“Judged” is not quite the right word. “Having expectations set” is perhaps a better way to think about it. If my grocery store doesn’t have the brand I like I no longer just pick the other brand, I open the Amazon app on my phone while standing at the shelf and see if they have it instead. If the clothing store doesn’t have pants in my kid’s size I don’t ask a sales associate for help, I search online. If the retailer’s lucky, I’m searching their site. But it’s more likely that I’ve opened the search up to all retailers who might have the size I’m looking for. And certainly I’m not willing to go to ten different pads in a department store to find a dress, just because the department store has to present brand groupings — I’ll go online first, because then I can view the assortment how I want to view it and not how the retailer wants to present it to me. These are all examples where digital has set the… Read more »

I think many retailers struggle with service, period. For the most part, it is because they are not entirely customer-centric; they are slaves to outdated systems, operations or ways of thinking.

Digital has certainly raised expectations, but it’s not the only factor. Compared to 10 or 20 years ago, consumers are busier, more demanding of value, have a lot more choice, need less product and so forth. All of these things have driven changes to consumer culture.

Of course the physical store experience is being judged through a whole new lens. Customers KNOW more when they walk in the door today than what they did just a few short years ago. They’ve already shopped online. Or they will while in the store or later that day. So if the retailer doesn’t convert the sale while the customer is physically there, the whole universe becomes competition the instant they walk out the door. So it has got to be made easy for the customer while in the store. Compelling, distinctive product presented in a manner that makes it easy for the customer to jump to “yes.” That does not bode well for oceans of racks in department stores. (Same ocean at discount stores … cheaper prices.) Engage the senses! That’s the competitive edge against a phone or computer screen! People FEEL faster than they THINK. Use that!

Without question, the way digital interactions can leverage rich data to deliver highly-informed and personalized interactions has raised the bar for store interactions. Those expectations are warranted (and realistic) and the truth is, they are only going to increase over time. I believe the industry is gearing up to meet these expectations head on, as associate empowerment is a constant theme in my discussions with retailers in our client base. As such, I am very optimistic that serious progress will be made toward more enriching, more engaging and more empowered store experiences in the very near future.

We have to somehow break free from the legacy mindset that consumers “go online” to shop or engage with customer service agents. They simply shop or get their customer service problem solved one way or another. Customers may seamlessly engage with a brand across any platform, digital or physical, yet that experience has to be consistent.

The retailers that get all aspects of the customer experience journey right know that the digital-first mindset means that the customer can and will engage with your brand at any time. They are no longer limited to calling customer service or going to a physical location to have their problem solved.

The key is to know your customers, leverage these insights to remain one step ahead of them and realize that the shopping journey is changing dramatically.

To a degree, the customer judges the store through the lens of e-commerce experiences. However, as AI matures — and that won’t happen overnight — and is adopted by more and more retailers, they will be able to translate their analog expertise into digital experiences, that is one of the potential goals of AI. Unless we are on the cusp of a Darwinian mutation, let us not forget that we are social animals and we enjoy being with other animals. The question is, are we going to continue to go to stores for a social experience, or spend or social capital in other places?

The physical store experience is being judged by a lot more than e-commerce. Customer service is no longer defined by just retail or a retailer’s category competition. Uber and AirBnB have redefined the meaning of convenience, choice and payment. Hema in China is redefining the way to shop for groceries. Disney redefined the guest experience with their bands. This all contributes to a redefined set of expectations that brick-and-mortar retailers have to grapple with and build strategies around. They really need to build out a completely new set of buyer personas for their shopper and then develop their store experience based on those definitions. Difficult? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely.

The feeling of experience is in the mind of the consumer. Shopping is social and, for many, an escape. The real measuring rod for brick-and-mortar is the interaction — better yet, the moments of truth that occur in the first few minutes of a store visit and thereafter. I am not talking about a greeter at the front door. I am referring to trained and excited store representatives that interact with the customer. A good idea for brick-and-mortar retailers is to greet and treat the customer the same as you would if it were your mother or father. The internet has created the expectation levels demanded by customers, and brick-and-mortar sites must analyze all touch points and make sure they do all they can to compare favorably in creating great social experiences.

Comparing the physical in-store experience to a digital service experience is tough because you are not comparing apples to apples. Customer service can be good or bad in both places, but it’s never going to be the same and I think consumers understand that.

People who prefer to shop in brick-and-mortar stores want instant gratification; they enjoy the physical experience and like to interact with store associates. Online shopping is easy and it’s instant gratification in a different way. “Found it!” comes faster, receiving it and hoping it’s what you thought you ordered can take a few days.

Consumer choice is now endless; digital has raised the bar and changed how we shop. Digital augments my shopping experience, but it will never completely replace what happens on the sales floor in a good store.

As digital technology emerged retailers and brands simply digitized what they had been doing for years. Digital was seen as just a way to do traditional retailing “better and faster.” Being digital, as Nicholas Negroponte noted in his 1995 (!!) book, meant that we needed to re-engineer the way we thought and approached the way we did everything. Simply digitizing the status quo was missing the tremendous potential of being digital. There is no doubt that exceptional e-commerce customer service experiences drive our expectations, but it is important not to define customer service as either digital or analog. We all want to be respected and expect people to do the right thing — regardless of the interaction or human experience. It’s one of those inalienable rights. As shoppers, we expect no less — regardless of the type or manner of interaction.

People still live in a physical environment and shop for physical items. We must recognize that not everything digitizes.

That said, I am VERY concerned by the way e-commerce attempts to buy consumer loyalty with experience that is not economically feasible — like Amazon Prime.

Amazon Prime raises expectations for customer service to an exceptionally unprofitable level. Amazon survives that for the moment because they operate at a retail loss (and eke out a small profit mostly from the tiniest portion of their business — AWS).

Those expectations cannot last — but it’s no easy feat to undo.

So is the physical store experience judged through that lens? Only in terms of customer service expectations. Otherwise, it’s a physical world with physical people buying physical products. Let’s accept that.

For years brand agencies, retail technology firms and disassociated retail C-suites have been attempting to put “the best of online retail” into physical retail. Now the opposite trend is beginning, where human service is being leveraged in digital channels. To repeat much of what has been said: Yes online can have the commoditized staple purchases. Yes customers are channel blind. Yes, the physical in-store experience is expected to be seamless! Plain and simple: the gap between the customer’s expectation of the retail sales associate’s expertise and the retailer’s level of investment in said expertise has never been larger. That is the challenge for physical retail in the future as technology gets stronger and stronger. There will always be stores, but they can’t operate like it’s the year 2000.

Online shoppers have become accustomed to features such as product reviews, extensive choices, one-click transaction processing, and personalized recommendations. Consumers now expect the same level of personalized service they receive online when they shop in a physical store. The technology exists to infuse digital capabilities into the physical store that enable retailers to offer customers personalized recommendations based on customer context that incorporates data from all channels in real-time the same way Amazon does it but in-store. The obstacle for many retailer is that their data and systems are in distributed channel silos, which makes it difficult to access in real-time. Without real-time information, you inventory and customer information is not accurate and you can’t offer customers the service they expect. Unified commerce is the cornerstone for delivering the holistic real-time customer experience by breaking down the walls between internal channel silos and leveraging a common commerce platform. A unified commerce platform is not simply the future in-store or Web platform, but combines in-store POS, mobile, Web, order management, call center and clienteling into one… Read more »

The distinction between digital and physical shopping experiences have lost their meaning to today’s consumer. There is only “the shopping experience” it is neither digital nor physical exclusively, but both at the same time, intertwined with each other and inseparable. Today’s consumers have blurred the shopping experience across channels (a term which only meant something to retailers, not shoppers).

Yes, expectations have risen not just because of e-commerce alone but because retailers like Amazon, Apple, and services brands like Uber and Airbnb have changed the paradigm of what consumers expect to receive for their money. Yes, the bar is being raised higher and higher and retailers must adapt to survive.