How to Meet the Varied Needs and Tendencies of Store Shoppers
The crusade to win the hearts, wallets and loyalty of customers is sometimes waged based on price, store location, or superior product offerings. But often, winning the battle comes down to more emotional factors – a matter of demonstrated care and consideration for a customer’s unique shopping needs. Simply put: A truly exceptional customer experience that both surprises and delights.
And while an increasing number of consumers are already empowered with information they have gathered from online sources before setting foot inside a retail location, their expectation is to be greeted with a stellar in-store experience. Shoppers now crave the same ease and timely service in a physical store location that they would experience while shopping online.
Plus, they also want to feel as if the brand that they choose to reward with their business with speaks directly to them – making them feel special and understood.
That is why leveraging segmentation to create a welcoming physical store environment that speaks to multiple customer segments may be the most critical tool in a big box retailer’s arsenal.
Properly using the principles of segmentation can help to create the type of in store environment that really responds to customers and treats them as the unique individuals that they are. And here’s why: knowing merely who a customer is, or what they often shop for, is no longer enough to gain their trust, loyalty and spend, let alone ensure they’ve walked away from a store feeling elated.
Favoring Mass Personalization over Mass Marketing
Thanks to new technology, it’s much easier to achieve segmentation – due in part to opt-ins, check-ins, and other opportunities to collect customer information, retailers really do know who their customers are now. The double-edged sword of this new technology is that today’s customers are smart and savvy shoppers who are more aware than ever of their unique demands and needs – and more aware than ever that those needs can be fulfilled by the retailers they choose to purchase from.
In fact, 73% of consumers prefer to do business with brands that use personal information to make their shopping experiences more relevant to them. We’re now in an age where standardization has proved to be more of a handicap than it is advantageous, and as such, retailers are experiencing a great shift towards mass personalization, away from mass marketing.
So how can they achieve that in store? Retailers now need to look at shoppers through multiple lenses: their needs, attitudes, behaviors, requirements by day, by trip type, by influences, and even by category shopped, which all play into how a customer will react inside a store. These pieces of the puzzle add up to a multidimensional form of segmentation.
When a customer sets foot inside a store, every little detail must play a part in their experience. From the signage, to the lighting, to the product placement to technology integration, each retail environment has to be carefully choreographed with the right balance and presentation of elements designed to deliver a sensory experience that entices customers to shop. Unfortunately, it’s all really in the details here.
Tailor Design to the Needs and Habits of Multiple Shoppers
The goal of segmentation is to move away from stereotyping and more towards understanding the core of a person (what they like, what they do at a given point in time). A deeper understanding of the varied ‘need landscapes’ within a store can help retailers tailor design to the navigational habits and thought process of shopper’s as well. This creates the right variety of offerings in store that allow individual shoppers to connect and experience it in their own personalized and meaningful way.
An example of segmentation brought to life is Market32’s redesigned stores (formerly Price Chopper), now boast elements like a chef’s kitchen table, a patisserie, and a growler bar. The ‘chef’s table’ area, nestled in between the seafood and meat counters that are the most frequented, was crafted in order to tap into customers’ desires of becoming a chef. And while they are all very different areas serving very different purposes, the reconfigured layout delivers a much more responsive navigation for shoppers than the brand’s previous interation as Price Chopper.
These type of in store details can really make the shopper feel more satisfied, excited and comfortable while engaging with the brand – which in turn leads to more time spent in store. Plus, they’re left with a lingering feeling that the brand truly cares about delivering what each of its customers want.
Go Beyond Satisfaction to Achieve Customer Delight
Ultimately, if retailers can convince customers that they are able to deliver against their specific needs across different usage occasions, they unleash the opportunity not only for an enhanced experience but a greater share of mind, greater share of wallet and a customer that is more likely to return again and again.
And providing customers with proof that you are paying attention to their needs through a segmented store design not only helps to maximize investment dollars, but also helps retailers, especially those that are part of a chain, discover exactly where they should spend to maximize in-store sales.
Not every customer is created equally. But proper segmentation will help big box retailers create a store presentation and proposition that speaks to the functional and emotional needs and tendencies of their varied shoppers, creates a pleasurable navigational experience, and fits their shoppers’ mindsets. And that’s how they will get customers to respond with delight.