Making e-retailing more real
Three technologies have the potential to make online shopping more like real-world shopping:
As online retailing becomes more mainstream, consumers will expect
their online experience to be similar to their offline experience. Is the item
a shopper wants in stock? In the store, she looks on the shelf or asks a sales
associate. On the web, she relies on the retailer’s technology to alert her
if the item is out of stock.
Perhaps the shopper wants a CD player but
isn’t quit sure of the features he wants. In the store, smart product display—or
knowledgeable sales associates—makes it easy for the shopper to compare CD players
and determine price differences and features. On the web, technology is available
that pops up different products that allow the retailer to up-sell or cross-sell
the customer.
Does she need questions answered? In the
store, a sales clerk can answer her question and suggest alternatives to save
the sale if the store doesn’t have what she’s seeking. Online, she clicks the
live chat button, where a trained customer service rep can perform the same
functions.
In the following pages, Internet Retailer profiles three
technologies that help the web experience become more like the store experience:
Technologies that enable real-time
inventory, cross-selling
and up-selling, and live
chat.
Creating that cross-channel similarity,
say analysts, will be key to the future of online retailing. “For retailers
to be more successful online, they need to make the decision process as complete
as possible, just like in the store,” says Geri Spieler, research director for
The Gartner Group Inc.’s GartnerG2 retail services group.
The technology doesn’t have to be expensive—several
of the solutions profiled here were developed in-house. And it doesn’t have
to be glitzy. In fact some, such as real-time inventory, meet customers’ expectations
without the customer even knowing what’s going on behind the scenes. Others,
such as cross-sell technology, act in such a way that the customer is unaware
that a cross-sell is happening.
But since the ultimate goal is to sell
more product and keep more product in the hands of the customers, the technology
must be informative: Its aim must be to help the customer make an informed purchasing
decision. “The more information you supply, the more intelligent the decision
by the consumer and that will reduce returns, complaints and exchanges and increase
customer satisfaction,” Spieler says. “That will be a competitive marker going
forward. Retailers who provide that—who make online shopping more like offline
shopping—will succeed.”
To proceed to the three segments, click below:
