Retail businesses are experiencing a difficult time. The retail apocalypse has claimed many victims, with thousands of stores closing in several countries last year. However, apart from external factors such as the decline in purchasing power due to a sluggish economy, the retail apocalypse is happening because so many retailers cannot keep up with ever-changing technology trends and present something new to consumers.
No matter how long you have been in the business, you must figure out how to survive the retail apocalypse. To make it easy, you can use retail technology to maintain stock availability and employee productivity. Manage customers and financial transactions. We have put together seven secrets to help you survive the retail apocalypse.
1. Optimize Your Personalized Marketing
This year, competition in the retail industry, especially between e-commerce businesses, has become even fiercer as merchants put more effort into winning over consumers. They’re raising their game through an omnichannel shopping experience, faster order fulfillment, and competitive pricing.
While implementing the same things, you shouldn’t forget to enhance your customer relationships. The best way to improve it is to create personal communication with them. Nowadays, almost all successful retailers are using personalized marketing. Look at famous e-commerce companies like Amazon, Zalora, Alibaba, and ASOS. They all managed to retain their existing customers and increase repeat sales by personalizing their marketing strategies.
Here are a few ideas you can follow:
- Personalized emails
Save your customer data well as soon as they make the first purchase. You can send thank you notes and give them special offers for future purchases. In addition, you can also introduce some other products that are similar to the ones they have purchased.
- Segmented subscribers
Divide your subscribers into categories based on their purchase history, demographics, locations, pages they visited, and their favorite products. Certainly, this will help you create relevant campaigns that will result in higher open and click rates. Ensure you’re utilizing website personalization strategies to provide relevant, customized, and seamless experiences to your website visitors.
- Customized loyalty programs
Try to personalize your customer loyalty program just like Sephora does. Leading beauty brands give gifts to their customers ranging from birthday vouchers or discounts to points that can be redeemed based on the amount of money they spend. Thus how to survive retail apocalypse.
You can improve your retail business by using a Marketing Automation System to capture more targeted leads, enhance client relationships, and personalize your campaigns according to the recipients’ preferences, inquiries, and business types.
2. Improve Your Inventory Management
Inventory is one of the most important parts of a retail business. Too little inventory leads to delays in order fulfillment, but excess stock can cause other problems, such as damaged goods and financial losses. Therefore, it is very important for you to know your stock level daily and plan your purchases.
If you don’t have Inventory Management software yet, then this is the right time to implement it. Tracking your inventory, performing stock takes, and calculating the value of your inventory manually are very inefficient, so forget your old methods and switch to the automated solution.
3. Keep Your Website Updated
Ensure your website content is always up-to-date because consumers trust merchants who actively update their brand information and product descriptions. This also applies to the products you sell, so check regularly if your product prices, discounts, and stock availability have been updated.
To increase traffic to your website, consider creating a blog. Some people may not realize that they need your products until they read your blog. Thus, think of creating useful and educational content for your website visitors.
4. Introduce Additional Sales Channels
Reach more leads and make it easier for consumers to find your products by selling them on multiple marketplaces. No need to worry about having trouble managing your sales because you can use a marketplace management system that allows you to drive sales across various marketplaces simultaneously through the same system, so you don’t have to manually login to each market to manage customer orders.
5. Merge Online and Offline Marketing
You will find it difficult to survive the retail apocalypse if you separate online and offline experiences. Consider opening a physical store if you’ve been selling your products online. If setting up a permanent store is too costly for you, then a pop-up store could be a better option.
Conversely, if you have sold your product in-store and do not yet have an e-commerce site, then now is the best time to make it. Also, consider allowing your customers to order items on your e-commerce site and pick them up at your physical store.
Read more: 7 Retail Technology Trends You Don’t Want to Miss in 2018
6. Create Compelling In-Store Experiences
A few years ago, brick-and-mortar stores were predicted to be completely replaced by e-commerce. But in reality, consumers still like to shop offline. Hence, there is no reason not to provide better in-store experiences for your customers.
One of several methods you can implement to enhance in-store experiences is to speed up the checkout process for customers. Make sure that you use a POS System that can facilitate this requirement. Click here to get tips to help you provide great offline shopping experiences.
7. Find Areas of Improvement Through Your Data
Last but not least, you should be able to find other areas of improvement by analyzing your data, including sales, marketing, and inventory. What products are in high demand, and which are less profitable? Which one should you bring more? How do people get to know your brand? The best way to answer all these questions is to look at your data.
Ensure your software can integrate all the main functions in your business so you don’t have to use different applications to access any required data. Use ERP Software from HashMicro to automate various aspects of business, suitable for multiple types of companies. Take more accurate decisions with the support of the most advanced business management software. Click here for a free demo!
