January 30, 2018
2 minute read
Boston, MA, January 30, 2018 – Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are faced with increased financial and competitive pressures as consumers are shifting to an omnichannel, engagement-oriented, customer journey. Retailers must provide an interactive digital in-store shopping experience and have knowledgeable staff to greet their customers. Consumers are demanding more interaction when they visit a store.
Today, BookingBug releases The Modern Consumer, research looking at shifting consumer expectations and their relationship with online and offline shopping channels. Featuring an independent survey of 2,000 consumers across the US and UK, the research study sets out to paint a picture of consumer shopping habits.
Unveiled by CEO Glenn Shoosmith during his keynote at Retail’s Big Show in New York City on January 15, the research confirmed that shopping across multiple channels is now the norm with 73% of shoppers researching online before buying in-store and 54% researching in-store before buying online.
Online continues to grow in popularity with 37% of consumers reporting they do more online shopping than last year. However, stores are still the main buying channel for 52% of consumers in the US and 41% in the UK.
The research revealed a gap between demand and reality when it came to in-store events, with 68% of shoppers saying that they would attend hosted events by retailers, but only 23.5% have ever been invited to one.
Your most important interactions
Successful retailers know that the most important interactions with their highest value customers thrive when handled face-to-face with well-trained experts. The challenges of identifying those services, scheduling the appropriate staff, moving more basic functions to the online experience have been serious inhibitors.
Shoosmith explains how the research findings show light at the end of the tunnel for this:
“The biggest retailers in the world have already discovered the formula to make consumer offline engagement a crucial and valuable asset -- you do not need to discount prices and compromise margins to get consumers into a store but provide them with a clear reason to spend time visiting. If retailers know that customers do research in-store before buying online, then it makes sense to create services that will make that insight easy to consume."
About BookingBug
BookingBug is trusted by the world’s largest banks, retailers and government agencies to enable a personalized omnichannel customer engagement experience that creates profitable customer relationships while maximizing staff and resource utilization. Brands use the BookingBug platform to create a secure, data-driven and integrated platform for the entire customer lifecycle. From queuing to clienteling, from online to in-store, BookingBug bridges the gaps in the customer experience. It’s used by brands like Lego, John Lewis and the UK Government to manage tens of millions of customer engagements annually. BookingBug is partners with companies including Salesforce, Oracle and Microsoft. Recently, it has been recognized by Deloitte for its rapid growth and scale as one of the fastest growing companies in the world.