What do shoppers really want? Do retailers have a clue?


When customers shop at your store, do they feel confident, secure, and supported? According to a survey I conducted in partnership with Oracle NetSuite and Wakefield, they don’t. In fact, the survey found that more than half of the 1,200 surveyed customers felt anxious, stressed or alone the last time they walked into a brick-and-mortar store.
So, what’s the solution? Many retailers think that tech is the silver bullet to keep shoppers – especially young ones – coming into the store as opposed to buying online. This is where we saw the most significant disconnect. While nearly every retailer of the 400 we surveyed thinks tech will increase foot traffic, only one in three customers would be enticed by stores that feature things like virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
What customers really want is a simple, streamlined layout that facilitates a smooth shopping experience. They also want employee help – more than half of surveyed Millennials would feel more welcomed by in-store interactions with employees.
Tech only works if you have good employees using it so that it enhances customer service, instead of replacing it. While 43 percent of respondents asked for a personal experience, only 11 percent of retailers felt they had the tools and data needed to make that happen. Retailers can use tech in a smart way that reflects an understanding of their customers while still prioritizing human interactions. This can be tech that makes often annoying processes, like checking out or finding items, easier for the customer. Think about what’s most important to or frustrating for your customers and consider how a well-trained employee armed with supportive tech can make a difference.
Here are some key findings:
- Eighty percent of consumers do not feel they are provided with a personalized shopping experience both in-store and online.
- More than half (58 percent) of consumers are uncomfortable with the way stores use technology to improve personalization in their shopping experience and almost half (45 percent) reported negative emotions when they receive personalized offers online.
- The majority of consumers (53 percent) felt negative emotions the last time they visited a store; only 39 percent feel confident in retail stores today.
All hope is not lost – the survey revealed nearly every respondent saw a reason to buy something at a brick-and-mortar store. When customers have an emotional connection to the brand, they feel more confident buying and that can’t be created by just putting a robot in your store; you need a branded shopping experience. Help your shoppers feel great at all stages of their in-store experience and keep them coming back by using your tech to support great customer service.
- Oracle NetSuite + Retail Doctor Survey Reveals Customer Service Disconnect Between Retailers And Shoppers – RetailDoc.com
- New Study: Hey Alexa, 95% of consumers don’t want to talk to a robot when shopping – Oracle NetSuite
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: How effectively, in general, do you find that retailers connect with shoppers in their stores? How can they improve their performance in this respect?
Join the Discussion!
31 Comments on "What do shoppers really want? Do retailers have a clue?"
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Director of Marketing, Wiser Solutions, Inc.
Not many retailers are great at connecting with shoppers in stores. In many cases, it’s a lonely time walking the aisles looking for items with few associates around. I think more retailers can improve this experience by helping shoppers find items and speeding up the checkout process, which are two big areas of frustration. Self checkouts, better signage, digital displays, knowledgeable associates to guide shoppers — all this can definitely help.
Vice President of Marketing, OrderDynamics
In many cases you are either immediately asked about how an associate can help you (good), or you spend time walking aisles looking for a service rep. My personal experiences lean toward the latter, so I identify with the 80 percent of shoppers in the study.
To resolve this a recent HBR article pointed out that improving performance in stores often comes down to training the top and middle performers, and sometimes adding staff to high volume stores. Each case is different, of course. However this is something to think about – for certain.
Principal, Retailing In Focus LLC
In a broad sense, brick-and-mortar shoppers would be well served by higher levels of customer service. But as the BrainTrust discussed last week, customer service means different things to different people.
As Min-Jee points out, a mass merchant can exceed expectations by making merchandise easier to find and by speeding the checkout process. Meanwhile, a “high touch” store like Nordstrom needs a different kind of service standard. Either way, over-reliance on tech solutions instead of human ones isn’t the answer.
EVP & CMO, Randa Accessories
In-store experience must be RELEVANT to the consumer, and must offer one or more of these attributes: choice, convenience, or cost (the best assortment, the best curation, the best prices, and/or the best service). Poorly-conceived experiences, however, will continue to proliferate at retailers who just can’t see the goal line.
Chief Amazement Officer, Shepard Presentations, LLC
Confidence is a big opportunity in retail. Customers want to feel good about who they do business with. My loyalty formula is this: Customer Service + Confidence = (potential) Loyalty. How can stores improve confidence? Here are three ideas:
Managing Director, GlobalData
The effectiveness of retailers in connecting with customers varies enormously.
Some, like the department stores are dreadful. Staff are thin on the ground and the customer experience is not aided by a confusing layout overcrowded with stock. The shopper has to do a lot of work themselves to find what they want – the exact opposite of a pleasurable and enjoyable experience.
Technology will not improve this. It requires the encodement of basic retail disciplines and investment in customer service.
Founding Partner, Merchandising Metrics
Exactly … basic retail disciplines. Starting with product alignment with Brand Promise. I see two buckets. 1 = product. 2 = path-to-purchase. 2 is not a solution to a problematic 1. There are tons of solutions available in 2, both human and tech. Get 1 right and then assemble the human/tech solution in 2 that makes the most sense for the individual business.
Strategy & Operations Delivery Leader
Principal, Anne Howe Associates
Perhaps it’s time for mass retailers to get rid of the long row of checkout registers and put retail associates out in the aisles with a mobile scanner and a station to bag purchases. And of course, a helpful attitude and the ability to walk the shopper around to what they’re looking for.
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
When you speak with 1,200 shoppers that frequent retail stores, the findings of opinions are hard to challenge. Most retailers rarely try to discover unmet needs. A number of years ago, my partner Georganne Bender and I started encouraging hundreds of retailers and their staff to start asking customers in the store one question: “What one thing could we do to make your shopping experience more satisfying?” The answers were surprising to the retailers. We requested that everyone was to ask this question of 200 customers a year (come on now, that’s only four per week) and write down the answers to be reviewed weekly by management. It was amazing how many customers brought up the same things. Those issues were put into motion and the stores ended up letting the customers create and define the experiences that thrilled them. Like the old expression: hearing it right from the horse’s mouth.
Consumer Advocate, finder.com
I think one of the major problems is the disconnect between the teams working on tech innovation and customer experience. Too often they operate in silos, creating inconsistencies. Better communication and collaboration is needed to ensure offerings online are aligned to in-store and vice versa.
Retail Solutions Executive, Teradata
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
I walked Magazine Street in New Orleans last week, visiting a variety of both indie and chain retailers. The stores were interesting, quirky and well-merchandised. And while the customer service at the pop up PL Mirror House was a stand out, service at the rest of the retailers ranged from okay to non-existent. How hard is it to stop whatever you are doing to say hello to the customers who walk in your door?
Tech doesn’t solve anything when the employees are not engaged, it merely makes the store a vending machine. Bob’s survey said it all: “Tech only works if you have good employees using it so that it enhances customer service, instead of replacing it.”
Sometimes I think that those of us pushing in-store technology do not understand this. What generation we belong to doesn’t matter when we need/want help on the sales floor.
Chief Executive Officer, Progress Retail
Agreed Bob. Customers visit stores to connect with people that are ideally experts in the products and services being rendered. Help me in an efficient manner, with accurate information, and assist me in getting on with my day. Retailers need to remove all obstacles (merchandising, inventory work, excessive scheduling work, package delivery cadences etc.) so that in-store teams can best assist the customer with revenue-generating activity. And to avoid confusion, I mean adopt technology that can make those previously mentioned laborious processes streamlined and more efficient. The focus has to be customers.
Global Retail & CPG Sales Strategist, IBM
Retailers are well aware of shoppers’ needs. The challenge has always been and most likely will continue to be effective store-level and online execution. Simple. Just not easy.
Vice President, Research at IDC
The customer is the key — but many retailers fail to understand, genuinely care for, or provide services (or products) that help the customer achieve the customer’s goals. The effectiveness of the retailer to connect is tied to knowledge, empathy, and relevant action (to reinforce David Katz’s thoughts). Most retailers don’t know why their customers picked up the box of cereal, and usually they know little more than that they purchased it from their t-logs. Even knowing that can give a retailer an edge e.g., making sure the product remains in stock more frequently.
Retailers must know their customers and stores like department stores or other mass merchandisers have the inherent challenge of catering to many audiences-which is hard to scale. Starting point for retailers to improve: Data.
Managing Director, StoreStream Metrics, LLC
The short answer as to how effectively do retailers connect with shoppers in their store is — not very! For years, retailers have presented their wares in a sea of shelves and racks. What they lost is even trying to care on a human and emotional level. We’ve been trying to replace that void through with technology. While there are many technologies that can mitigate human oversight, ambivalence, and error — the new shopping experience must be grounded in emotional connection, storytelling, and immersive participation. We, shoppers, want to shop and buy from brands and people who care. While there are products we simply want to get at the shelf (and won’t forgive the retailer if it’s out of stock!) there are many situations where we simply expect people to care — it’s not asking that much.
President, Circular Logic
Connecting with customers is an emotional concept, not a technological one. The problem for most retailers is that they think personalizing the experience means adapting to the all of the data points available. And now with Big Data we have more data points than ever. This results in customers feeling more like they are under surveillance than being helped.
The key value of good employees is that they bring the human element and opportunity for emotional connection with customers. Employees can often sense if a customer wants help or doesn’t want to be bothered. The tech solution picks up a data point and starts recommending and when they fail to hit the mark, it backfires.
Technology is awesome when used to deliver a personalized experience that the customer can choose to access and that makes their lives easier. When it feels impersonal or replaces human interaction, it often fails.
President, The Ian Percy Corporation
President/CEO, The Retail Doctor
Excellent points as always, Ian. Where does feeling cared about start and what does it take to be first to show it?
Founder, Branded Ground
Reading the responses thus far, there’s nothing here that we all haven’t been saying for years now. In my mind, what’s missing are the kind of retail leaders that make the RIGHT decisions for the customer’s shopping experience, not THEIR decisions biased by personal views or short-sighted operational efficiencies/spending spreadsheets. It’s not hard.
They of course have a clue, any good research will give them whatever ammunition that they need to be fully informed. The bigger question is do they care? I’m a huge proponent of “actions speak louder than words.” When a retailer truly cares, it shows — and we all know who those great brands are. When they don’t, it shows as well — and we’re seeing them in the news every week.
President, The Ian Percy Corporation
Laura, thank you. You stir up a thought I wish had come to me when submitting my own coment. And that is this: All the data in the world – i.e. being fully informed – doesn’t make one care. Maybe this is the great myth of retail in this “modern” age. This “caring” factor several of our colleagues have mentioned has little or nothing to do with technology.
Founder, Grey Space Matters
President/CEO, The Retail Doctor
Great summation Phil!
Founder, Grey Space Matters
Thanks Bob!