It is always great when digital seamlessly merges with its bricks and mortar counterpart.
This weekend I discovered just how great it is when the traditional shopping experience meets it’s digital counterpart.
Jumper shopping in Zara
Jumper shopping. I knew what one I wanted but couldn’t track down my pesky size. I was using the traditional method of trawling from shop to shop in the hope that my nose would sniff it out. It was becoming boring. Not one to want to stray from my traditional roots, I was doing anything in my power not to buy online. I stay true to my inner shopping behaviour. I like to try things on, mull things over and then commit to the buy.
But with time ticking away, Sunday opening hours against me and the shopping assistant not entirely sure that jumper I was looking for, I took to seek an image on their shopping app & to hopefully find a product code. It was in this moment that I unknowingly became digitally triumphant and added another reason to my growing list of reasons why Zara is proving to be my favourite shop.
There, in the little drop down menu under ‘info’ that non evasively appeared on my screen was an option to check ‘in-store availability.’ Hallelujah! I had save myself the trawl, saved the shop assistant from rummaging through an over stuffed stock room and fulfilled my need to shop in store with one little click. They had my size, and I was free to try it on, mull it over and I did, eventually, purchase said jumper.
Ok so that may have been long and drawn out, and may have highlighted some odd behaviour of mine, but it did highlight to me that Zara had in fact hit the digital nail on the head.
More often than not, brands are treating e-commerce and m-commerce as separate entities to their bricks and mortar store. They are afraid of show rooming (people trying things on for fit and then buying elsewhere.) But why? Your stores should be your best advert going. Hopefully equipped with bountiful stock, helpful shop assistants, all the while embracing the social nature of shopping. I know however that stores can be so much more than this.
One brand that is doing it right is Zara, and although the above case study acted as a nice introduction, here is why Zara is on it’s way to ticking all the boxes.
Zara.com
Lets take a look at their ecomm site.
Unlike a traditional ecomm, there is an instant, minimalist editorial identity. For me, this screams lifestyle. Instantly depicting age demographic, target audiences and their potential interests.
The product pages are also very different. Instead of your traditional, static, front on imagery of products, Zara has shot their pieces from different dynamic angles capturing movement and successfully creating a mood.
For me, it is the first “high street” site that has made online shopping feel as if I am picking items from a carefully curated magazine, that has me in mind for the product, and me only (obviously this isn’t the case, but it does make the experience all the more enjoyable. The option to change how I view the page is refreshing too (2 per role or 6) and like a brick and mortar store they are using this intuitive merchandising to up sell certain pieces throughout the sight while still maintaing, if not adding to the editorial feel of the shopping experience. The running theme to Zara’s site is less is more, and boy have they done a good job of that.
Zara Product Page. 2 Column View.
Zara Product Page. 6 Column View.
This website, paired with my previous experience of utilising their App to help me locate something in store, leads me to believe that this high street store is making all the right rubbles to embracing digital and the changing retail space.
Even their page dedicated to apps is slick and refrains from pigeonholing their apps into something that their customers cant relate to.
When will retailers wise up?
So Zara got me thinking. With so many retailers wising up to digital, embracing it and still creatively making it work for them without sacrificing brand integrity, why are others (even direct competitors) lagging behind?
Online sales are quick and simple with hassle free returns. The same cannot be said for the traditional sales process, with the mere thought of returning something in store and enduring the shop assistants accusing stare, instantly filling me with dread.
What is more valuable?
I have on a couple of occasions come across a scenario that always gets me thinking. You want to take an in season, unworn item back. You have your receipt, but alas you are a few days out of the terms and conditions of sale to return it. You are met with a firm “no.” A “no” that subsequently leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth and wanting to say, “but I am a loyal customer. I spend a lot in this store!”
The part that really gets me thinking, is the loyalty part. More often than not, the shop I wish to return the item to is one that I regularly shop in. So why is there not something that can be put in place that will show whether my loyalty to the brand is more important than that of the returned item?
The future
Recently Burberry wowed us with the revelation and ambition to predict an individuals lifetime spend in store, from the moment they walk through the stores door. If this is eventually adopted by other store, and is used correctly, the opportunity to taylor marketing and sales tactics to individuals really could be endless. Could we track the lifetime spend of entire families? Or even close friends?
It would avoid situations like the above, where you could track someones loyalty to the brand, and outweigh whether or not the relationship with any specific customer was more valuable than the said returned goods. Tracking predicted lifetime spend could be a very powerful tool indeed. It could be the tool that finally kickstarts lagging brands into embracing digital and its capabilities. The web is not the enemy. The high street will inevitably change, but it will be for the better. We should not be afraid if innovation. We are in unknown territory, but when the innovators success the rest will follow. Just how well they do so is down to them.
So who else do you think is hitting the digital nail on the head in retail? I would love to hear of other peoples experiences.
The post Retail Hitting The Digital Nail On The Head appeared first on Creative Jar.
