Intro
In the rapidly evolving e-commerce industry, business owners find themselves searching for the most effective ways to create an online store that keeps their customers engaged and at ease. By taking a close look at the traditional retail industry, we can observe sales tactics that have proven to be successful on the grand stage.
This blog will provide examples of 2 key marketing strategies that retail brands have leveraged to provide a level of service to their customers that results in an influx of sales and improved client retention. We’ll observe the way these businesses set up their storefronts in a way that is conducive to converting their walk-ins to buyers. Then, we’ll look to learn from history and apply these concepts to online stores and the ever-growing e-commerce industry.
The One-Stop-Shop
Retail examples: Costco, Smiths, Dillards.
Stores that employ the one-stop-shop strategy are the titans of the retail industry. They have one objective: offer everything the customer could possibly need. This tactic is extremely effective, as it eliminates the need for their target audience to shop anywhere else. By doing this, they oust the competition in one fell swoop, simplifying their customer’s shopping experience dramatically by enabling them to go to one store rather than run a handful of errands.
Products are sold for cheap, essentially at the price floor for any given item. Low costs keep shoppers shopping. By saving their customers money on essential purchases, they free up funds for auxiliary purchasing decisions. This strategy works well for companies that can sell at scale – their money is made through the sheer quantity of purchases made rather than in charging a premium for the products.
E-Commerce examples: Amazon, Instacart, ASOS.
Amazon is the ultimate example of a one-stop-shop in an online store. It’s no surprise then why they’re among the most distinguished companies in the digital world, if not the epitome of success in the modern marketplace. Ultimately Amazon’s value proposition is to be the one-stop-shop for anything their customers could possibly need – from books and basketball jerseys to technology and toothpaste – delivered straight to their doorstep.
Talk about simplifying the shopping experience. Amazon intends to eliminate their customer’s need to look anywhere else for products, much less go anywhere to shop other than their all-encompassing online store.
Additionally, their machine learning algorithms and complex customer profiles create a perfectly curated “recommended for you” section of their online store. They’ve cracked the code to keep shoppers shopping by recommending related products that compliment their purchasing history. This powerful marketing technique automates and accentuates the service traditionally offered by a sales rep at a retail store.
Another example of the one-stop-shop strategy can be found in the company ASOS, an internet clothing retailer. While browsing their online store, customers are confronted by a seemingly limitless list of items from every brand under the sun. The sheer quantity of clothing on their platform is overwhelming to navigate without the aid of well-utilized filters which sort their products into various categories and enable users to hone in on what they’re looking for quickly.
The Elevated Experience
Retail examples: Tiffany’s, Trader Joe’s.
These stores only offer select products almost exclusively produced by the brand, but their stores are elegantly designed to lead customers through a journey that is conducive to their shopping experience. Their storefronts are designed to funnel people from one section of the store to the next naturally, displaying products that are sure to catch the attention of their target audience and even compliment the items they’ve already selected.
In other words, these brands have strategically designed their stores to create an ideal shopping experience for a particular audience rather than the simplest shopping experience for the average consumer. They prioritize servicing their customers, not just selling them stuff.
Take Tiffany’s, for example. They’ve learned that in order to get their customers to act like royalty (not batting an eye at steep price tags and even eager to upgrade), they must first treat their customers as such. Another glass of champagne, please.
E-commerce examples: Net-a-Porter, Yoox, Kith,
Capturing the essence of the luxury shopping experience in an online store is an exciting challenge digital marketers still face. Thankfully, pioneering brands, such as Net-a-Porter, were able to lay a framework for how to bridge the gap between luxury goods and e-commerce over twenty years ago. To learn more about the emergence of luxury goods in online shopping and explore Net-a-Porter’s success, check out this article by Harper’s Bazaar.
Ultimately, distilling a luxury experience into e-commerce comes down to ease of use and elegance.
Ease of use applies primarily to a website’s navigation and functionality. Can shoppers find what they’re looking for without resistance? Is it an intuitive process? Is the site responsive? Luxury brands must be able to answer questions like these confidently in order to meet the growing expectations of their audience.
Thankfully, digital marketers implement tools such as heat maps to quantify the effectiveness of a website’s navigational elements, as well as audit the performance of a website’s speed and security on a regular basis, thus making it possible to optimize these key features of an online store.
Elegance, however, is difficult to quantify. When an online store facilitates an experience that keeps shoppers at ease while simultaneously enticing them to explore the deeper realms of the site, then they’ve arrived at elegance. An in-house favorite is Kith.com. From start (opening the website, seeing the landing page, selecting your initial search parameters) to finish (creating an account, checkout, receiving a well-branded package) Kith makes shopping through their online store such a pleasurable experience that their audience will pay a premium for items they could find on other platforms – I know I have.
Conclusion
Lesson learned: If you can’t offer everything, offer an experience.
The retail stores that have survived the tumultuous times, and even thrived in spite of them, are the ones that separate themselves from their competition by understanding their target audience’s specific needs and then delivering on them in style.
Positioning your online store as a one-stop-shop is impossible without seemingly limitless funds. However, emerging brands can differentiate themselves from the competition by delivering a seamlessly curated shopping experience designed directly for their target audience.
The e-commerce industry has much to discover when it comes to enhancing the experience of online shopping. At White Wolf Marketing, we’re particularly interested in designing and developing online stores that don’t just sell products, they service customers by facilitating an exemplary buyers journey. This enables customers to finish their purchasing experiences feeling enthusiastic and eager for the product rather than stuck in a session of buyer’s remorse.
We’d love to talk to you about your online store. Schedule a casual call with our team, here.
