With the growing sophistication of both shoppers and their mobile electronics devices, omnichannel retailing is all the rage, and rightly so.\u00a0 As more consumers naturally seek to take advantage of their growing number of options for shopping, it becomes ever more urgent for retailers to respond with a unified platform which is shopper friendly, regardless of which avenue the consumer chooses to approach transactions.<\/p>\n
Years ago, Circuit City shook up much of its consumer electronics retailing<\/em> competition by announcing that all future store-level prices would be reliably the same as offerings on its website.\u00a0 It was likely that some of CC\u2019s clientele were not aware of price differences between the corporate website and at least some of its brick and mortar entities.\u00a0 However, at the time it was not unusual to hear customers shouting questions about why the store price differed from the web offering.\u00a0 Individual Circuit City locations offered shoppers computers on the sales floor which were dedicated to the company\u2019s website.\u00a0 The news of Circuit City\u2019s platform pricing correction erupted, as waves of angry sales floor questions created dilemmas for competitors such as Best Buy.<\/p>\n The move for retailers to unite all selling platforms in terms of pricing, convenience and delivery has led to what has almost become a hunt for a holy grail.\u00a0 The fairly new title of Chief Omnichannel Officer is becoming almost common, stretching from divergent giants like Macys to Lowe\u2019s.<\/p>\n The recently dreaded term showrooming<\/em> is now pretty much coveted as an advantage brick and mortar stores enjoy over Internet and catalog selling.\u00a0 Consumers increasingly appreciate the ability to actually feel out an item or try it on for size and look.<\/p>\n Now web-based retailers are seeking tech-remedies to combat the clear advantages of competitive showrooming.\u00a0 This could include virtual reality style product try-ons.\u00a0 While this might call for costly sophisticated headsets, a la video gaming, even these can only simulate how one might<\/em> look in a particular garment.\u00a0 The emphasis here is on a big, somewhat uncertain, futuristic picture.<\/p>\n Before they accede to solutions involving technologies on the cusp of invention, retailers must not lose sight of retailing basics.\u00a0 These include having sufficient product available at the store level.\u00a0 Out of stocks look unsightly and are a sure indication of lost opportunities for revenue.\u00a0 Here a unified price structure comes into play as retailers gain and maintain customer confidence and loyalty.<\/p>\n Recently one of our discount big box giants erred on a couple very basic levels of selling through its formidable and rapidly growing website. \u00a0This, while it \u00a0invests vast sums exploring alternatives in the newest in retail concepts, such as testing a number of \u2018free\u2019 and same day delivery schemes, to one-up its staunch competition.<\/p>\n This retailer\u2019s first recent error appeared when customers clicked on an emailed ad for specific health supplements.\u00a0 The click sped prospective customers through the carefully expanded corporate website to the page dedicated to the aforementioned supplement.\u00a0 Here, it quickly became apparent that a key selling element was missing.\u00a0 Nowhere to be seen was an actual product label nor were there indications to compensate for said label data.<\/p>\n There was a listing of supporting ingredients which focused on preservatives and binders.\u00a0 Many were listed by chemical names.\u00a0 Under the term specifications was a simple breakout by Model number, shipping weight, product dimensions, and categories titled: Assembled in Country of Origin<\/em> and Origin of Components<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0For each of these two last categories, the retailer ad filled in the term: USA or Imported<\/em>.\u00a0 This pretty much tells prospective customers nothing.<\/p>\n Seeking out other supplements on this website revealed more inconsistencies than not.\u00a0 Some supplements offerings did post a label, other showed a virtual label.\u00a0 A number of others, like the one posted through the email, were similarly data-barren.<\/p>\n Checking websites of pharmacy chains and mail order firms, one can\u2019t help but be struck by the consistent display of actual labels or exact labeling data alongside product offerings or availabilities as a click-thru.\u00a0 This is the essential way for customers to ascertain product potency and composition in the case of the many multi-ingredient offerings.<\/p>\n This labeling information is essential for both efficacy and price comparisons, both between brands and across the retail spectrum.\u00a0 Often supplements, even basic daily multivitamins, boast of how many tablets or capsules are in a package.\u00a0 More important is the number listed to make a stated serving.\u00a0 In some cases three capsules of one brand equals one of another brand.\u00a0 This obviously greatly affects the value of pricing.<\/p>\n Later that same day, the same retailing giant sent out an email, which upon opening was headlined Recommendations for you.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The products being offered were mostly an eclectic group of pants, for<\/em> women, the only other offerings on this promotion were women\u2019s sweats and a women\u2019s winter parka.\u00a0 This offering is at the very least confusing, if not off-putting, to the male recipient to whom it was sent.<\/p>\n To let customers know this was no one-time error, incredibly, several days later a follow up email was received with the subject of\u2026 You didn’t see this Arthur. Please enjoy<\/em>…\u00a0 Opening this email once again the bold headline was\u2026 <\/strong>Recommendations for you.<\/em><\/strong> \u00a0Again the recommendations were for eight varieties of women\u2019s casual clothing.\u00a0 The lead offering was for women\u2019s elastic waist pants.\u00a0 Clearly this supposedly personal recommendation greatly missed the mark.<\/p>\n While well-funded retailers compete for business through rapidly growing technologies and ever-edgier services, all retailers cannot afford to take their eye off the road for a moment.\u00a0 Promotional emails must be addressed to at least willing recipients, to create future business opportunities.\u00a0 Websites must be reviewed and revised.\u00a0 Not only to reflect competitive prices and enticing offers, but first to offer any information essential to an intelligent purchase through a platform of customer friendly uniformity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the growing sophistication of both shoppers and their mobile electronics devices, omnichannel retailing is all the rage, and rightly so.\u00a0 As more consumers naturally seek to take advantage of their growing number of options for shopping, it becomes ever more urgent for retailers to respond with a unified platform which is shopper friendly, regardless… Continue reading Beware Omnichannel Basics Flaws<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"post-template-no-sidebar.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-4814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discount-specialty","tag-insight","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}