'No-Brainer' Retailing - 3 Things Every Canadian Retailer Should be Doing in the Digital Era

Photo Credit: Stuart Isett for The New York Times

As I continue to hear about the challenges of Retailers in Canada like Sears, Best Buy, even Canada Post - who are struggling to find relevance for their brick-and-mortar assets in the digital era, I ask myself if they might be focusing too much on the hype of social media marketing and mobile applications, and actually missing out on a few of the basics for good customer experience?

Consumers are becoming more tech savvy and expect Retailers (especially National ones) to keep pace. Even my mid-70's aged parents have an iPad mini that they carry around with them, checking Facebook posts and looking up products online before heading to the store to make a purchase. Consumers value their time, and are spending less of it physically browsing in stores. If they find an item they would like to purchase in-store but it isn't available in their color/size, they don't just 'want' the store to do everything they can to find it for them, but they have come to 'expect' it to. Retailers that don't make any effort to do so will quickly lose favor with consumers, who will be drawn to more sophisticated alternatives. (Hudson's Bay, take note - with Nordstrom coming to town in the next year, you might want to think about the following 3 ways you could help win -- and retain -- your customers.)

1. Provide Inventory Visibility Online
When a customer visits your website to look for a particular item, they should be able to see which stores have it available -- and if you build the functionality, make sure it actually works! I don't know what's worse for a retailer's reputation -- not providing the inventory visibility at all, or having it wrong 90% of the time.

2. Integrate Inventory Visibility Across Your Channels (In-Store, Online, Mobile)
It's one thing to let customers see what you have available in your 'online store,' but it's quite another to actually integrate your inventory across your physical stores and online/mobile. If a customer asks a sales rep 'Can you please tell me if you have this sweater in a size large at your store across town?' they need to be able to look it up on the Retail POS and give an accurate answer. As I was shopping this past Christmas season, I don't' know how many times I heard, "I'm sorry, our systems can't do that, I can't see what's available and even if I could, it would likely be wrong. I could try calling them for you, but they might not pick up the phone." Nordstrom announced this functionality back in 2010, so it's not new.

3. Incent your Sales Staff to Promote a Multi-Channel Experience
I actually think this is the single most important element of a good customer experience in the digital era. Regardless of whether or not a Retailer has successfully implemented #1 or #2 above, they simply must train and incent their Retail staff to make a sale through any channel that meets the customer's  need. You might be trying to grow physical store sales by incenting staff to only sell what's on the floor, but channel conflict will do nothing to promote your digital savvy. If the item isn't available, the clerk must be rewarded for going out of their way to locate an option for the customer -- and if the item is above a certain dollar value, offer to ship it to their home for free. The sophisticated, positive customer experience will reap ongoing returns for you that far exceed the added cost of sale. Nordstrom again, hits this one out of the park (in the USA) - let's wait to see if they do the same north of the border... and if the threat of sophisticated competition entices some of our own big Retailers to up the ante on their own digital customer experience.