Delivering Frictionless, Personalised Shopping Experiences in the "Bring-it-to-me" Economy
Thanks to new technology, the wall between online and offline shopping is shattering. Since the pandemic, customers have grown increasingly familiar with digital methods of search, recommendation, and buying. With access to physical stores often limited and sometimes cut off completely – and in line with existing protocols on health and safety – consumers have also come to expect the option of contact-free methods for picking up goods, and fast delivery.
How can you deliver that frictionless, convenient, personalised shopping experience in this “bring-it-to-me” economy?
A Keynote Panel at the eTail Asia Summit considered this issue, under the moderation of Lui Tong, Director, Director To Consumer, Swire Coca-Cola HK. Speakers on the panel included Ben Hassing, Chief Executive Officer eCommerce, Coles, Kunal Sethi, GM, eCommerce & Performance Marketing, Clarks, Rohit Kunal, VP, End to End Design, SCM Planning & International Operations, Coupang, and Olga Kotsur, Co-Founder & CEO, Mercaux.
Challenges to Meeting Customer Expectations
Availability of product and automation have been key challenges facing Coles. The supermarket chain’s typical customers are bulk commodity buyers, who are willing to pay a premium for next day delivery within a certain window, or time frame. With all stores geared up for eCommerce pickup but only a handful (140 out of a total of 900) doing eCommerce for delivery, assuring sufficient inventory for delivery has been problematic. Supply chain disruptions have made it difficult to guarantee the inventory required to meet demand. A lack of automation means that all of the product picking is done by associates in-store.
To meet these challenges, the organisation has had to reinform its demand generation and replenishment systems. Turning to third party support from the gig economy to supplement Coles’ proprietary fleet of delivery trucks has enabled the company to step up capacity to meet the increased work load on deliveries. Bringing “Perfect Order Rate” to the top tier of its success metrics is enabling the organisation to better assess its own performance.
Q&A What are some discoveries to mobilize said customer data to drive conversions and customer experience?
Olga Kotsur, Co-Founder & CEO, Mercaux:
One of the most effective ways to harness data to improve the customer experience is through personalisation. By leveraging customer data, you can enhance the shopping experience (and ultimately drive conversion) by delivering a data-driven, bespoke service. Mercaux’s Clienteling solution, for example, gives in-store and online retail teams access to a 360-degree view of their customers’ previous engagements with your brand, along with their product wish lists and abandoned baskets.
These insights can then be leveraged to provide an impressively personalised experience that both drives conversion and improves brand loyalty, both online and offline.
In relation to this, one of the most exciting developments we’ve seen this year has been the rise of remote clienteling across the retail scene, giving customers 1-2-1 access to the specialist product knowledge and styling advice of store associates via digital channels such as SMS, WhatsApp and video call.
Meeting Customer Demands Despite Restrictions
Even with movement still partially restricted in many areas, customers still have a desire and need for commodities like shoes. At Clarks, one of the key issues has been how to maintain a consistency of assortments on offer through online channels and offline, and how to make the buying experience seamless across both.
To address this dilemma, the organisation is trying to build a unified omni-channel experience, through the amalgamation of centralised customer data and loyalty programmes. This is helping Clarks to build a seamless and fluid experience which allows them to identify and integrate the right data across all channel points.
"Retail mobile apps are providing value and convenience by enabling shoppers to browse, purchase, and schedule delivery from the comfort and safety of their own homes."
For smaller scale enterprises, local eCommerce systems are emerging to meet these challenges. This trend sees small businesses shifting to online platforms or marketplaces where consumers can find and compare products, then check out from a single venue. The gig economy and delivery on demand services like Uber and Lyft are providing same day fulfilment options.
At the consumer end, retail mobile apps are providing value and convenience by enabling shoppers to browse, purchase, and schedule delivery from the comfort and safety of their own homes. These apps can also provide a platform for retailers to establish and nurture deeper relationships with customers, through exclusive discounts, personalised offers, and access to new features or content.
Implementing Measures to Cope with Disruptions
In Korea, Coupang has three strands to its eCommerce format: the supermarket, eCommerce, and convenience. Both eCommerce and convenience have been scaling up rapidly, since the pandemic. The service aspect of the business was particularly challenged over the past 18 months, with issues arising over capacity, availability, and control over the inventory.
57% of the company’s deliveries are in the “same day plus seven hours” category, and 99.5% are “same day plus one hour.” During the pandemic, Coupang was able to expand its modular capacities, as the number of selections required by customers went down. This enabled the organisation to refurbish its processes to bump up capacity by around 35%. The company also went into deep integration with its suppliers, increasing the speed and transparency of communications both upstream and downstream.
Optimising the Experience
Previously, the market has considered models like online order from store, ship from store, and the ability to place an online order while the customer is in-store, as avenues for merging the online and offline experiences.
With the pandemic having forced the closure of many stores, retailers have now recognised that they must implement ship from store, if they are to be able to deliver. They have also realised the difficulty of reaching out to offline customers. This highlighted the need for retailers to maintain some kind of remote selling capability, to somehow utilise their offline inventory.
Mercaux has been facilitating this remote selling for its clients, through the deployment of apps to store associates that allow them to connect with consumers now, and continue to do so when the stores reopen.
This makes it easy for customers to start their journey offline, continue the conversation with the brand remotely, and complete it online -- or vice versa. The apps help users do product discovery, make cross sales suggestions, check stock availability, place online orders, and do in-store personalisation.
This technology is enabling organisations on the one hand to move customers seamlessly from online to offline. It also enables retailers to use their offline store associates to build relationships with consumers, while the customers are not in-store. This interaction between associates and consumers brings back the human element lacking in the purely online experience. Retailers are also realising that remote selling now constitutes an additional weapon in their omni-channel arsenal, which allows them to digitise activities in the store.