top of page
Writer's pictureKatie Tame

Peruse to Purchase: How clienteling can secure sales, both online and in-store

Updated: Apr 23

Establishing a sense of familiarity and comfort with your clients, akin to their favorite local restaurant or café, can be instrumental in converting casual browsers into enthusiastic buyers. This personalization can be somewhat challenging to achieve as retail is becoming enveloped increasingly in a digital sphere, where direct eye contact and real-time assistance are often absent. Nevertheless, the demand for personalization, be it in store or online, continues to grow.


To address this evolving landscape, it is important to understand and conceptualize the meaning of personalization, explore effective implementation and client engagement strategies, and discuss methods to optimize these efforts. Modern businesses that have adopted omni-channel solutions are keen on offering a personalized touch by deploying approachable sales teams for in-store interactions and robust post-purchase client service. Yet, they often leave potential opportunities untapped when it comes to engaging with clients past the point of purchase, be it through social media, messaging, advertising, or web browsing.


Many clients grapple with uncertainties regarding the products they wish to purchase, leading to hesitation and shopping cart abandonment. Wanting clarification on size, or color, is often hard to get without directly talking to an associate. Retailers cannot exert control over user-generated reviews, leaving clients to sift through a plethora of opinions. This process is not only time-consuming but also frequently leaves clients perplexed rather than enlightened. 1 in 5 retail purchases happened online last year, and it is clear that promptly addressing client queries can make or break the online shopping experience. This underscores the importance of having sales teams readily available with the expertise to provide answers and guide clients towards making a purchase. So how do retailers adopt an effective consumer engagement strategy?


Creating Opportunities for the Client Engagement Team in the Retail Space

Creating Opportunities for the Client Engagement Team in the Retail Space

With clienteling, brands can capitalize on this pivotal opportunity by to introduce a communication channel to bridge this gap. Retailers no longer need to limit their conversations with clients to pre-purchase interactions or post-purchase client service disputes. Instead, they can engage with shoppers in real time, replicating the in-store experience. Clients can converse with knowledgeable sales associates who possess a deep understanding of the brand's products, surpassing the value of product reviews.


Key Steps to Enhance Conversion through Clienteling


Understand Your Clients: Retailers must proactively seek feedback and conduct research to identify the triggers that motivate their unique clients to make a purchase. These triggers could range from hassle-free returns to low-price guarantees or exceptional service.


Be Ready for Clients: Organize operational tasks, such as price changes and inventory management, during low-demand hours to minimize their impact on client service. Ensure you have sufficient staff to maintain excellent service without compromising client experience.


Provide Comprehensive Training: Your employees are the face of your brand. Train them not only to be friendly but also to provide solutions that meet client needs and desires.


Leveraging Clienteling for Upselling and Cross-Selling


Clienteling is an integral part of the client journey, offering real-time support to online shoppers during critical decision-making moments, from product consideration to checkout. Sales associates can cross-sell products in real time based on their deep product knowledge. They can suggest complementary items to enhance the client's purchase and attribute the sale to their contribution. Moreover, as these interactions accumulate, brands can develop more detailed client profiles for shoppers. When new products are introduced, sales associates can directly engage with these clients, offering personalized recommendations and enabling direct purchasing.


Tailoring Personalization for High-Intent Clients


Personalization involves using data and client insights to craft a unique shopping experience for each client. This may include displaying relevant products, making recommendations, and adapting content based on past behavior. Customization, on the other hand, refers to client-driven choices, such as filtering products by size, color, or price. Customization allows clients to make specific selections that tailor their experience, but does not typically harness a client engagement strategy.


How Personalization Enhances the Shopping Experience


To create a personalized shopping experience, collecting and analyzing data is crucial. By comprehending their clients and their preferences, sales teams can create individualized experiences that encourage browsing clients to become buyers. This involves understanding their needs, wants, and motivations, and highlighting why choosing your brand is the best option.


Personalized discounts or special offers that align with the client's preferences can be highly effective. Ensuring that clients feel valued and appreciated throughout their shopping journey is equally important. Building a positive relationship with clients fosters loyalty and encourages repeat business, and makes the experience memorable for the right reasons.


To initiate personalization, sales teams and retailers must follow three steps: data collection, data analysis, and implementation.


Harnessing the Power of Data

Harnessing the Power of Data

The initial step is to gather comprehensive data about your clients, encompassing demographics, location, device usage, site engagement, and product interests. Sales associates who record each interaction and create comprehensive client profiles will benefit from segmentation and gaining a better insight on their clients.


After data collection, rigorous analysis is essential to discern client needs and preferences accurately. This analysis informs the creation of a tailored shopping experience. Numerous tools, such as analytics software and client segmentation tools, aid in this process.


Recommendation-based personalization is an effective technique. By examining past purchases, browsing history, and social media interactions, sales associates can suggest similar or complementary products, simplifying the client's journey and boosting upselling and cross-selling.


The final step involves seamlessly integrating personalization into a retail business. This may encompass personalized homepages, product recommendations, client segmentation, or targeted discounts. Through personalization, businesses can elevate conversion rates and increase average order values.


Elevating the Shopping Experience

Elevating the Shopping Experience

When implementing personalization, businesses must adhere to a few key principles. Firstly, collecting client data is pivotal for understanding their preferences. Secondly, effective analysis of this data helps tailor the shopping experience. Thirdly, implementation of personalized features, like customized homepages and recommendations, is essential. Lastly, it's vital to review the personalization efforts to ensure they enhance rather than hinder the shopping experience. Strive for a balance that provides clients with what they want without overwhelming them with data-driven suggestions.


Tracking Encounters for In-Depth Insights


Brands adopting BSPK as part of their clienteling strategy gain a new solution for outreach, resulting in increased acquisition, conversion rates, and revenue. This is facilitated by enhanced client profiles and a wealth of interactions that can be analyzed to better comprehend client needs and shopping trends. Retail teams can craft personalized outreach strategies, providing real-time product guidance, resolving ambiguities, and improving recommendations. This cycle of informed engagement leads to higher sales, all of which can be tracked and analyzed.


It's evident that meeting client expectations today extends beyond the in-store and post-purchase experiences. As clients seek answers and reassurance in their shopping journeys, brands possess untapped potential to make a meaningful difference. While personal experiences were once limited to in-store settings, tools like BSPK bridge the gap between online shopping and personalized assistance whilst also providing in-person prospects, offering an opportunity to enhance client experiences and fortify relationships in the digital age.

11 views0 comments

コメント


bottom of page