be told the same from another.

As a marketer, it is imperative to keep your messaging consistent while adapting to the speed of digital society. People’s habits are changing faster than ever, and we need to understand where users are and consistently provide value for them no matter what channel. This will help cement a solid brand and a strong customer experience.

Channel Specific Customer Experience

Here is all you need to know: Customers act differently in each channel, and your brand needs to act differently as well.

Here is a quick rundown of general trends for each platform:

Mobile: It is not a question; it is not a fad; it is here to stay. Mobile is a legitimate platform, and you cannot overlook its importance. This is clearly displayed with this past year’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, where mobile accounted for 49% of all visits.

An important thing to note is that while 49% of visits were mobile, only 35.3% of purchases were made on mobile. One-third is still a huge number, but on days other than Black Friday, mobile users prefer to browse rather than purchase. Make sure your content is mobile optimized to look great on any device.

Mobile Trends Summary

– Users are mostly browsing, rather than purchasing

– Customers do quick site visits while on the go

– Tend to have high bounce rate for sites that aren’t mobile-friendly

Exclusive Bonus: Download the FREE Guide to Personalizing the Consumer Journey!

Laptop + Tablet: Buying something online on your computer is pretty commonplace these days, with even technically challenged baby boomers taking advantage of it. Brands know how important it is to have a smooth checkout process with close to 60% of online sales coming from laptops and tablets.

There are numerous challenges moving forward with an omni channel integration strategy with regards to the laptop and tablet segment. Some key tactics to keep in mind include serving location specific content which changes based on the customer’s location, equipping sales associates to help customers checkout anywhere, and integrating in store tools like QR codes, sensors or beacons to engage with customers.

Laptop + Tablet Trends Summary

– This is where most of the shopping experience happens

– Users will browse multiple sites/stores

– Slow loading will increase bounce rate

Brick And Mortar: They are still the hallmark for many stores, but looking at industry trends, in-store sales have dropped by 10% over the last year. This does not mean that brick and mortar stores are dead, but it is a sign that retailers should start thinking about how to adapt moving forward.

The in-store experience is unique and gives marketers many options for how they want to interact with the customers. The problem is, most brands do not carry their online messaging over into the store. Sure, the logos and colors are still the same, but does the customer have the same experience? Smart brands are doing more than just asking for an email address on checkout. They are offering legitimately good deals if customers visit their website, and letting them order online and pickup in store.

Brick And Mortar Trends Summary

– Large percentage of purchasing still done in-store

– Customers may be browsing but will usually do so online and consequently buy in store

– Brings an excellent opportunity to connect with customers

Social: Social media has quickly become a channel all marketers should have on their radar. Each social channel has it’s own type of content. It’s important to understand that traditional ads are not working like they use to, and now smart marketers are adapting to provide useful, shareable, and valuable content to people. Whether it comes in the form of videos, coupons, emails, or tweets, the messages must include compelling content for communication to resonate with the client.

Social Trends Summary

-Your content must be educational or entertaining

-Curate your content for the channel – i.e.: videos on Youtube, Images on Instagram, news on Twitter, etc…

-Find a your niche and market only to them

Cell Phone Call Center

Without Omni Channel: You take your telephone, and dial that toll-free number to your cell phone carrier. You are calling to negotiate your cell phone contract, which, let’s be honest, nearly everyone with a cellphone has done. You’ve spoken to a rep at your local store who told you about a great promotion but asked you to call their phone support who would be able to activate it for you. Nevertheless, the story changes. At home on the phone, the rep you’ve reached doesn’t know anything about the promotion. He requires access information about your account, and even once they are in (finally), they are not telling you the same thing the in-store rep did. You hang up hoping never to go through that again. #frustration.

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With Omni Channel: The in-store rep you were speaking with was able to tag your internal account with the offer they mentioned. At home on the phone, the rep can quickly access your account, see the promotion you were promised and activate it on your account. #happycustomer

Do you see the difference? It may not seem like much of a problem for a big company, but it makes a huge difference for building loyalty in customers. People hate having their time wasted, and the better and faster you can serve them, the happier they’ll be.

Though omni channel integration will result in increased sales and revenue, it’s not its primary focus. Rather, it works to keep customers happy, which builds loyalty, and consequently, increases repeat purchases.

Then Vs. Now: The Importance Of Brand Consistency

In the past it was easier to create a fully seamless brand experience, because each brand wasn’t appearing on as many channels are they are now. These days a brand needs to have a multilingual website, multiple social media accounts, a customer service center, and a fully automated system running it all. Though it seems straightforward, creating that seamless experience is very difficult.

From a customer’s point of view, a modern fortune 500 brand should be able to achieve all this, and with the internet at their fingers, they can easily look elsewhere.

To have the right answer at your fingertips, a comprehensive database management infrastructure is essential. We at NectarOM specialize in omni channel personalization, and you can learn more about how we can help your brand get your brand’s omni channel ready here.

Data Management

Most brands have (or can collect) lots of data from their customers. From purchase or browsing history, to when they shop, to their economic status, and the area they live. All of these are very powerful marketing tools. The hard part is using them correctly, and integrating all the different channels. It is essential to manage this data to know about your user’s experience. If someone visited your site on his or her laptop, you, as a brand, need to keep that experience consistent on a mobile device.

Here are two very common scenarios with and without omni channel personalization experience.

Working 24/7

The last important way in which omni channel marketing has changed retail is that stores are no longer open for a set amount of hours. People browse the Internet and make purchases at all times of day (and night), so your marketing needs to work on their timetables.

To do so, it is essential to have all your systems on autopilot. As soon as someone makes a purchase or interacts with your brand, your marketing should reflect that. Whether it means they are getting a confirmation email to let them know their item has shipped, to getting time sensitive promotions and coupons as soon as they become available. There are too many moving parts to run a business manually, and automation is a must in our digital age.

Once a customer has purchased, and your marketing has begun, it’s not acceptable to send generic emails. It is easy enough to say that your messaging must be consistent across all platforms, but it must be specific to the customer’s current situation.

More businesses have become aware of the importance of omni channel personalization, about giving your customers something relevant and useful that consequently builds trust. Once you have trust, you’re able to establish a relationship with your clients, and ultimately make sales. Above all else, keep it simple. There is no point in delivering a substandard experience that will most likely lose you business. Focus on what you already know about your customers and then work backward to enhance their experience.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the FREE Guide to Personalizing the Consumer Journey!

28 Jun
2016

What Do Google, Netflix, Amazon, And Best Buy Have In Common?

These 4 Billion-Dollar Companies Are Leaving the Competition In the Dust…

The customer is always right, right? Well, it all depends on what kind of experience customers have with your brand. Their experience will not only dictate how often they’ll complain, but how successful your company will be. Think of some of the biggest new brands – ones like Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon. All started within 15-20 years, but all have seen incredible success. Want to know why? Because they spent a lot of time and money making the customer experience the best it can be.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet of tactics big brands use to create a personal experience, and software to do it on a budget.

Recently, taking the customer experience to the next level is possible through personalizing the content. It’s been an important cornerstone of successful marketing for some time now.

Think back to how this got done before the web. Companies were talking to customers, giving them surveys to try and find out as much as they could about them.

These days companies have a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips, and are embracing data to make it work for them. This article will explore how four companies (Amazon, Netflix, Google, and Best Buy) adapted over the past five years to see amazing growth, largely because of personalization.

Google

This company needs no introduction, and I bet you can already start to connect the dots on how they’ve managed to leverage personalization to great success. First, we need to take a step back and understand how Google makes its money. 89% of it comes from ad revenues, so for all intents and purposes, we’re only going to focus on that. So the question is, how do they leverage personalization to see the 66-billion-dollar revenue they pulled in last year.

Personalized Search

Google works best as a profile-based service, which means that to get the most out of it, you’ll need to sign into an account. From Gmail to YouTube, Google accounts work with a lot of services that people use regularly. Sure, you can still use it without signing in, but that is where the real personalization begins. This first point is pretty obvious. Depending on what you search for, and what your browsing history is, Google will serve you different sites.

Despite this fact, most people still don’t mind using it. By knowing what you’re searching for, they can offer products they think you’ll want to see. Yes, they are skewing the data. If you want a completely unbiased web search, consider using something like duckduckgo.com. Google is banking on a complex algorithm that takes sites you’ve visited and continues to show similar ones. If they know the type of sites you enjoy, why not show you more of the same?

Personalized Ads

This takes the first point to the next level and is made obviously clear after searching for a specific topic that you wouldn’t usually search. As an interesting experiment to illustrate this, I changed up my searches for a week. I love cars and do a lot of car-related searches. Understandably, most of my ads (when ad blocker was turned off) were for car-related products. I tried searching for something completely unrelated to cars: bird watching. Google noticed and then started showing me tranquil ads for bird watching equipment. Anyone can run this experiment, and it’s interesting to see how your search affects everything around you.

Though this may come off as creepy to some, it makes sense. If I am genuinely interested in all this bird watching stuff, maybe a company is offering a sale on those killer binoculars that I was looking for; so, I’ll click an ad, Google will get paid, and I’ll have some nice binoculars. Thanks, Google!

Personalized Videos

This last example is the natural progression from search and ad personalization. Since Google owns YouTube, it’s already happening. Depending on what you usually watch, it will curate your content to show you related videos.

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Though most, or all, of us, hate video ads, they know it’s a numbers game. Sure, you may close an ad every time, but 1 in 100 people might click it, and 1 in 1,000 might go on to buy the product. With these ads being served to millions of people every day, there is a lot of money to be made.

Google has mastered personalization to try and give you what you’re looking for before you even look, and the numbers speak for themselves. If this approach weren’t working, they wouldn’t be doing it.

Next, let’s look at everyone’s favorite streaming site: Netflix.

Netflix

“Netflix and chill,” may be a popular saying, but they are not chill about their dedication to providing you with shows you want to watch. Unlike Google, Netflix doesn’t make their money through ads, but through subscriptions, so their main focus is retention and keeping existing customers happy. They do this by filtering through their sea of available content to give you only what you want to watch.

Let’s look at how they’ve managed to leverage personalization to create a unique experience for all of their 81.5 million subscribers.

Recommendations

The “Recommended Shows” sections of Netflix aren’t new. In fact, they were working on improving their recommendation algorithm when they were still mailing out DVDs. Way back in 2006, they announced a $1 million prize to any team who could help improve their recommendation algorithm by just 10%. It’s clear they’re serious about constantly improving recommendations, and things have only gotten better for them since they made the jump to streaming in 2007.

Compared to a DVD watch list, instantly streaming content gave them a lot more data about people’s viewing habits. While they only had a list to work with in the past, now they can see what shows you watch, how much of each show you watch, what time you watch, and a lot more. This knowledge about your viewing habits helps them keep you engaged by ensuring you always have something new to watch.

Multiple Devices

Once Netflix made the jump to streaming, it opened up a whole new platform to reach new potential users. The thing is, not everyone’s the same, and different people prefer to watch movies or TV on different media. Netflix quickly understood this dilemma and saw the potential to have their service on different platforms. Rather than just being available through their site on a PC, they opened it up to Roku, Xbox, Apple TV and many others.

Netflix has one thing down: they are available to personalize content wherever and however their customers want it. From laptops, to phones, and even gaming consoles, Netflix is available wherever you want to use it.

Breaking The 4th Wall

The last piece of personalization that helps Netflix deliver a seamless customer experience is by now bringing recommendations right to your inbox. They knew people spent a lot of time just browsing for something to new watch, so now they help out by emailing suggestions directly to you. By using all of the data from your account, if a new show or movie that they think you’ll like comes out, they’ll let you know. You can even add it to your list from your phone!

Delivering useful content and recommendations is the type of omni channel personalization that has separated Netflix from the competition. They’re able to deliver a seamless experience from start to finish.

Amazon

You may have heard of this company. They used to sell books online, but are now the largest marketplace in the world, and are a perfect e-commerce example for how personalization helped them dominate the marketplace. As an e-commerce site, they make their money by selling products, and make even more money by recommending other items.

The motivation for recommendation is getting you to purchase more items. As the web grew, and more data points became available about their users, they were able to track more and more information, and make appropriate recommendations.

Frequently Bought Together

If you’ve ever used Amazon, you’ve seen this section, and it’s an ingenious piece of personalization. These recommendations are not serendipitous or a fluke. They are cold and calculated. Fortune describes it pretty well:

The company reported a 29% sales increase to $12.83 billion during its second fiscal quarter, up from $9.9 billion during the same time last year. A lot of that growth arguably has to do with the way Amazon has integrated recommendations into nearly every part of the purchasing process from product discovery to checkout.

Not only does this work, but they have multiple areas, each offering different suggestions: frequently bought together, customers who bought this item also bought, sponsored products relating to this item, and what other items do customers buy after viewing this item.

Those are four other suggestions to upsell and get you to buy more products. It’s no wonder why Amazon is the leader in the marketplace. This alone shows their understanding and value of customer data.

Follow Up Emails

If you’re running an e-commerce business, then you know that it’s a fact that a certain percentage of people will abandon their carts before purchasing. It doesn’t mean that they hate your brand or don’t want the product; life is complicated, and lots of things are vying for our attention.

With nearly 44% of cart abandonment emails being opened, a good percentage of those result in sales. This kind of personalization and customer experience isn’t hard to achieve, and any e-commerce business should be doing it. All it takes is a simple email with the items they left in the cart to try and rekindle the relationship and emotion felt in the first place.

Amazon Dash

This last product of Amazon’s takes personalization from the digital into the real world. If you’ve been following along, then you understand that people like to interact with brands on their terms, and that repeat business is key for a successful brand.

Amazon took their one-click checkout feature and made it into a real button. They realized that certain people would buy the same staples like Tide, Gatorade, or razors, so they made it even easier for you to buy them with one touch. Going from multiple steps to one press of a button is the next step in personalization and takes the customer experience to the next level. I’m excited to see what else they have up their sleeves.

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Not mentioned in the title, but equally as interesting is Best Buy, and they’re the last example of how a brick-and-mortar company can also adapt to the online data revolution and go toe-to-toe with the best of them. Worldwide, they have a 22% hold in the electronics market and are trying to close the gap with Amazon. To do so, they’re implementing similar tactics as Amazon and capitalizing on the shift to personalization.

Catching Up With The Rest

If you’ve bought something at Best Buy recently, you’ll notice that they too are sending recommendation emails. If you bought an Xbox and they have your email address, you might get emails suggesting new game titles you might like.

Of course, Best Buy stores benefit from the ability to offer instant gratification, but they also separate themselves from other online retailers by offering store-exclusive content. That means if you preorder a game at Best Buy, you’ll get exclusive access to limited-edition content, not available to anyone else. With prices being pretty consistent for video games, offering the bonus of additional content is an interesting approach to helping close the gap with online retailers.

Price Match

Around 70% of Best Buy’s inventory is available cheaper elsewhere online (Amazon, eBay), so how do they still manage to compete? To combat this, they’ve implemented a pretty liberal price-match policy for brick-and-mortar as well as online retailers. This policy is a pretty bold statement and makes a strong case for those who prefer to buy all of their electronics at once to do it all at Best Buy. If online retailers can’t compete with price, then they’ll have to get creative to compete with Best Buy moving forward.

Personal Contact

Though brick-and-mortar can seem like an excessive overhead in our digital society, Best Buy uses it to leverage their “blue shirt” experts and staff, who give a real personal touch. This is something an online store just can’t do on the same level. Sure, they could have a pop-up live chat window, but it just can’t replace actual face-to-face, human contact. Their staff is well versed in what they’re selling (sometimes that’s because they are actually employees of the brands they are recommending, instead of being Best Buy employees), and can usually understand your concerns and make real-time recommendations.

Though large businesses are generally not known for their speed in implementing change, all of these companies have done a great job of using data to their advantage to keep things personal for their customers and deliver an amazing overall experience. And as far as it looks, the customers have returned the favor by staying loyal to them and purchasing time after time.

13 Jun
2016

How Marketing Personalization Increases Customer Loyalty

What Kind Of Data Do You Need To Be Tracking To Meet Your Conversion Goals?

Who are the best kind of customers? The ones that never complain and keep buying from you and tell everyone they love you. You know the type.

They’re the loyal ones.

If you’re trying to grow a solid brand, loyalty should be on your radar. There are multiple definitions of what loyalty means to businesses. While loyalty programs, such as points, miles, coupons, are great, the type of loyalty you want from your customers is blind devotion, and refusal to look elsewhere. The problem is: loyalty is hard to obtain. It takes a lot of work and effort to gain trust, and along the way one slip-up could negatively impact all that hard work. It’s a very delicate process, there’s no question about it, but if done right the benefits far outweigh the drawback.

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Take Apple fanboys for example. There weren’t nearly as many of them around 20 years ago, but now there are tons, and Apple is the most profitable company in the world.

Coincidence?

I don’t think so. They are the best kind of loyal customers, willing to pay a premium for products and line up for days before they’re even out. These aren’t exclusive models either, and, on paper, they’re comparable to ones can be bought for nearly half the price. But people continue to buy from them. Why? These are customers that are loyal because they like the entire process, from the lineup to unboxing.

Gaining this type of loyalty is hard, but with businesses having the ability to capture more data, personalizing content is an easy way to start fostering a loyal customer. Let’s explore three aspects of personalization that you shouldn’t ignore.

1 – Profiles & Behaviors

Data can reveal a lot about someone: where they are, what browser they’re using, what links they clicked and what kind of device they’re on. It’s a marketer’s dream, and this information can, and should be used to help you increase your conversion.

In general, there are two types of data: explicit or implicit.

Explicit signals are hard facts: This user was on an iPhone in Canada, and clicked three links and visited the site four times.

Implicit signals are what you can deduce from the hard facts: It looks like this user was browsing items. Since he’s from Canada, he’s less likely to purchase than an American; but, since he’s clicked three links and been to the site four times, he has a high chance of buying.

Turning implicit signals, which come in the form of data, into explicit signals and determining how you can initiate the sale can be a daunting task. NectarOM can simplify things and help automate this process in real time.

Customer profile

Once you have begun tracking your data, your next goal should be to create virtual profiles of your customers by combining data from multiple sources.

A profile describes a particular segment of customers with as much information as possible. This should include info like:

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These are just a few examples of points you can use to build your own persona. When you have a clearer picture of your ideal customer, the next step is to describe them and turn them into real people. Only once you have a profile of your customer can you start creating a plan to market to them. There’s no point wasting your time on strategies that might work.

How somebody is interacting with your content can tell you a lot about who they are and how they will interact with your brand. Generally speaking, mobile use accounts for a lot of search traffic as well as browsing, while computer/laptop traffic accounts for the majority of purchases.

2 – Test & Learn Strategies

What a simple world it would be if all leads came from the same place. You could focus all your marketing efforts on one thing and then clean up! But this is real life, and people are complicated. Different people hang out on various sites and can experience a brand in a variety of ways. One may prefer your Twitter feed, and another may frequent your site. Where they access your brand influences what they buy.

You can use this knowledge to your advantage by sending unique channel offers. For example, we all know Instagram is ideal for sharing images, so depending on what kind of images your audience’s feed is filled with, you could make something that blends in and barely looks like an ad. In this example from Qaloring, it’s not clear that they’re selling anything, and all you see is a woman in exercise clothes.

People on Twitter are usually looking for some interesting news, delivered in the iconic 140 characters or less and is a great place to promote your product with a catchy headline that gets people curious. Looking at the example from Ideapod; they play to people’s egos and drum up a bit of intrigue.
Am I smart? Heck yes! *click*

It can also be used to easily tag influencers in the industry to try and drum up some buzz for your product.

Facebook is a mix of the two, allowing more headlines but also a lot of space for an image. This ad from Jetsetter gets right to the point with a clear offer and beautiful picture.

Giving messages that relate to how people like to interact with a brand is the key to success. Make sure you’re not only thinking about the marketing campaign but how people will interact with your campaign over all sorts of channels and devices that you’re choosing to run it on. The more specific and targeted your campaign is, the better it will perform.

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3 – Automated Activation

Knowing all of this information is great, and any business owner should be doing everything they can to leverage this wealth of data that is at their disposal, but if you aren’t using or tracking this information, then you’re wasting your time. We here at NectarOM have an orientation toward action and apply marketing automation, predictive analytics and trigger based communications. Our system allows you to put this data to work. That way you can create detailed user profiles and implement laser precision campaigns.

No matter what your business model is, trigger based messages can help foster loyalty and increase your ROI. Making each customer feel special by delivering content based on their actions is a surefire way to keep them coming back.

With e-commerce, you’re always in the trenches, so to speak, looking forward to that sale and email notification coming through. Automated personalization has been proven to help with cart abandonment, by sending a follow-up email a day or so later. This can help bring people back to the state of mind where they were about to purchase, and could seal the deal.

As a corporate marketer, you’re more concerned with activating users because it’s necessary for continued subscription and a long term relationship. Sending a series of tips during a trial period, and capping it off with a ‘last chance, the trial is expiring’ email is a great place to start, and sure to get a conversation going with customers looking for an extension.

In a brick-and-mortar setting, clienteling, or providing a personal touch to shoppers can go a long way to building loyalty. This is usually achieved by using software to learn about customers preferences, behaviors, and purchases, and then having sales reps connect with customers in meaningful ways.

The Loyalty Effect In Action

At the highest level, getting all these systems in place can create machine-learning recommendations, which, if you can attain, mean a constant stream of business. Just look at what Netflix is up to:

“A study from Wharton cited that Netflix reported 60% of its sales came from machine-learning recommendations, and 35% of Amazon sales came from system-generated suggestions. Regarding increasing engagement, Venture Beat reports that personalized email subject lines can increase open rates by up to 41%.”

With industry leaders like Netflix heavily pursuing customization and machine-learning, it needs to be on your radar of things to implement. By keeping your messages relevant and personalize, you’ll be able to not only see the benefits in the form of increased revenue but will be able to keep your customers loyal – and more importantly, coming back.

This stuff can get complicated, and there are a lot of plates spinning in the air. But by focusing on your ideal customers and giving them personal attention, you’ll be able to keep them around. For businesses looking to deliver automated personalized omni channel experience book a free consultation with us here at NectarOM to discuss a strategy for your business.

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23 Mar
2016

The Road to Omni Channel Department Store: JCPenney vs Nordstrom

The next Round of The Road to Omni Channel Tournament ended with two “old-school” retail brands, Nordstrom and JCPenney. One brand, arguably the best customer service in the industry, and the other, a story of perseverance and come back. At the end of a tough game, Nordstrom’s unwavering strategy was upset, 71-68, by scrappy JCPenney’s frenetic pace of play and a half court heave.

The Play-By-Play

There aren’t too many business sectors experiencing the kind of pressure big box department stores face today. Foot traffic continues to decrease and in-store sales are stagnant. Meanwhile, online sales are increasing more than 30% over the next couple of years so companies like JCPenney and Nordstrom have no choice but to make omni channel a top priority. Each has done it differently, but both have made amazing strides, recruited deep teams and get solid play from every channel.

Nordstrom’s game was about everyone buying into a philosophical approach from the tip. Their relentless focus on customer service resulted in an unbreakable zone defense which covered the competition like a blanket. JCPenney never had an uncontested shot whether it was in the store, on desktop, mobile web, their app, social channels or from the customer service line.

Just when you thought there couldn’t be a deeper bench, JCPenney showed up with matchups for each channel, but also included a strong SMS player. That said, the difference in style was palatable. JCPenney played a full-court defense that poked at you like a jackhammer to concrete. There was a dizzying number of deals, discounts, clubs, groups, communities, opt-ins, points and promotions on every square inch of the court.

The offenses were opposites, as well. Nordstrom ran a smooth motion offense that was like watching a jazz ensemble in perfect sync. Crisp passes from desktop web into a login experience, to the mobile web, to the app, to push messaging and a perfect feed for a slam dunk from email was commonplace. The abandoned cart emails, location-based recommendations, and previous product views were all points of personalization and they occurred in nearly every channel. As a result, they posting the highest shooting percentage of any team in the tournament.

JCPenney played every offensive set like it was the end of the game tossing up three pointers from everywhere on the court. You could hear Desktop Web screaming every second of the game, “5 off 25! Buy one get one! Free, free, free!” Their shooting percentage wasn’t great, but the points stacked up as scoring runs that would rattle any team…except Nordstrom.

The summary of the game is best described as “streaks vs steady” with one streak too many. At the end of the game, JCPenney came back from a ten-point deficit with :46 left and their SMS player put the last nail in the coffin with a text from just beyond half court giving them a three-point win.

Key Stats – The Hammer vs The Diamond

When you compare these two teams the styles couldn’t be more different, but the stats were almost mirror images…

Cross Channel Experiences – Both teams drove to store via directions, allowed you to add events to calendars, barcode scanning in app, and localized content. Nordstrom did edge out JCPenney by highlighting and connecting you to their many events they offer in store across the country.
Operations – Every shot from the charity stripe went in for both teams, because they followed each purchase, opt-in and question with appropriate messaging. Nordstrom got extra points for their copy tone. Instead of standard requests for location or opt-in, they repeatedly presented benefits to giving them access and used cheeky copy throughout. They also won in store, because of the autonomy they give their staff and their very cool pop-up stores.
Recognition – Both companies will serve you well if you log-in, but it appears they’re both targeting anonymously, as well, at times.
Consumer Journey – Both teams were lacking a little in this area, but JCPenney dominated Nordstrom by integrating their Wedding and Baby registries online and in the app.
Recommendations – These were served up in a fairly typical fashion using widgets to introduce what others like you looked at or bought. Both parties could elevate recommendations to better match their brand essence: Nordstrom, by auto-emailing recommendations via local sales associates like they currently send manually; JCPenney, by personalizing their offers and discounts. Prior to the Ron Johnson era JCPenney shoppers used to love gaming the system with the mass of coupons floating around so why not embrace that gamification?

Conclusion

It’s clear JCPenney’s had challenges withstanding a rotating door of leadership at the institution and coaching ranks, but they appear to have rallied around omni channel. They’ve returned to their roots as an “in your face” couponer and elevated their game in store, but they still have to deal with the squeeze from competitors at both the top and the bottom. The jury is out, but they live to play another game.

Nordstrom is the classic Duke Blue Devil doppelganger. They play their game first, you know they’re always going to be in the mix and they’re extremely well coached. The players are given great autonomy so they have success from the floor of the store to the online customer service. It didn’t work out this time, but count on seeing them next year.

21 Mar
2016

The Road to Omnichannel: Consumer Electronics Conference

Two wildly different styles showed up for the Consumer Electronics division of the Road to Omni Channel Tournament – the massive line-up from juggernaut, Best Buy, and the most effective “small ball” team in the tournament, GameStop. The classic match-up of a methodical half-court team full of tree-toppers vs. a high octane, run-and-gun team resulted in a 76-75 win for Best Buy and an incredibly interesting game for the fans.

The Play-By-Play

This was one of the more anticipated games because both parties cater to a tech oriented audience, they both have full-funnel data and rabid followers in their loyalty programs. At the start of the game you could feel both parties flexing their muscles in the form of the in-store experience. Best Buy has been recruiting the best store experience for as long as most can remember. As an example, when the rest of the industry was worried about showrooming, Best Buy was embracing it by prompting shoppers to scan QR Codes in store on all product descriptions. They were an early member of the Shopkick loyalty program and have an industry defining loyalty program to support those 1,000+ massive stores.

GameStop, on the other hand, served the fickle and passionate gamer audience with more than 6,600 small format stores and, most recently, has employed a pace of play that makes most of their competitor’s heads spin. Their staff is very knowledgeable and consumer friendly, but so are the Best Buy “Blue Shirts.” Their PowerUp loyalty program was fast growing and deemed highly successful, but so was Best Buy’s. However, throughout the game you could feel GameStop’s recent investment in the GameStop Technology Institute wearing on the larger, slower Best Buy team. The partnership between the retailer, IBM, the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School, and several tech startups, allowed GameStop to rapidly deploy and test applications. In the first half of the game, many thought those innovations would be Best Buy’s undoing. Then there was the second half.

Though GameStop got off to a fast start and ran up the score on Best Buy, the GameStop team repeatedly struggled in a few areas which left the door open for a Best Buy comeback. The old adage, “You don’t usually win if you don’t make free throws,” was proven as GameStop continuously missed opportunities to deliver important, but basic operational communications. Welcome messages, purchase follow ups, and abandon cart emails were just a few examples of GameStop’s shortcomings in customer support and “next step” communications.

As the game progressed, Best Buy started to impose their will and showed their years of experience by recognizing their customers and making highly relevant content available. It showed up in product recommendations, opt’in communications, their customer service/preference portal and several other areas. The most impressive part was when Best Buy showed personalization was more than a “first name” at the beginning of a mass email. Best Buy recognized the consumer’s individual preferences whether it came from, or was served back, in their websites, through social media, or in their mobile apps. That level of personalization proved to be a major blow to GameStop which was surprising considering their publication, Game Informer, produces exceptional content their customers enjoy.

The Stand Out Performance

At the end of the game, when Best Buy needed it most, they got exceptional play from their Preference Center and their mobile app. The Preference Center dashboard for a consumer’s account was very user-friendly with built in recommendations, wish lists, and rewards program details. The Preference Center grabbed all the rebounds in the form of returning customers. Meanwhile, their app drove the offense providing prospects and customers with many helpful shopping tips along the journey, location relevant content like targeted weekly advertisements, and driving to other channels like in-store support schedules. It was a one-two punch GameStop couldn’t manage.

Conclusion

When it was all said and done, the size, depth and history amassed by the Best Buy franchise was just too much for GameStop’s smaller team, but you have to give credit to the underdog, as well. You can see how GameStop’s investments in their portfolio of brands (i.e., Spring Mobile, Simply Mac, Kongregate, Game Informer, etc.) could look like a never-ending flurry of talent coming at the competition in future tournaments. Similar to a West (“Press”) Virginia with it’s “next man up” mentality, if GameStop can get the channels to work together across these diverse businesses they would be unstoppable.

Meanwhile, Best Buy, makes you think of a program like UCLA. They continue to do well in their category of the Consumer Electronics space, but they want to get the recognition they used to receive. While many say their store format will be their undoing, you have to recognize their efforts as a successful Omni Channel Marketer will go a long way towards elongating their success.

Tune in here for Game Four: //nectarom.com/department-store-conference/

17 Mar
2016

The Road to Omni Channel: AT&T vs Verizon

Telecom giants, AT&T and Verizon, squared off in Game 2 of the 2016 NectarOM Road to Omni Channel Tournament and proved safe, steady defense wins games – especially when you’re playing your mirror image. It seems like an oxymoron to say a triple overtime game wasn’t exciting, but that was the case until AT&T ran a surprise play in the last seconds to win 73-71.

The Play-By-Play

Some would say this game was as boring as watching paint dry, but if you’re a fan of fundamentals and you don’t like the flashy style that seems to be taking over marketing then you probably loved it. These institution’s omnichannel marketing is steeped in legacy and you have to respect the way they’ve committed to playing their own style.

Right from the tip you could see both teams were going to let the game come to them since neither showed any offense focused on helping a new prospect through the buying process. The most personalization either team showed was regional promotional pricing. Verizon did get slightly better production from their desktop web and mobile web channels, but the difference from AT&T’s was marginal at best.

It was more like watching twins in a choreographed dance or a chess match than an omni channel shoot out. No one lead by more than three the entire game and the back-and-forth scoring made you think they traded playbooks and coaching strategies.

These companies are arguably the most digital brands in the world, but surprisingly, the most personalization and omni channel success showed up in their brick and mortar experience. In both cases, the store has evolved and their experimentation with use-based positioning was helpful for decision-making. Their staff were equally educated on the products, plans and promotions, but the clienteling apps at their fingertips filled in any gaps that may have existed. While it was a decent experience, neither party offered anything “breakthrough” like Apple did many years ago.

In the end, it appeared as though the game would have to end in a tie, but AT&T saved a player for overtime that Verizon didn’t have an answer for at all. Email put AT&T on it’s back and scored 18 unanswered points over the course of the three overtimes. With ten seconds left in the third overtime, AT&T scripted an “abandoned cart” play. Recognizing what people had placed in their online shopping carts and then following up with an email to remind them was the only example of responding to a prospect’s shopping journey needs. It was a fairly pedestrian play, but it was executed flawlessly and the resulting layup proved to be the game deciding shot.

Key Stats – A Tale of Two Games

When we look at how AT&T and Verizon did at applying omni channel marketing you had to ask the question, was it for prospects or customers? If it was the latter, both companies had an endless number of sites, apps, billing tools, support methods, etc. That said, the omni channel efforts didn’t really inspire as much as they facilitated account management or payments. This was illustrated clearly in the player statistics…

Cross Channel Experiences – Verizon was 3:1 better at starting an experience in one channel and moving them to another, but they also had more turnovers than AT&T with poorly managed transitions.
Operations – This is the foundation for all things omni channel for these two organizations – they start and end with their customers. In both cases they have the blessing and curse of being large and having extensive resources. As an example, both have evolved to create a very well done central account management apps (myAT&T, myVerizon). Simple to use, they cover a great deal of relationship scope and give you access to most account management needs. However, both organizations have at least 25 other apps in the app store. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if it’s a part of their mobile strategy, but most of the apps provide functionality represented in the central app (or seem like it should) and the Customer Service Representatives don’t support them or even know they exist in some cases.
Recognition – Relevant if you’re a customer, otherwise both companies invested minimally in it.
Consumer Journey – The journey for both companies was bifurcated between being a customer or not. For existing customers, they both had intermittent solutions for contract renewals, upgrades, etc.
Recommendations – In all channels this seemed to be based more on product promotion than on prospect or customer needs. In the stores the staff did a good job of understanding the buyers needs, but in digital channels it was ignored or it was an afterthought.

Conclusion

These companies are reminiscent of great legacy teams in the big dance, like Michigan, Indiana, Syracuse, etc., that are known for their distinctive style and the fact that they will always have great recruits with untold potential. The question is whether they can play as a unit. A five-star recruit focused more on making it to the pros than playing in a system can be detrimental to programs like these.

It’s clear no one would look forward to playing AT&T in the next round. It’s also clear that AT&T’s omni channel efforts serving prospects leave a big opening for that team to exploit.

Tune in here for Game Three: //nectarom.com/consumer-electronics-conference/