With the gradual move from offline to online retail accelerating due to the current crisis, the ways retailers attract and interact with customers has had to evolve, too. With a rapid, mostly unwanted shift away from the face-to-face contact that customers found so reassuring, there is now considerable pressure on retailers to find a solution to keep customers beyond that initial purchase. Here are some ways in which this can be achieved.
Increased brand awareness
With that in mind, a retailer might do well to consider their brand a priority, so that somebody making an online purchase does not search for the type of product they want (and get a host of results) but instead types in the name of the company, all but securing the purchase.
To do this, the retailer would benefit from a strong social media profile and presence, pointing to a website designed to make the customer’s experience as seamless as possible. This would ideally be backed with excellent customer support and after-sales care. These together will make the purchase a memorable, positive experience that can create a long-term relationship with the customer.
Creation of positive feedback
Relationships like these, are, for the short term at least, replacing some of the old face-to-face relationships that existed before—especially with those new or unsure about online shopping. Making what can be an intimidating experience for some as painless as possible can lead to repeat sales until the current crisis has passed, at least.
Even if your selling space is on one of the major ecommerce sites like Amazon, eBay, or Etsy, creating a good impression and attracting positive feedback not only helps towards more purchases from that customer, the feedback and reviews they leave will create a good impression for other potential buyers.
Virtual engagement
In the last 12 months, a major part of the overall customer experience takes place virtually, even in situations where it may not have before. Many businesses are attracting customers via virtual events such as an online trade show, which is a carbon copy of the “real” event, except it takes place online. This has had the practical upshot of attracting new customers who would not normally attend such events, due to being on the other side of the world.
This has had many positives for retailers, but has also created some extra headaches. Having a worldwide customer base can mean that not only does the business run online, it also has to have 24/7 customer service across all platforms.
Multichannel customer service
Customers have come to expect that a customer service issue sent via Twitter or Facebook should be dealt with as swiftly as one raised via an email or a phone call. Expectations regarding response times have also changed, and leaving a potential customer waiting for too long will involve them going somewhere else—and with a negative experience of your company.
For this reason, regularly updated and constantly monitored social media channels are a new tool to both attracting and interacting with the new range of customers that find your business online.
