We don’t have to tell you that small independents and retailers have gone through a difficult period. Given the unpredictable developments and future prospects, we wondered: what is needed to allow the retail sector to recover and how can we support this? In this article you will find more explanation and tips that you can use today to recover from COVID-19.
Let online and offline work together
Bricks & clicks stand for a seamless combination of online and offline. But how exactly do you proceed to render this seamless combination?
Determine how much focus you place on your physical channels and what attention you want to give to various online channels.
Make sure this decision is in line with your business strategy, how you want to position yourself as a brand and where your customers prefer to buy.
Once you have found the ultimate mix of offline and online, it is crucial to integrate these channels so that offline benefits from online and vice versa.
An essential aspect that should not be overlooked too quickly: systems that are not integrated or poorly integrated will only cost you more time and money in the end.
Several companies, which depend on clicks & bricks, have benefited greatly from this in the past year. By properly integrating online and offline, you can offer your customer a smooth buying experience across the different channels.
Shift up a gear
In uncertain times, such as this Corona year, when the market situation is constantly changing, the speed and flexibility with which you can switch between sales channels are crucial. You want to be able to reach your customer both physically and online: your own/third-party stores, shop-in-shops, webshop, online marketplaces, kiosks, online wholesale platforms, social media, …
Therefore it is very important to have your entire stock simultaneously available on your channels. This necessitates a real-time view of your stock: on your store tills, on your webshop and across all other channels.
In this way you can optimally reach your consumers and maximize your sales opportunities . When you know your customers across channels, you can also let your online sales benefit from your offline sales and vice versa. This allows you to respond flexibly to any restrictions and to further strengthen the bond with your customer through personalized activities and advice, such as shopping by appointment , private/personal shopping, and so on.
A successful omnichannel strategy also results in a complex logistical handling of the many sales across the various channels. A good omnichannel platform ensures optimal and fully automated processing of all your orders. In this way you fully meet the expectations of your customer and you keep your costs under maximum control.
Would you like to know more about Shopping by Appointment or our Omnichannel solution?
- Maximize your sales opportunities and reach your customers optimally with Tailorfit!