if you love e-commerce, you're going to love real-time Shopping particularly when it includes UPC, QR barcodes, then lets throw AR codes into the mix... article via "TrendWatching"
Way back in 2008, we published a Trend Briefing on
OFF=ON, highlighting the new ways in which the offline world was adjusting to, if not mirroring the increasingly dominant online world. We stated: “
where OFF=ON gets most interesting [is that] a whole new set of business practices and processes, not to mention client involvement and marketing techniques, have emerged online, with consumers relishing these developments, and thus the offline world has to adapt.”
Since then it’s actually been more about total immersion than adaptation:
the online world is now completely accessible even when ‘offline’ (that is, away from any kind of online device that is too clunky to be used on the go). For consumers, this is a cause for celebration: because while they want (if not crave) to be online 24/7 (
ONLINE OXYGEN), they still prefer to
live in the world of warm bodies rather than cyberspace (please re-read
MASS MINGLING).
For retailers, this means a world where not only have
consumer expectations been set by a decade of shopping online, but one where consumers can
access all the things they love about e-commerce – convenience, the ability to hear other consumers’ experiences, total price transparency, and virtually endless choice – out in the ‘real world’ too.
Just check out this recent anecdote, about a shopper in Sears, who when faced with an in-store price $3 higher than Sears’ online store, simply pulled out his smartphone, bought online, selected in-store pickup and walked over to collect his purchase (via
The Consumerist).
Extreme? Perhaps, but consider this selection of stats:
- 8 out of 10 consumers research purchases online. While 42% research online and then buy online, 51% research online and then buy in-store (Source: Google & IPSOS OTX, September 2010).
- Multi-channel consumers who receive information from more than one source (store, online, mobile, or catalogue) prior to purchase, spend 82% more per transaction than a customer who only shops in store (Source: Deloitte, December 2010).
- E-commerce conversion rates have been hovering around 2-3.5% while brick-and-mortar conversion rates for fashion retailers have been around 20-25% (Source: Verdict Research, May 2010).
- Of the 40% of US consumers who own smartphones, 70% use their smartphones while shopping in-store (Source: Google & IPSOS OTX, April 2011).
- 74% of smartphone shoppers made a purchase as a result of using their smartphone. Of these 76% have purchased in-store, 59% online while only 35% have made a purchase via their smartphone (Source: Google & IPSOS OTX, April 2011).
- Mobile barcode scanning (including traditional UPC barcodes and QR codes) increased 1,600% globally during 2010 (Source: Scanlife, December 2010).
But OFF=ON is a cause for celebration for retailers too: not only do consumers still enjoy the real world (more on that in RETAIL SAFARI below), but (for now) online benefits are moving ‘offline’ far quicker and more successfully than efforts to replicate the real world, online (Second Life stores anyone!?).
No wonder then that smart retailers are increasingly catering to consumers’
INFOLUST,
mimicking if not actually bringing the online experience to their in-store shoppers: everything from in-store price comparisons and customer reviews to suggested pairings (shoppers who bought this also bought…).
Doing this will increase sales and improve customer satisfaction by
reassuring shoppers that they are purchasing the best of the best, at the cheapest possible price: obviously required information in today’s
EXPECTATION ECONOMY. Add to this everything from e-coupons to buy-online / pick-up offline services, and the real world's enduring advantages will actually receive additional desirability because of online developments.*
*Yes, consumers will continue to be in love with e-commerce too, of course:
This Trend Briefing looks mainly at physical retail. Now, while the distinction between ‘online’ and ‘offline’ is becoming increasingly meaningless, in no way are we suggesting that e-commerce won’t continue to grow rapidly (because it will), or that online retailers won’t continue to come up with innovations that transform the online shopping experience (because they are).
