IS YOUR STORE ON FACEBOOK?

Know what is in news more than the swine flu? The success stories of Twitter and Facebook and engines that drive social media marketing. A few years back when I started out on Orkut and Facebook, it was an irresistible forum to connect with old friends. Today the virtual community is a demographic profile by itself.  Want to buy a new product? Travel to a new place? Understand how to operate a new piece of equipment? The blogs have it all.

For the uninitiated, the social web is a combination of social networks, photo and video sharing, blogs, micro blogs, social tagging and bookmarking, thus bringing the customer voice to the fore  in a big way. These tools once thought of as a pastime for teenagers, has today taken the online branding world by storm.

The social web, the interactive arm of the internet is growing by leaps and bounds. In this highly internet – centric age retail companies are hot in pursuit. Starbucks that had not advertised for a long time has come out no hold barred on the cyberspace. The site My Starbucks Idea launched in March 2008 is a great social media idea that aims to initiate a buzz across the web. The idea being to get everyone to talk about the new ideas customers suggest applying in Starbucks.

Target made its first foray via Facebook for the back-to-school season. Zappos.com an online retailer specializing in footwear have an impressive social media campaign. Zappos has over 400 employees using Twitter. They are very focused on customer service, engaging people on the web and building relationships. When you buy from Zappos you can Tweet what you bought and post it to Facebook. But the rules of this game are different. As the landscape of the collective is changing many retailers are hesitant to dip their toes in the social media marketing waters. But look at the statistics: as on April 2009, (source: Navigating the Social Media Landscape, Colman Brohan Davis)

1. 133 million blogs tracked by Technorati since 2002 (with 7.4 million blogs
2. posted in the last 120 days)
3. 200 million active users on Facebook
4. 100.9 million viewers watched 6.3 billion videos on YouTube in January 2009 alone
5. 6 million Twitter users as of April 2009 (with a projected 12.1 million by year-end)
6. 34 million registered LinkedIn users to date (with a growth rate of 1 million every 17 days)

Even if you do not want to embrace the current times, the voice of the public will be talking about you. A simple search on any store or product will give you more user generated data than the company websites. With such a huge customer base the question today is can retailers afford not to be part of this mammoth interactive medium? Can they afford the loss?

Place a chair, show you care!

How many times have you gone shopping and longed for a chair to rest, to catch your breath? How many times have you been forced to abandon the shopping spree ‘coz your husband got bored of standing? Or how many times you did not check out that lingerie aisle because it was filled with waiting men? Sounds familiar?

While retailers try everything to attract customers to their stores, their efforts would be a success only if the customers stay long enough to buy and are comfortable to be able to come back. Most shopping be it grocery or apparel is done by women. By the word woman understand it means strollers, children and husbands irritated in the sheer waste of time shopping rather than watch the latest match on TV. If you don’t give them a space to sit, your precious customers- the woman will be forced to make a hasty dash to grab what she came for and the rest of the sales that generally happens if allow her to look through will be permanently stored in your inventory.

Now try and place that all important chair towards the end of the woman’s clothing aisle, just before the Men’s range begins and trying placing the socks and ties near the seating range. Whoa! Be ready to order more merchandise to stock up your ties and socks inventory.

The chair in a store – a structure so totally unrecognized can make such a difference to your sales. Imagine a spa; men and woman alike come to relax and unwind under the trained hands of the beautician. Placing chairs in a common room with noisy television would spoil the whole purpose of having a spa. Here you need individual seating or reclining units with complete privacy. The same when in a fast food joint the more-the-merrier culture would want clustered seating.

In a bookstore we often would want to read the preface and chapters before a purchase. A few carefully placed chairs would be a huge welcome rather than reading while juggling with the other books and standing in narrow aisles constantly brushing with other customers.

Of course while talking of seating the most important factor is where the chairs are placed. Many a times wrongly placed seating can prove very detrimental to your sales. Imagine a group of waiting men in the apparel store sitting near the lingerie section. Need it be said women will be reluctant to buy from that section in your store? In fact chairs placed near the business section in a bookstore may foster sales as it gives a sense of pride to be seen buying the jargons of today’s business world, but be careful while placing chairs near the books for common ailments or sexual books… these are sensitive areas and most people would want to shop in private.

So retailers place that chair!

Shoppertainment – A new era in retail

Plaza Centers of the Elbit Imaging group, announced its plans to start leasing simultaneously ten European style ‘shoppertainment’ concepts in six cities across the country – Sify.

Shoppertainment?

Shoppertainment – Getting people to spend more time shopping by adding entertainment to malls is an idea that’s becoming more and more common and if the competition from e-tailing is to be thwarted, imperative.

Gone are the days when a weekly grocery shopping meant a quick dash to the supermarket with bags full of value for money groceries. Today retail is integrated with entertainment and the meaning of weekend shopping is given a whole new dimension. Now you step into a huge mall, have fun at the bowling alley or take your kids to the play area or get yourself pampered to a spa, then have lunch in one the numerous restaurants, take a leisurely stroll around the 100s of retail outlets and probably go back home after catching the latest comedy in the evening show.

‘With the continuing trend towards retail concentration and the emergence of the marketing savvy consumer, there has never been so much competition for the retail dollar. This, in turn, has generated significant change and development in the field of grocery retailing,’ explains Piyush Mathur, Managing Director, ACNielsen, MENAP region.

Let me tell you, what we see happening with shoppertainment is really exciting. There are many causes and effects to this retail revolution.

To understand the causes,

• The disposable incomes of families have increased. Most middle income families now seek more wholesome entertainment. This economic trend called the experience economy demand quality entertainment.
• While the disposable income has increased, the disposable time for family has decreased. Hence the concept of retailing along with family entertainment is fast becoming the way of life.
• Shoppertainment offers out of home leisure to all ages throughout the year. Unlike natural surroundings, malls are not affected by seasonal and whether changes.

Like everything man has made, here too are side effects.

• Today’s teens and youth are so engrossed in malls that other forms of out-of-home entertainment like museums, zoos, parks, wildlife have ceased to be in their ‘fun’ radar.
• While many malls are able to create footfall frenzy, the conversion to sales and thus profits to the retail stores is still a question.
• Maintaining a shoppertainment mall is very expensive and charging an entry fee robs the spirit of freedom from the customers.

Still shoppertainment is attracting more customers. Let us consider some examples to this phenomenon.

1. Just for Feet, an athletic shoe retailer, has indoor basketball courts, walls of video screens, laser light shows,restaurants and athletic event viewing in their stores.
2. Once complete, the 12.1 million ft² Dubai Mall – the newest project from Emaar Malls Group LLC – will be one of the world’s largest shopping and retail destinations. Some of the most innovative components within the facility are: Fashion Avenue, where a fully retractable LED catwalk, 1,200 retail outlets, two anchor department stores and over 120 food and beverage outlets, an aquarium featuring 33,000 aquatic animals, representing over 85 different marine species, apart from the world’s largest indoor gold souk and the ice rink, 22 screen Cineplex.
3. Oberon MALL is a unique lifestyle ‘shoppertainment’ centre, being fully conceptualised, developed and promoted by the Oberon Group of Companies, India. With glittering exterior facades and signages, an auto walk system on the ground floor, ATM’s at entry points, barrier free access to all levels, a whole floor dedicated to recreation, food and entertainment for the entire family, Oberon MALL offers a cornucopia of enticement and excitement.
4. The new Nike Toronto, features images and stories of Canadian sports heroes throughout its 23,000-sq-ft store featuring apparel, footwear and accessories in 12 sports pavilions, including running, golf, basketball, all-conditions gear and hockey. Music, sound effects and interactive displays can be found in each pavilion.

Phew!

Ubiquitous Customization is Commoditization

The Retail industry revolves around the Consumer. More than other places, in retail the customer is the King, the Queen, the reigning monarch around which all business process works.  Customers today have increasingly become more demanding and knowledgeable and satisfying them has become the greatest career and hobby for all members of the board.

Retail Organizations struggle to create a differentiation to brand their Store. The retailer’s inability to create a differentiation from its competitors is the biggest and longest standing issue in retailing. But the obstacles are many. Retail is a low entry barrier highly replicable industry. But the sands of time has shown the tremendous growth of the retailers – from the Cretans who first started trade in barter form to the Shoppertainment malls of today, retailers have stretched to please their consumers.

The initial differentiations were in slashing down prices. When discount stores started becoming common, price promotions started. This copied to many stores offering year round discounts. Slowly the shift turned towards creating great experiences. The malls developed with cafes and rest and recreation areas. Slowly this assumed gigantic proportions in the name of the likes of Cabelas, Dubai Mall, and Mall of Emirates etc.  Today most malls look the same have the same luxury retailers, offer the same 7-8 popular movies and the same eat out branches. So how is one different from another?

The wheels are turning again. This time round it’s for the web2.0 consumers. The Gen Y group that’s totally insensitive to the mass marketing initiatives and wants every product customized and every service personalized. We have seen the customization of e greeting cards, your photo on your T-shirt, personalized jewellery, stationery etc. but they all do get copied by competitors. There are some retailers who have done very innovative customization. Nike has a concept called NikeID where the consumer gets to design the kind of shoes he wants. But can this be impossible to replicate?

Then where is the differentiation? If every retailer is ready to sell you exactly customized products and personalized services, there is no differentiation.

In the eyes of Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, in the world of increasingly commodity-like products and services, a relationship founded on trust is the only genuinely sustainable competitive advantage.

So there Retailers! Are you listening?

Man – The Virus!

The Universal bulletin board.

Beware of a certain species of living being on planet earth.

Caution! Highly infectious. Causes slow damage to the world while talking about saving it.

A very cold blooded animal that kills for pleasure and blames it on the species malfunctioning mind. High survival instincts. Can amputate its own limb for survival and feel proud about it.

Claims of a sixth sense but is often seen using it only in destruction. Defined as a social animal practices greed, jealousy, envy, perverseness and hypocrisy in a crowd.

The only species that takes and gives nothing back to the ecosystem.

Special mention – Stay away from the smiling variety. They are lethal.

All flora and fauna are requested to stay away from this deadly species. No vaccines or antibiotics have yet been invented against them.

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