What We’re Reading: Machine Learning, Digital Capabilities, Technology Trends
This week I want to share a few articles about how technology is revolutionizing retail. You’re past the silly season. You probably just got a good look at your company’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s time to start evaluating your strategic objectives for 2015…specifically, what technology investments you’ll make.
These articles talk about some trends and ideas regarding retail technology. Some of these ideas may be aspirational for the medium-sized business. All the same, it’s worth understanding where market demands are pushing the retail industry. Plus, a lot of this stuff is really cool.
Improve Customer Loyalty Using Shopify
Today, over 100,000 businesses use Shopify to power their online stores. Shopify has fine-tuned the process for selling online so much that opening a store is relatively quick and easy for almost anyone.
But, today’s demanding customer requires more than just a webstore. In order to build loyal customers to your Shopify store, you need to consider some new strategies.
Exceptional Customer Experience: How to Deliver Incredible Retail Experiences
(This post was originally published on January 13, 2015. We’ve updated it for accuracy and completeness.)
Customers don’t just buy products anymore. They buy experiences. They buy communities. They buy identity.
That means trying to sell anything less than “wow” (to borrow from Michael Hyatt) will not work. In a market where your customers have all the power, you cannot afford to under-deliver on customer experience.
You need to understand what makes up an exceptional customer experience. You need to understand how to deliver them. Let this post be your guide.
Why Customer Loyalty Programs Don’t Build Loyalty
Enrolling customers in a loyalty program is a common practice for retailers. The value proposition for a loyalty program is simple: the retailer gets to track customer data, the customer gets discounts or some kind of incentive for loyalty. Sounds like a win-win.
But, the reality is that customer loyalty programs are not as effective as most retailers think or expect.
Creating a customer loyalty can be an effective strategy for retailers, but to be successful you need to do more than hand out membership cards. You must focus on customer experience to create loyal customers.
How to Get More Shopify Product Reviews
When is the last time you bought something online without reading a review?
Buying a product without any reviews is like going on a blind date. You don’t know what you’ll get, and you only do it if you’re getting desperate. Reviews are important, according to a study by Advances in Economics and Business. It says that 85.57% of participants read reviews “often” or “very often” before they purchase online.
Product reviews are a critical factor in consumer purchase decisions, but many companies are doing nothing to encourage reviews. This blog post will discuss why you need product reviews and how to get them (specifically with Shopify). (more…)
