Research shows that 73% of shoppers who buy from a retailer both online and in-store spend 15% more per purchase. As technology continues to advance, the lines that once separated what we do online and what we do offline continue to blur. The result: consumers fully expect the brands they shop from to understand what they’re looking for and what they’re interested in, regardless of whether they’re shopping in a physical store, browsing products on their smartphone, or interacting with the brand via email or social media.
The world of omnichannel personalization offers endless opportunities to improve the shopping experience and increase conversion rate, retention, loyalty and more.
In this article, we’ll explore:
There’s no denying that the modern day customer journey is like a gigantic puzzle – with shoppers interacting with your brand via multiple touchpoints and channels. But as with any puzzle, it won’t assemble itself.
The first thing to take note of is that the modern day customer journey is an equation where:
The key to solving this equation is unifying, harnessing and interpreting all the relevant data. How you do that is by identifying and predicting the next steps of your customer, not by trying to map out the countless touchpoints and possible journeys.
Implementing the ideal tech stack for your unique business goals is key because you will need to be able to identify your customer across all retail touchpoints, plus be able to collect not only the transactional but also the behavioral signals they are sending. Only then can you truly be connecting the dots to deliver exceptional customer experiences and increase conversion rate for your Magento-powered store.
When fostering forever customers, retargeting is a puzzle piece that should never go ignored – but targeting shoppers with the wrong kind of content can be the difference between keeping those shoppers happy and losing them to your competition.
In fact, when shopping online, 74% of shoppers hate being shown content that is irrelevant to their needs and interests. And many of them are browsing your online store after they’ve visited your physical store, so a retargeting strategy that is both relevant and personalized is essential at this stage in their journey.
What does this look like in practice?
To illustrate the importance of relevant retargeting, let’s follow one shopper’s hypothetical journey. Carole, a shopper from Sweden, is looking to buy a new pair of jeans. She’s expressed a clear interest for this product by viewing them multiple times in a Magento-powered online store. She then visits the physical store and buys said pair of jeans.
The challenge: In most cases, these two channels are not tied together because her purchase in the physical store is not tied to her online experience, Carole is bombarded with ads on social media promoting the same pair of jeans she’s already purchased. This results in a frustrating experience for Carole, poor customer service from the retailer and an ineffective use of their retargeting budget.
The solution: Unify data from multiple touchpoints in order to retarget shoppers with content that is more relevant to them – which will allow you to make better use of your marketing resources and budget in the process. By unifying the data from Carole’s online and offline experiences, the retailer can instead show Carole products that are complementary to her last purchase (i.e. a matching belt).
Another example of irrelevant retargeting is when a consumer books a hotel stay online.
A poor customer retargeting strategy would involve the hotel company sending the guest a follow-up email promoting other hotels they can book. This is, of course, irrelevant to the guest at this point in their journey as they’ve only just completed a booking.
A more effective retargeting strategy would involve the hotel company sending a follow-up email to the guest suggesting sights they can check out near the hotel.
It can be a challenge to collect valuable customer data when a shopper makes a purchase offline – but not impossible.
Let’s refer back to our last example of Carole from Sweden. In this scenario, she’s viewed that pair of jeans online and is now at the physical store, ready to purchase them.
The challenge: How can the store clerk obtain her contact information if she’s making a purchase in-store?
The solutions: To add value to Carole’s experience and collect the data you need to better segment and approach her with future marketing communication, there are a few simple strategies you can deploy without breaking the bank.
To show you a real-life example of this strategy, U.S-based men’s clothing brand Bonobos was once an online-only retailer who expanded their presence to bricks and mortar scene. Their showroom-style approach to selling their products offline – which actually involves disabling the ability to purchase in-store but, instead, try on items and order them online with a store clerk – makes them a prime example of strategic customer retargeting.
Bonobos’ “Guideshop” offers shoppers in-store appointments to try on items. The shopper can then place their order while in the store and then have the purchase sent to their home. By enabling the shopper to place the order online, the store clerk can then collect valuable customer data that then enables Bonobos to segment and retarget their shoppers in future marketing communication.
Increasing conversion rate in your Magento store through omnichannel experiences also involves adding some flair and uniqueness to your strategy to keep your brand top of mind with shoppers. In fact, just two years ago, 94% of consumers claimed they would likely recommend a brand they were emotionally engaged with.
To better visualize the journey, let’s visit our friend Carole once more. In this example, she’s browsed online for a pair of jeans and is now going to the physical store to purchase them.
The challenge: How can the retailer further engage Carole in a way that is both unique and relevant to her experience?
The solution: Adding a unique flair to your brand marketing (like a freebie you can mail to your customers as a ‘thank you’ for their business) can be considered a risk for many retailers as it can be challenging to measure. In addition, it can be more costly and time consuming than anything – but if you’re actioning the data you’ve worked so hard to gather, you’re then able to fuse creativity and relevance into one solid strategy that reaps results.
To illustrate this solution, let’s refer back to Carole. After she purchases the pair of jeans in-store, she then receives a package in the mail from the retailer with a free pack of denim detergent and a ‘thank you’ note for her purchase.
One week after that, she receives an email from the retailer asking for a review.
Not only is this free goodie relevant to Carole’s recent purchase, but it adds a creative and personal touch to her experience with the retailer – and keeps them top of mind whenever she’s ready to shop with them again.
Meanwhile, in the real world, shoe brand Timberland fuses the digital and physical shopping experience by incorporating “TapWalls” in their bricks and mortar stores which display online-only inventory. This allows the shopper to:
Before diving into these omnichannel personalization steps in your Magento-powered store, address these 4 fundamental questions:
Rather than mapping out these countless touchpoints and journeys, focus on identifying and predicting your customers’ next steps. Not doing so can mean the difference between consistently identifying your customers and completely missing out on the opportunity to deliver a personalized omnichannel shopping experience that transforms your Magento conversion rate.
An omnichannel experience is only one of the many ways you can create an engaging, highly-personalized shopping experience that increases Magento conversion rate.
To help brands continue to diagnose and differentiate their shopping experience, we’ve teamed up with Adobe and select Premier Partners to reveal exclusive advice and insights. These include:
Download the eGuide today to get started!
This article originally appeared in the Nosto blog and has been published here with permission.
