Omnichannel is revolutionizing retail and consolidating in the post-pandemic scenario – Varejo SA
With mass vaccinations and brick-and-mortar stores reopening, the economy is breathing but requires new strategies to win over consumers
Brazil has seen a drop in the number of people infected with Covid-19 and has since relaxed health rules and allowed retail personal businesses, with restaurants and bars fully occupied. Now, with business continuing and immunization almost complete, what should change in the physical service and customer experience?
To begin with, it is very important to make a comparison of consumer behavior before and after the pandemic, because a lot has changed since the beginning of the quarantine and the closing of physical stores.
The forced migration of companies into the digital space, for example, had a great impact on the relationship with the target audience and changed the way of shopping.
To give you an idea, 7.3 million new e-commerce users were registered in the first half of 2020 alone, according to a survey conducted by the opinion platform Ebit/Nielsen. Also according to this research, e-commerce served 79.7 million customers in 2020, about 30% more compared to the previous year.
In addition to advances in online services, consumers have also become more demanding during the pandemic, which is why brands have invested in fast, personalized and humanized services.
The customer experience, in fact, has become even more valued after the spread of Covid-19, as the digitization of business has increased the number of offers available to customers and consequently opened the door to fierce competition between small businesses. , medium and large companies.
Therefore, in addition to the quality of products and services, it was necessary to develop marketing strategies that would promote a friendly relationship during the purchase journey, achieve customer loyalty and, more than that, make them advocates of the brand.
According to a survey by technology company Dimensional Research, more than half of consumers tend to recommend a company to others when they have a pleasant experience buying a product. The same applies to negative cases, as almost 60% of consumers do not return to the store when the experience is bad.
And now, faced with a post-pandemic scenario and mass vaccination, many retail entrepreneurs have devoted themselves even more to developing actions to improve relations with their customers and attract them back to physical points.
Digital out of home promises good results
According to Julian Martins, co-founder and CEO of Martek, a reference company in the corporate marketing sector, there are many alternatives and activation tools to reach this new consumer profile.
“A great indicator is digital out-of-home, which uses displays or LED panels in traffic, flow or waiting (such as elevators). The opportunity is to combine signs with promotional or commercial content so that this consumer understands that, even at a physical point of sale, it is possible to use the same language with the Internet audience, which also has dynamically presented advertising”, begins the CEO of Martek.
Wi-Fi guarantees a personalized service and attracts the target audience
In addition, Juliano Martins highlights the use of Wi-Fi as a strategy to improve customer experience and unify face-to-face and digital services: “when a user connects via Wi-Fi, he shares some data with the company. This in turn uses this information, – always taking into account the guidelines of the General Data Protection Act (LGPD), – to deliver personalized content and access strategic data, such as frequency of visits, length of stay and day and busiest time. Thus, it is possible to create a database based on the customer’s profile and consequently improve the following conversion strategies”, emphasizes the entrepreneur.
Omnichannel is revolutionizing retail and consolidating in the post-pandemic scenario
Mobile promotion is also considered an excellent tool to meet new consumer habits in the post-Covid 19 pandemic world. “Today, physical stores that print tax coupons do so with QR codes. Therefore, through simple mobile applications, a brand can understand customer behavior, identify products that have been purchased and start delivering specific promotions, whether via Wi-Fi, email marketing or mobile,” explains the marketing co-founder. society.
In addition to the QR code, there is Pix, which can be adopted at physical points as a way to reduce operational costs, reduce physical contact between the server and the customer, and facilitate monetary transactions. “There are many other possible changes that need to be adopted in brick-and-mortar stores, as there is more investment to take advantage of the greater flow of projects, either in terms of visibility and brand recognition, or in relation to the public’s own experiences,” asserts the founder of Mais Mu, a food company, Antonio Neto.
In this sense, multi-channel strategies, such as Phygital, appear as excellent tools to guarantee greater autonomy to users, as they integrate digital and physical media and provide unique sensory experiences for consumers.
Source: Modern consumer
