Disrupting the Consumer Experience
For decades, shopping was all about "bigger is better" with superstores, big box retailers, and even bigger malls. But shopper expectations have changed as new technologies have emerged. Reminiscent of the corner-store retail experiences of the early 1900s — butcher shops, bakeries, porch milk boxes — consumers today are seeking more engaging, personalized, and convenient experiences.
To meet expectations by utilizing new technologies, retailers and brands must understand shoppers' needs and the outcomes they’re looking to achieve.
For example, most grocery store trips result in a means to a meal but not the meal itself. After shopping, there is still a significant amount of preparation, cooking, serving, cleaning and storage needed to complete the meal. Because of this cumbersome and time-intensive process, consumers often abandon making meals in favor of eating out. Then, nearly half of them regret it.
Ordering groceries online is certainly an advancement that helps consumers save time, but it’s just the start of a revolution for retailers and brands to leverage technology that can create positive disruption in the consumer experience.
Engaging the consumer through technology allows retailers and brands to scale 1:1 conversations to personalize experiences. These digital conversations lead to the creation of data, so that algorithms can curate the right content in real time and manage an ongoing series of personalized communications.
When a consumer tells a chatbot she's unhappy with a purchased product, the chatbot facilitates a return. A few days later, the consumer receives a follow-up communication not just blindly asking about the service, but recognizing her specific situation with a genuine apology and a "make it right." From there, subsequent messages may celebrate the consumer's milestones, like the anniversary of her being a customer or her first chance to use a new relevant service like delivery.
Experiences enabled with technology go beyond 1:1 communication. It’s about using digitized touchpoints to create an ecosystem that impacts the consumer experience in three key ways.
First, the data collected should influence the types of products and services delivered to the consumer. With more scaled visibility into consumer and shopper actions and feelings, algorithms and science enable retailers and brands to move more quickly toward capabilities that are meaningful as well as personalized. It’s only a matter of time before print circulars give way to personalized digital circulars that show alternative sales items in real time, based on the consumer's feedback.
Second, truly exploiting technology to deliver convenient experiences requires converging physical and digital capabilities so they are in sync. For example, what if there were nutritionists at your local supermarket to help make food selections for your particular health and wellness goals — while having a clear picture of your grocery purchases last month? Or what if you could simply touch a button in the store and have an item delivered to any location at any time?
Third, the store itself should be digitized to improve operations to better serve customers. Using models and sensors, retailers can enrich physical store experiences, such as monitoring the freshness life cycle of produce to ensure it's being sold at the most optimal time for consumption. Models and algorithms can directly impact inventory by changing the way products are supplied based on current demand, as well as anticipated demand due to weather or even a community event. Or, digitized store touchpoints may show there are no available parking spaces and offer free grocery delivery, making the experience better for all shoppers.
Technology and the Internet of Things are allowing us to exploit personalized convenience. It’s up to retailers and brands to leverage these advancements to create services and experiences that are easier, more engaging, and anticipate and meet consumer needs. To help shoppers achieve their desired outcomes, it’s imperative that these experiences meet their underlying core needs.
At the core, consumers have functional and emotional needs. Functional needs, like saving time and money, can be controlled by the consumer and tend to be top of mind. Meeting these needs are table stakes for getting a consumer to walk through a retailer’s door. As tactics like price, promotion and fulfillment become more transparent via technology, ensuring that consumers are truly in control of getting what they want, when they want it, is increasingly important.
Meanwhile, emotive needs support feelings of care, connection and inspiration. They deliver the "delights" consumers yearn for and often cannot fully articulate. Leveraging technology to help them discover and receive these timely surprises is what will separate the winners and losers.Ultimately, consumers are in control and will be the driving force in how the retail landscape will shift. To survive, it’s up to retailers and brands to listen to them and create the right, personalized experiences that will reach them in meaningful ways. To do that well means designing experiences that generate data, converge across channels and create a dialogue with consumers to meet their ever-changing expectations.
About the Author:
As senior vice president, customer strategy & activation, Megan Moglia is responsible for 84.51°’s strategy to know the consumer better. She is focused on creating a 360-degree view of the consumer in order to design new experiences and create operational efficiencies. She was a 2017 winner of Progressive Grocer’s Top Women in Grocery Award.