The journey of a cross-channel customer does not stop at Store Locator;
that’s where it begins

Before you read further, stop and think for one second. Do you know your Online Store Locator attracts one-fourth of your total web traffic? And still that traffic gets lost after that. Read on……

The Rise of the Cross-Channel Consumer:

Retail models during the past 200 years have evolved in the following way: In the Middle Ages, bartering, swapping and ordering hand-crafted goods, made to individual customer’s requirements, were the order of the day — the last option affordable only by the very rich. Later, inventions, technological innovation such as mechanization, and large-scale production methods were at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. Once this revolution was established, mass produced and cheaply manufactured goods began to prevail in the world's markets; with mass customization as the goal. Even today, retailers are living with that product-centric legacy. However, consumer expectations are shifting back to Pre-Industrial Revolution thinking, but with a twist.

This time, retail is being enabled by the Digital Revolution and its easy access to today's technological innovations. Consumers are continuously redefining how they want to shop. They want to cross channels with ease, shopping here, buying there, and returning somewhere else. And, they want to do it at their convenience, in their community, whether it is at a bricks-and-mortar store or online.

LocalStore360™ – A Multichannel Innovation

Savvy retailers use one channel’s resources to improve results from another. Up to now, online sales have grown independent of business streams such as catalog and store sales. The individual units of a company are still operating independently of each other and fighting for the same customer with different reporting lines, marketing budgets and customer service centers. Quite simply, retailers are cannibalizing sales - and they’re starting to realize that even more in a recession. The biggest question is what’s the secret to attracting dollars from a cross-channel customer’s wallet? How do we entice the customer who researches online to walk into our store versus going to another retailer?

LocalStore360™ is the answer. It is the first technology platform of its kind that allows local stores to fully exploit the marketing potential of the web. It enables real-time collaboration between shoppers, stores and websites giving the retailer a single view of the customer. It is based on the cutting-edge insights from actual customer transaction data and behavioral analysis of various consumer touch points. Using the powerful platform offered by LocalStore360, a big box retailer can create triggers to action for customers as they surf and shop from web channel to store channel and vice versa.

At the moment there are minimal incentives for customers that research a product online to go to the same retailer’s store. LocalStore360 captures the attention of such cross-channel customers as they research online and then look for any offline information such as Store Locators, Store Circulars etc. It provides a 360 degree view of the local store including its products, services, promotions, printable coupons and lots more.

Below are some ground-breaking stats garnered from shopping patterns of millions of cross-channel customers:-

• Almost $400 billion of store sales — or 16% of total retail sales — are directly influenced by the Web. This will grow to 25% by 2012.
• Average in-store conversion rates (the ratio of potential shoppers that have decided to buy) are between 50% and 75% for department stores and specialty shops. Much higher than average web conversion rates of 3% to 5%.
• Eighty-seven percent of customers cite shopping and buying in store as the most important shopping option across the channels.
• The second most-important option across channels cited by 46% of customers is the ability to order online and have delivery to any location.
• Up to 98% of dissatisfied customers leave without providing feedback as they cite this as a waste of time.
• More than 30% of in store sales are now influenced by prior online research.
• For a large multichannel retailer, 25% percent of website visitors exhibit interest in pages related to offline information. 40% percent of those customers then make an in-store purchase.
• Online Store Locators account for almost one-fourth of total web traffic for large multichannel retailers.
• A Multichannel Customer that researches online spends twice as much in the stores as compared to an Online-Only customer.
• The highest rated tactic cited by successful multichannel retailers is ‘promotion of physical stores via the web store’.
• ‘Printable Coupons’ is a top searched keyword with an average monthly search engine traffic five times that of keyword ‘Online Coupons’.
• Almost 50% of commercial internet searches are conducted by users seeking a local merchant to buy something offline.
• U.S. now has more stores than consumer demand can support due to the rise of internet shopper. Store chains must take steps to make their locations more enticing destinations for this new kind of shopper.
• A recent survey of retail executives in the US showed that over 80% of retailers cite ‘number of store visits’ as the most important customer metric for their business operation.

The retail stats above provide compelling evidence that a fundamental shift is taking place in the consumer shopping behavior. Multichannel shopping has become a standard part of the purchase path for consumers, who increasingly use the web as a first touch-point and then hop channels before completing their purchase in any channel. In spite of this shift, most of the retail operations continue to run their stores and websites in complete silos due to lack of sophisticated technology solutions. LocalStore360™ is the first technology platform of its kind that allows local stores to fully exploit the marketing potential of the web. It enables multichannel retailers to increase the total number of store visits as well as the total number of in-store transactions from high value cross-channel shoppers. Why not explore options to convert one-fourth of your online visitors who are simply looking for offline store information?

Key Components of LocalStore360™ Solution

LocalStore360 has been brought to life after our years of experience working with a number of big box retailers in the US and Europe. Our product roadmap was designed and developed after in-depth feedback and intelligence from these retailers. Furthermore, we are constantly monitoring consumer trends, real-world analytics and consumer behavior to enhance and update our tools and feature sets.

At a high level, our product includes the following core modules that have been piloted with select retailers, franchise chains and supermarkets:

• Store Log-in Panels with personalized content management, pricing, promotions and merchandising functionality at the local store level.
• Content Workflow and Governance module to author, validate and publish content based on assigned roles and responsibilities.
• In Store Lounge that allows retailers to showcase their existing stores, new openings, and latest in-store promotions.
• Store Information to offer details on management, general profile, and business hours etc.
• Store Locator to find your local store by brand, product type, zip code and city.
• Interactive Country Map to pin-point local stores by city and state on a map.
• Advanced Search functionality to search for local store by specified criteria such as zip code, product type, brand type, service type etc.
• New Arrivals Tool to promote latest products, and manufacturer specials.
• Newsroom to make announcements for store news, press releases, events, workshops and special evenings.
• Dynamic Floor Guide so customers can navigate online by aisles inside the physical store easily and view the entire product depth.
• Scheduling Platform to take real-time bookings for store events, classes, photo center, gift registry, celebration center and personal shopper appointments.
• Services Module for packaging a service or activity with a product (e.g. a baby products store can sell furniture assembly to build new revenue stream).
• Coupons Module to promote and print bar-code supported hot deals.
• Full Ecommerce Support for taking orders online that can be fulfilled by local stores.
• In Store Inventory Check to find out what’s available and in-stock.
• Special Requests Tool (e.g. a customer can upload photo albums and pick up prints in store; or design a room online and then submit to store for suggestions).
• Daily Deals application with limited time offers that can be exclusive for each store. Proven to be very effective for enhancing social aspects of the local store brand.
• Brands Pages with ability to promote ads and specials from vendor partners.
• Guest Gallery where customers can share their stories and experiences with others.
• Customer Feedback Tool to speak directly to the store manager. Over 90% of unhappy customers don’t return and leave without complaining unless asked discreetly.
• Invite a Friend feature to increase store recommendations by word of mouth.
• Mobile Store Sites to browse the entire store portfolio using latest smart phones.
• Local Search Marketing to organically promote the local stores when customers search for related products in their neighborhoods.
• Store Newsletters to collect email addresses from customers and send them news about latest events and coupons in their local store.
• Customer Database of local store customers with their email addresses and browsing history. Store customers who do not share email address offline will do so online.
• Live Traffic Cams integrated with local maps so users can pinpoint traffic congestion before driving to their store.