More than half of shoppers want their shopping experience to become more personalised, but are retailers responding? With the cost of acquiring a new customer being up to 5-7x higher than retaining an existing one, they should. As retailers fight to retain customer loyalty in an increasingly competitive landscape, what role can in-store solutions play in improving customer lifetime value, and in turn, their desire to come back? We dive into how putting experience at the forefront through in-store solutions for both staff and for customers who want to self-serve can have a positive impact on loyalty.

Store Associate solutions - Clienteling:

One powerful tool that store staff can utilise can enhance customer loyalty and lifetime value is clienteling. This in-store solution empowers sales associates to build stronger relationships with customers by giving them a single view of the customer by feeding in-store behavioural data back to your CDP/CRM, allowing sales associates to personalise their interactions. Nowadays, customers want brands who know them. Whether it’s through Remote Selling conversations or in person, being informed of what your customer wants will help bridge the personal connection and allow sales associates to upsell successfully.

We talk more in depth about the revenue-generating benefits of deploying a clienteling solution in your stores here, but further things to consider include:

• Being able to re-market things viewed or liked in-store or on e-commerce through either channel
• Personalised recommendations means bigger average basket sizes and improved conversion rates
• Building long-term brand loyalty as a result of curated, relevant conversations through email or WhatsApp

Self-serving for convenience on a customer’s device:

A Progressive Web App (PWA) can let your customers have the clienteling experience on their own device. Without the need to download a native app, customers can simply scan a QR code and be taken to a web-based version of the retailer’s existing native online app. PWA provides product descriptions, real-time inventory, product recommendations and the ability to build baskets and checkout. Since they are accessed through web browsers, PWAs are platform-agnostic, compatible with various operating systems and devices. This allows retailers to connect with a larger customer base.

Customers can login with their online credentials to get access to their previously saved items online, check their availability in-store, and bring every aspect of the convenience of e-commerce into the store.

You can find a detailed comparison between native and Progressive Web Apps here.

In-store kiosks, and making self-checkout easy:

Customers like self-service solutions that are seamless. They could in the form of in-store kiosks, where customers can browse the full catalogue, view availability, follow interview questions to find the perfect products, and pay, if retailers choose to integrate their payment system.

Taking frictionless checkout experience one step further is RFID self-checkout, which we've been talking about at length here. With an average transaction time of just over a minute, customers simply drop the items into the RFID bucket, which they describe as a "magic box". Alongside the wow-factor, most importantly, in-store self-service checkout tools should always be easy and inviting to use, providing convenience for customers and freeing sales associates from manning fixed POS desks.

Ultimately, to ensure customers come back to their stores time and time again, retailers should look to implement tools that help understand the customer and personalise their experience, provide tools for them to access online experiences in-store, and allow them to discover products and checkout with ease by self-serving. 

If you are interested in finding out more about transforming your stores, please get in touch with us.