Over the past year, brick and mortar retailers have been pressed to find new ways to attract shoppers and bring relevance to the physical retail experience. In response, software and hardware providers have been pushing the boundaries of what can be accomplished in a physical store. One such example is Adobe, which has developed a new technology called the Adobe Experience Manager, a system used to personalize a customer’s experience using Adobe Marketing Cloud. The purpose of the technology is to create a continuous customer experience that allows anyone to walk into a store and have an immediate digital experience connected to the physical store. This is what Adobe emphasizes is important in becoming an “experience business,” which allows marketers to directly reach consumers like never before.
PSFK spoke with Director of Industry Strategy for the Adobe Marketing Cloud, Michael Klein, to learn about how data and technology are changing the way consumers shop.
How are traditional retailers adapting to the IoT era?
This is a very interesting time for retail because retailers are recognizing that they need to do something to differentiate themselves. The fine line between those who will succeed and those will who fail will be in the technology they implement, whether it is well-thought out or whether it’s used for its own sake.
Over 90% of retail in aggregates is still taking place in a physical store. The question that many retailers, especially the multichannel ones, are asking themselves is: how do I create balance between the brick and mortar stores, where historically I have seen the most of my business, and the data-gathering capabilities of the internet? With customers being connected more than ever before, what’s very much on top of our minds is where the customer is going, what his or her journey is like and the touchpoints of their interaction with the brand.
How can then the brands bring the technology to the stores effectively?
We are having a lot of conversations around the store associates and how we can empower them with the right data. The experience of visiting a physical store is still important for customers so we wanted to know how brands could differentiate themselves by providing a personalized experience. The answer we came up with was AEM screens as well as other tools available within the Adobe Experience Manager.
How can retailers better use the data available to them?
Through the Adobe Experience Manager, we are bringing transactional and traditional, demographic data and behavioral data to ensure a more personalized experience. For example, if you think about someone trying to redecorate their house — I understand their demographic, household’s worth, recent purchases, etc., so I can market to them better by suggesting other items they might be interested in. Thanks to a combination of demographic data, transactional data and behavioral information, we can create better customer journeys.
You have just mentioned the importance of anonymity, but how does that play into being constantly followed by advertisements with the use of cookies, etc.?
While we observe some instances of push marketing, we do believe that there needs to be anonymity built into the customer journey, allowing them to identify the moment that is appropriate for them to start that interaction. Whether you are a Millennial, Gen X, Baby Boomer or Golden Ager, our data shows that majority of consumers would like to enter a store anonymously. Typically over 70% of consumers do not want to be approached personally upon entry. However, once they are in the store and once they signal, either through raising their hand or engaging with a digital screen that they want assistance from the store associate, that’s where the ability to create a personalized shopping experience becomes a differentiating factor for many brands.
Where do you draw a line between being helpful to consumers and being too intrusive?
The line is gray, but for me the question that the brands have to ask themselves is: what is the value proposition for the consumers? If there is none or very little, then this is just a ploy, a one-way street to receive more information. Those retailers who are creating some quid pro quo or or some value to the consumers are going to receive better data and information that they can use to further personalize their marketing efforts.
This post originally appeared on psfk.com.
The post Digital Interfaces Make In-Store Shopping A More Personalized Experience appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.
from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/web-experience/digital-interfaces-make-store-shopping-personalized-experience/
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