Top 10 Tips to Create In-Store Customer Experiences That’s Shoppers Love

In a highly competitive world of retail, brands are constantly looking for the ways of improving their marketing strategies in order to attract new customers and keep them coming back for more. Looking at the Retail Industry Trends and Predictions for 2019, a lot of strategies are based on leveraging some of the latest technologies which collect quality data and analyse it to help businesses build strong relationships with their customers.

Consumers nowadays have access to retail through mobile, desktop, apps, as well as brick and mortar stores, which gives them plenty of choice of how and where they want to spend their money. Being a profitable business is your ultimate goal, but to plan for a long-term strategy, you cannot forget about a compelling shopping experience.

How do you improve customer experience in a store? There are many factors that influence how shoppers feel about your brand. If you are aiming to join the list of stores with the best customer experience, then read along and follow these top 10 tips that will help you impress your shoppers.

Customer Experience in Retail

Many global brands upped their game to avoid not enjoyable customer experiences in store. Throughout any sales season, brick and mortar stores often have limited number of fitting rooms, lack of qualified staff and a difficulty in finding what we’re looking for which results in very poor customer service.

What is in-store experience?

In- store experiences are a great opportunity for retailers to drive brand awareness, express their core values and show who they really are. Customers are more likely to come back to the stores that kept them engaged throughout their shopping experience and consider making a bigger purchase.

In fact, 87 percent of today’s buyers believe that brands need to provide a more consistent experience and 86 percent said they would pay more for better service. The truth is that demanding customers shape the future of shopping and retailers have to work on strategies to accommodate the best and most profitable practices.

It is your chance to build trust and engagement through customer service, interactive displays and better store management overall. No matter what you’re selling and who your customers are, with Quality & Value as a key focus, you can come up with the strategy that drives the best possible engagement. So, what makes a good retail experience?

Top 10 Tips for An Immersive Retail Experience

Now that we’ve covered some basics about an in-store experience, we can move onto a few steps that you should follow, if you want to stay relevant in a retail industry. Here are the top tips that will help you create truly memorable experience and maximise your sales.

Salesperson= Friend + Industry Expert

With face to face customer service, employees should not only be associated with a word “salespeople”, but perform as industry experts who are familiar with current trends and market shifts, and use their knowledge to advice customers and help them with making a final decision.

Customer Service

Apart from a friendly advice and industry knowledge, it is important to make sure your shoppers leave the store satisfied. Don’t let them look for help, make sure that help comes to them. Approach them when they look confused and see whether they found what they were looking for.

Bring your eCommerce to the Store

Consider allowing your customers to browse your eCommerce website in a brick and mortar store, which can enhance the whole experience even more. This will give shoppers an opportunity to explore your products even further and order products in a size they couldn’t find in-store, right at that moment.

Organise Events

Inviting influencers, industry-relevant experts and organising workshops are all brilliant ideas that will engage your shoppers and bring new customers into your store. Some may even say “retailtainment”, providing unique experiences that are not something people will see every day.

Pop Ups

Imagine that your fashion store is a whole new world with access to hairdressers, nail artists and coffee shops. Enhancing shopping experience with additional goods that may improve the experience overall is something that will grab everyone’s attention and make it even more exciting.

Use Technology

VR headsets, tablets and interactive displays can totally revitalise shopping experience. A few retailers have already invested in tablets placed in fitting rooms that are able to influence customers’ purchase decisions, replacing human advisors that give advice on sizing and colours.

Create Social Media Opportunities

Experimenting with displays and colourful set ups will attract those who look for experiences they are able to share on social, and the truth is customers nowadays are craving it

Connect your eCommerce with a Physical Store

Your customers want that seamless experience across channels, whether they go to a brick and mortar store or shop online. The same brand feeling, and customer experience should follow throughout your online and offline presence.

Improve Checkout Experience

Queues and long lines can make a checkout experience a real nightmare for your customers and they will be more likely to abandon their purchases. Make sure you there are always enough cashiers that can serve shoppers and consider integrating in-app checkout to speed things up.

Click-and-Collect

As we mentioned that eCommerce and your physical store should work together, we cannot not forget about in-store pick up of online orders. This can not only drive more traffic to your physical store, but also increase sales. In fact, more than 60% of shoppers who have chosen in-store pick up have ended up buying additional items.

Stores with Best Customer Experience

It would be a shame to miss on some great examples of good customer service in retail. Let’s see how big brands can entertain their audience.

Topshop

Have you ever visited their store on Oxford Street? You can find pop up shops of different brands that Topshop collaborates with, café and a cupcake shop, hairdressers and many more. Apart from buying, you can also use many different services that make the whole experience much more exciting.

Lush

Their store experience is just LUSH. The brand is well known for a superb interaction with customers, demonstrating the products and giving more than just advice. Hiring the best of the best members of staff who go through broad training, they have plenty of knowledge that delivers astonishing service.

Tiffany and Co.

In 2018 the company has opened a brand-new store in Covent Garden, that engages with customers on entirely new level. Including vending machines with perfumes, some extra features like personalised jewellery and “Instagrammable” set up, the brand created interior for those social-savvy visitors.

Takeaway

Just like user friendly eCommerce and engaging content, you can take your in-store experiences to the next level. Following this guide will definitely help you establish a successful strategy, creating seamless experiences across each and every sales channel and create something that your customer will never forget. Juts to recap, this is are the top 10 tips:

1. Salesperson= Friend + Industry Expert
2. Customer Service
3. Bring Your eCommerce to The Store
4. Organise Events
5. Pop Ups
6. Use Technology
7. Create Social Media Opportunities
8. Connect Your eCommerce with a Physical Store
9. Improve Checkout Experience
10. Click-and-Collect

Good Luck!

If you’re in the retail business need our help to create in-Store customer experiences, get in touch with a creative agency to talk about your project!