How Retailers Can Accelerate Their Consumer Engagement

How Retailers Can Accelerate Their Consumer Engagement
So what does all of this eventually lead to or if we flip the question around, what does the future of retail really look like for businesses and consumers?

By Avlokita , Author

27 Apr 2022 | 11 min read

The pandemic seems to be fairly behind us triggering a radical wave of changes for individuals, businesses, and the healthcare systems at large. However, its effects still continue to move the needle within most sectors including retail where leaders, executives, and consumers adapt to new technologies, lifestyle changes, and new habits that help them build resilience instead of forcing a hard stop at life that so many of us were subjected to throughout the past two years. 

Going back to pre-Covid times, retail was already at the cusp of massive changes, however, the pandemic only altered the timings of execution - from future to now. 

So what does all of this eventually lead to or if we flip the question around, what does the future of retail really look like for businesses and consumers? Let’s find out. 

Safety Inside Store 

COVID-19 took the world back to school when it comes to adhering to our basic hygiene routines. Yeah, most of the public healthcare systems across the world mostly downplayed it for a long time until Covid became a stark reminder in the grimmest ways history will ever record again. 

Retailers need to ensure that consumers feel safe in-store. From basic hygiene practices to advanced technologies that assist the safety measures deep into their products and services, brands need to offer a safe in-store environment to build trust and ensure the customers are positively engaged with what they have to offer. 

Free and Fast Deliveries

Online shopping already had a very heavy reliance on its reach and convenience. The pandemic, however, only made it heavier by limiting every other default option. Hence, from 2022 and onwards we’re likely to see more dependency on the e-commerce space but with a tweak. Consumers want to rely on free and fast deliveries. We’ve seen the emergence of 10-minute-delivery in groceries and food already,(not to mention it’s the most tricky segment considering food is perishable). If brands can increase the pace of your dispatch, delivery, and exchange timelines, they’d surely be notching up the engagement game. 

Contactless Payments 

We might justify it differently now as COVID seems close to its endgame. Instead of safety, ease, access, and convenience are likely to intensify the adoption of contactless payments. However, contactless will remain a primary motive till the mildest sign of COVID remains in any part of the world. 

Fintech on the other hand is making waves with new brands emerging almost every day with unique financial technologies solving pressing problems for businesses, banks, and retail consumers. The increase in the use of voice assistants and AI simultaneously is enabling transactions on the go which remotely influences contactless payments.

A New Audience Segment 

It’s not a surprise literally, but globally the number of seniors who have started to adopt technology has shot up, is massive and impressive. Brands can thus be mindful of this rather delightful shift in attitude and target group and keep’em in mind while designing or redesigning their products, services, and experiences. It’ll only turn out to be a pleasant invitation for the older lads to have a time of their own, but brands on the other hand can explore a segway to get better engagement rates and leads.  

Move away from obsessing over GenZ and millennials and consider this consumer cohort for once to dive deep into new engagement strategies. They are now proactively leading to a healthy, active, and productive lifestyle while at home or wandering. It can literally be anything from monitoring their health online, to hearing stories in their native language, getting online consultation for illnesses, marrying, ordering medicines, rediscovering their passion for something, or simply keeping in touch with their near and dear ones. 

The Rise of Digital Consumer

A lot of us might digress, but digital is here to stay for businesses as well as consumers. The pandemic has halted any developments otherwise. So brands would do good in embracing the new normal and adapting to new technology to stay on the edge of fresh/latest and scalable consumer engagement methods. 

Brands need to reset but this time it must be backed by data. Data, analytics, and AI models have proven to be of assistance by helping brands make sense of complex unseen terrains, siloed functions, and better governance, monitoring, and measurement mechanisms. Data is the most effective way to manifest digital transformation and better your engagement rates. 

Personalization

This one’s pandemic agnostic. It arose with digital technology and will remain as technologies evolve. Brands can only get creative and experimentative to identify new ways to strengthen their customer relationship, improve engagement and ensure repeat customers by getting deep in knowing and understanding their customers better as they spend time. Brands must specifically prepare themselves to use AR and VR technologies to enhance the shopping experience, post-sale services, and feedback mechanisms. We already have the devices in place, they are getting mainstream and will change consumer behavior with respect to discovery, engagement, and retention. Brands will have to adapt accordingly without much delay.  

Omnichannel Presence

The media, platforms, and story formats are evolving like never before. Brands are thus required to be present at various touchpoints reflecting their target group’s presence, product cycle and overall experience. Businesses are better positioned to retain their customers as compared to the ones who limit themselves to a few select channels. 

Using emerging tech like AR and VR technologies, AI models, and NFTs can allow brands to level up their offerings. Gamification also has great potential where brands can tap the attention of their consumers and keep them engaged in fun ways. 
  
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The spending power has reduced for consumers. A large part of your target group is looking at low-cost or budget options and letting go of the premium brands they might have been loyal to. Now, it’s really not about compromising on value here but finding the next best alternative that’s functionally as good. Overlooking the legacy and established brand names as elements, it’s quite likely that these labels are already or very close to enjoying a large or a competitive market share in comparison. So what do legacy brands do now?

Diversify. Can you introduce a cost-effective label under an already existing one? You already have a recall value to build a connection and that’s what you leverage for a successful first step. Can you come up with an entirely new product line to solve a ‘new normal’ problem? People are surely looking to experiment with new brands. You can always redirect them back to your original offering once they dabble with your new avatar. Lastly, be open to collaborations. 

Retention >>> Value

Retailers need to be aware of a growing trend about what customers value to get insights into how to retain them. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a leveler of sorts. A large part of the consumers spent time without engaging in impulse buying and most of this lot is embracing this enlightened realization that one doesn’t need to keep buying new things and also that humans' wants are increasing all the time and that humans can also control if they want to. This means they now value cash and treat what they have as wealth that can last. Brands would do better by not being salesy and pushy, instead, find where and how they can add value and bring about a positive difference in their customers' lives.  

Personalized customer centricity, use data and analytics to keep a tab on your customer’s behavior, tailor your recommendations based on the findings, and offer seamless experiences across touchpoints. 

There are few very obvious and mainstream elements that retail brands must stick to. These are sustainability, mobile-first (but not mobile only), and primary focus on overall health and wellbeing as the world is tilted towards it probably forever. Treat these like defaults. No brand would do any better by ignoring these key areas which were prominent even before COVID. 
 

The pandemic seems to be fairly behind us triggering a radical wave of changes for individuals, businesses, and the healthcare systems at large. However, its effects still continue to move the needle within most sectors including retail where leaders, executives, and consumers adapt to new technologies, lifestyle changes, and new habits that help them build resilience instead of forcing a hard stop at life that so many of us were subjected to throughout the past two years. 

Going back to pre-Covid times, retail was already at the cusp of massive changes, however, the pandemic only altered the timings of execution - from future to now. 

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