Improving the customer experience is an important and ongoing goal for retailers across the country. A positive shopping experience has numerous benefits, from ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty to helping a brand’s reputation build, especially by word of mouth.
Whether you are an established retailer looking to brush up on accumulated experience or a new venture on the high street wanting to ensure the best customer service, we are sharing six essential tips that will help to improve the shopping experience you offer to customers across the country.
Digital Integration
There is a tendency among brick and mortar retailers to see e-commerce as competition when, in actuality, digital tools and online platforms have the potential to support high street businesses. Products can be offered to customers as part of an online catalogue, alleviating the storage needs of retailers who are willing to prioritise hero products and arrange for the delivery or collection of other items instead.
Digital integration can also mean the use of QR codes and AR services to improve a customer’s experience, as well as the efficiency of transactions, too.
Curated Atmosphere
A store should reflect the aesthetic of a brand’s personality. Aside from the products themselves, shop furniture and sign fittings should exemplify a positive impression, bringing together the characteristics of a retailer. Successful examples of this can be seen in stores across the country, such as The Body Shop, a brand that curates an environment of wellness and tranquillity, supporting the well-being effects of its products.
Simplicity Of Service
The shopping experience, which is the most basic transaction of purchasing goods, should be made as simple as possible. If a customer experiences confusion, it is a mark against the success of a retailer’s operation. Ensure that directions are simple, clear, and never too abundant. Many stores find success in eliminating signs altogether and, instead, using spotlights and design to guide customers around the store.
Sales Expertise
Sales representatives are one of the most important assets of a retail venture. However, it is seldom their sales ability that, in the long run, offers the most valuable return for a brand. Instead, it is the expertise and personality that they offer. A store that is able to deliver friendly customer service and knowledge of the product at hand ensures that customers leave with a positive and valued impression of the brand, supporting the aforementioned long-term success of a retailer through reputation.
Amplify Design
First impressions matter for stores as they do for people, which is why design and artifice should be given the same scrutiny as a store’s practical arrangements. Window displays remain important for grabbing the attention of passing customers, especially those who might not already be aware of the retailer or brand. Then, inside a store, a retail venue should seek to celebrate its products through design, amplifying value and quality with displays.
Sustainable Impression
As climate concerns and carbon footprints become a more familiar topic with customers, retailers do well to ensure their store and the shopping experience they offer are notably environmentally friendly. By supporting a customer to engage in a transaction that is positive or has minimal impact on the environment, retailers will find shoppers feeling more positively toward the brand, being able to support the store without the guilt associated with carbon footprints.
