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this year by Boston Retail Partners,
topping customer mobile experience
alignment. Currently, just more than a
third of retailers surveyed by BRP offer
personalized rewards based on custom-
er loyalty, while about a quarter offer
suggested selling based on previous
purchases. Top investment areas dur-
ing the next few years include sugges-
tive selling based on browsing history
and social media activity.
Email is far and away the primary
means of personalized messaging and
promotions, but both eMartketer and
CapGemini researchers feel retailers un-
derestimate the role employees – ideally
tech-empowered employees – can play in
providing a personal experience.
“As the world continues to evolve
and become more digitally ad-
vanced,” say eMarketer analysts, “it’s
important to have some human con-
tact, and store associates add to that
personalized element.”
Store employees also can be a big
help dealing with another in-store
frustration among an equal 65 per-
cent of Internet users. As store as-
sortments widen and everyday lives
become increasingly overscheduled (or
are at least perceived that way), shop-
pers apparently have less patience for
browsing. We see this in the decline
of impulse purchasing and foot traffic.
It’s also apparent in the two-thirds of
Internet users who cite the inability
to locate products as a top annoyance
when shopping a physical store.
Of course, there are tried-and-true,
“low-tech” ways retailers can attack any
store navigation pain points. Helpful
staff and improved signage go a long
way. At the other end of the spectrum,
a cool augmented reality smartphone
app can turn an annoying product
hunt into a loyalty rewards game. A bit
nearer-term for most is a floor map to
the smartphone, preferably interactive
over static. Likely even more impres-
sive are digital and interactive maps
and signage that keep the customers’
smartphones in their pockets (and the
retailer in charge of the experience).
Digital display maps also could be
configured to deliver promotional mes-
saging quickly – either seasonal or at
a moment’s notice. Add in traffic flow
analysis and the placement of maps
1990-2016
%
%
%
49%
33%
18%
I plan to spend
more nights
camping
oomers
Matur
6,288,300
7,685,700
6,835,000
8,699,000
8,180,800
10,844,200
8,062,500
10,687,500
7,359,300
9,755,500
7,310,000
9,690,000
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
45%
55%
44%
56%
43%
57%
43%
57%
43%
57%
43%
57%
Source: CapGemini
I would like a store/brand to know who I am when I walk into
a store because of location-based technologies
(e.g., iBeacons, RFID, geofencing)
Source: Salesforce Research
Long lines at checkout counters
Discount/promotions are not personalized
Not able to locate products
Lack of in-store associate guidance/demos
Strongly/somewhat agree
Strongly/somewhat disagree
39%
66%
65%
65%
64%
27%
14%
61%
73%
86%
Millennials
(18-34)
Generation X
(35-54)
Baby Boomers
(55+)
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Spring
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