Principles for outstanding retail sales – Varejo SA
The main challenge for marketers all over the world today is to compete for the attention of consumers and succeed in engaging them, making them relevant to them. “And in order to stand out, amidst so much distraction and interest, you have to make such a strong connection with the customer that they feel encouraged to talk about the brand. Connectivity is a key factor in this new era,” said retail expert Steve Dennis, on Tuesday morning (September 13), the first day of the Latam Retail Show 2022, which runs until next Thursday (September 15) digitally and in person at São Paulo.
The American is the author of the book Remarkable Retail and spoke in front of a physical audience of almost two thousand people. For the retail professional, there are eight essential practices to make retail stand out these days. In doing so, he dealt with only three aspects: harmonized, memorable and radical. The first has everything to do with omnichannel, and the challenge is to establish strategies that make the brand unique across the multiple channels it manages.
“The role of the physical store has changed, turning the store into a distribution center, where the customer will pick up their purchase online, or even into showrooms, where the consumer goes to meet and test the product. In practice, the digital displaces the physical; and the physical displaces the digital. In this scenario, a brand must be one brand across all channels, meeting its needs at key moments,” Steve Dennis pointed out.
To be memorable, brands need to differentiate themselves, creating their own look, including store design and organization. Have a signature so that the customer recognizes the brand immediately upon entering the store and contacting the products and services. In addition, create a physical and online consumer experience that represents the brand and brings it closer to the consumer. To do this, you need to know your audience well and, above all, their needs.
Finally, companies can radicalize their strategies by testing novelties and innovations, always ready to rethink plans and correct the route as quickly as possible. “Being extraordinary is a choice and just start,” says Steve Dennis.
Transformations in retail
In the 80s and 90s, no matter what country you were in, retail was basically going somewhere to get a product. You had to go to the store to see what was available, maybe get some sort of guidance from the salesperson, and take the product home. At most, the catalog arrived at his home by mail. The secret of its success lies in its location, the quality of visual merchandising and salespeople, and its local reputation. But after more than 25 years of massive innovation and disruption, largely thanks to digital technology, it is eroding the key elements that once gave business competitive advantages.
Retailing has been influenced by the Internet, which has made it easier to access products in different parts of the world and increased consumer choice. Customers also have greater access to information about what they want to buy. Finding prices that fit your pocket just got easier. And all this with more benefits, such as free delivery and less time.
“Previously, a retailer didn’t need to be really good to be successful, because it was very difficult for consumers to shop elsewhere, even to get information about where the best deals were. In this day and age, it is not enough to be good, your work will be ignored and you will not have a chance to make that sale”, assessed the author.
One brand, many channels
These changes are even challenging large national and international retail brands, some of which are centuries old. However, physical retail is not and will not die. “In the United States, although e-commerce is growing, sales in physical stores have been positive for more than 35 years in a row, and everything indicates that it will remain positive this year as well,” commented the author.
According to him, 70% of sales are influenced by digital channels, but many are closed in physical stores. At North American retail giant Target, 20% of all sales are made online, however, 95% of items leave physical stores.
According to Steve Dennis, it’s ironic that digital-native brands—which initially took a lot of venture capital, with a current online-only premise—are being forced to open brick-and-mortar stores. “Many consumers even like exclusively digital brands, but they would like to taste, test, see and feel their products and services, that is, to understand if it is really worth paying what they are charged”, explains the author and adds: “and the return on all of this is high . Online stores generate 30% or 40% of revenue, while physical stores exceed these results by more than 10%. “The math doesn’t lie,” he said.
The author of the book Remarkable Retail went on to explain that successful retailers are those who, on the one hand, are very focused on price, value and convenience, and on the other hand, are specialized, based on the profile of the customer, practicing premium prices and selling items. from Lux. “The middle-of-the-road retailers—those who don’t have the best price and product mix, good location and payment methods, or even unique products and experience—started to fail. We see that companies sell well at the end, while those in the middle cannot even adjust to inflation.”
