The UK’s best and worst shops were revealed by Which? recently and it isĀ interesting to go through the findings and see what makes retailers great in a digital age.
A trend in retail currently is businesses becoming more digitally enabled. ButĀ digital is complicated. A line I came up withĀ inĀ a digital strategy presentation for a major international brand back in 2012 was: Digital is not quick, it’s not easy and it’s not cheap.
The digital landscape is complicated and scary.
One of the biggestĀ problemsĀ that prevent clients I’ve worked with from becoming digitally engaged businesses is that they look atĀ digital as a newĀ channel. It kind of is a newish channel, but this is a road blockĀ because people tend to be scared of trying new things.
What’s great about theĀ report from Which? is that byĀ getting a snapshot of who is winning on the high-street (and why) means you can apply the sameĀ thinking to digital. In this way, digital doesn’t need to beĀ something new, technicalĀ or scary. It’s just what has been happening all along.
If you look at is from the customers perspective, for the customer there is noĀ channelĀ – Ā justĀ theĀ experience.
With that in mind, theseĀ were theĀ top 5 retailers on the high street in the UK (and why):
- Lush – Customers love the products and staffĀ service.
- The Disney Store – The fairytaleĀ follows through to the store, service and products.
- Richer Sounds – Pricing (value), quality and service.
- John Lewis – Excellent serviceĀ and store environment in a wide range of categories.
- Waterstones – NiceĀ store experience, staff service.
Looking at the listĀ brands, they allĀ sell different things, in fact some products are very unique in their own category, but ultimately they were all different from each other. The commonality isĀ service.
So by being aware thatĀ each brand and experience is very different to one another the rating here is the experience of customer. And as mentioned earlierĀ an experience is agnostic of channel.
By focusing on the customer experience and not on tactics, digital or otherwise, you can avoid a lot ofĀ problems becoming a more digitally savvy business.
However, there is the technical issue retailers face, which isĀ gettingĀ what’s happening on the high street toĀ happenĀ online, in the same way. It sounds reallyĀ simple, but it’s not. To create a slick experience that is the same, regardlessĀ of channel, is technically very difficult. But at the end of the day customers don’t see the channel divide.
Final thoughts on what makes retailers great in a digital age:
Customer satisfaction is not a result of cross channel synchronisation, but the experience they have. Thinking about the problem in a slightly different way can help a business make the transition to being a more digitally engaged one.
This leads to asking the question, “what if you customer didn’t have to come to store to get a great experience”? Or one step broader, “what if you could give customers a great experience that have never visited a store or don’t live anywhere near your stores”?
Think about the customer experience, not about digital, and answering questions about digital becomes a lot easier.
