{"id":38375,"date":"2016-08-23T14:03:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T14:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vwo.com\/blog\/?p=38375"},"modified":"2023-11-09T14:16:49","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T08:46:49","slug":"improve-customer-engagement-in-retail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vwo.com\/blog\/improve-customer-engagement-in-retail\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Improve Customer Engagement in Retail: 5 Smart Strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a retail landscape where consumers have almost unlimited choices and barriers to entry are lower than ever, it is becoming more and more difficult to convert and retain customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retail businesses are now looking for new ways to deliver great customer experience<\/a>, so their customers are more satisfied and loyal. Customer engagement is an important aspect of the overall retail customer experience and plays a role in forming long-term and meaningful customer relationships. Whether you\u2019ve had a retail business for years or are just starting out, it pays to take a deeper look at your customer engagement<\/a> strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Download Free: Customer Engagement Guide<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What does customer engagement mean in retailing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Retail customer engagement refers to the level of interaction and attachment customers have with the business across all touchpoints and throughout their lifecycles. Gallup defines fully engaged customers<\/em> as those who are both emotionally attached and rationally loyal. And has reported that fully engaged customers represent an average 23% premium in terms of share of profitability, revenue, and relationship growth.\u00a0So it\u2019s clear that deepening your retail engagement pays off in revenue and relationship. But how can your business go beyond transactional value to deepen the relationship?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are some key retail customer engagement strategy attributes\u2014emotions, participation, user behavior, and technological advancement \u2014 that retail eCommerce companies should focus on to improve customer retention and engagement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Leverage emotions to deepen the customer connection<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emotions have a strong influence on consumer perceptions, but many businesses traditionally focus primarily on rational and product-led messaging. Paying attention to what your customers really associate with your brand will open up opportunities to connect at a deeper emotional level<\/a>. Dove\u2019s \u2018Real Beauty\u2019 campaign is a classic example of using emotions to drive engagement and, as a result, an uplift in sales. The campaign repositioned the brand from just beauty products to a champion and empowerer of women everywhere. In their new campaign\u2014#MyBeautyMySay, Dove empowers women to define their beauty in their own way. Through this campaign, Dove attempts to connect to the self-respect<\/em> aspect, which many women believe is a \u201cbattle still to be won.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image source: Dove<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Developing deeper levels of emotional engagement can also be achieved by fostering transparency and trust. Copywriting is important here\u2014in the content on your website, using a tone of voice that is authentic and real, and not too pushy, helps to build trust with the audience before they\u2019ve even purchased. Using social proof, trust seals, and reviews on the website can also help to create a sense of trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Using humor is another technique that has a strong emotional appeal to engage customers. When used appropriately, it never fails to make an impact. While humor works best for brands in advertising and social media, even being light-hearted and having a little fun with web content can make your brand more approachable and relatable.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image source: Dollar Shave Club<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Dollar Shave Club famously drove massive sales with a humorous launch video<\/a> that cost only $4,500 to produce. The resulting surge in demand saw them overwhelmed with orders and set the brand up for ongoing success. When served at the right moment, to the right audience, humor has the power to cut through and create results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More broadly, how you use customer emotions to nudge or encourage customers to take a preferred course of action. MyCustomer gives a five-point list<\/a> on building emotional engagement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Know what emotional triggers exist currently in your experience.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Define what emotion you want your experience to evoke.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Listen to your customers\u2026a lot.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Identify your customers\u2019 subconscious experiences.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Never stop improving the experience.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    2. Improve engagement through participation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Another way to improve customer engagement is by inviting them to participate. This can be as simple as asking for suggestions and feedback or as ambitious as engaging customers in product creation and innovation. Consider the example of Vans. The leading shoe brand allows users to customize their pair of sneakers on the website, driving purchase volume as well as loyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n

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    \"User
    Image source: Vans<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    Moreover, co-creating products or improving your product with customers can be a source of innovation and competitive advantage. McKinsey researched<\/a> more than 300 companies and identified three key areas where those who lead at co-creation focused: targeting co-creators, finding the motivation, and focusing on a sustainable pay-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Social media represents another opportunity to drive customer feedback and participation. Just the basics of posting on social media will create awareness and allow customers to respond and comment. But it doesn\u2019t stop here\u2014use shoppable images on your social media accounts, and embed social feeds into your website\u2014product page, home page, or a dedicated photo gallery page. ASOS creatively uses Instagram images shared by customers by running the #AsSeenOnMe campaign on its website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Image source: ASOS<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Warby Parker started its home try-on services in 2012. It was also smart to start a user-generated content (UGC)<\/a> campaign for the same. Their customers become a part of the campaign by sharing photographs while trying the five pairs of Warby glasses on their social media with the hashtag #WarbyHomeTryOn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Forever21 created a single hashtag for all content generated by its users\u2014#F21XME. It features content with the hashtag on its website, asking participants to upload their favorite F21 outfit on Instagram using the hashtag for a chance to be featured.<\/p>\n\n\n

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    \"User
    Image source: Forever 21<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    Most social media platforms now allow businesses to link directly to products within the app. Twitter product pages are tweets that lead to shopping information about an item. A buy button is included for those who wish to buy\u2014an easy way to generate purchases directly from an engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n

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    Image source: Marketing Land<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    Download Free: Customer Engagement Guide<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    3. Leverage user behavior to drive engagement on-site<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    We discussed earlier how emotions can be leveraged to increase engagement. However, it is equally important for retail enterprises to focus on increasing digital customer engagement<\/a> rationally, which can be done by providing an enhanced on-site experience. Continuously improving users\u2019 on-site experiences requires retail enterprises to dig deep into user insights, identify and resolve pain points, and discover what interests or repels users. This can be done with the help of tools such as heatmaps<\/a>, visitor recordings<\/a>, and form analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Visitor recordings play the actual interactions that any user has had on your website. These insights can be used further to analyze or validate whether any element on the website is distracting the user or a pain point otherwise. UKToolCenter removed the product filter, improving site engagement by 27%<\/a>. Using visitor recordings, they hypothesized that the product distracted users\u2014a hypothesis that was easily validated using VWO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Heatmaps highlight areas of maximum engagement on a website and also pinpoint dead zones. A retail store can study low-engagement areas and test improvements, which might include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n