A brick-and-mortar retail product experience refers to the holistic experience a customer has when interacting physically with a product to understand its value. It takes into consideration not only the features of the product, but the presentation, pricing, and competitive advantage. All physical stores strive to harness that positive physical experience to their customers to build a loyal customer base who are satisfied with the overall value they obtain.
The Brick-and-Mortar Experience
Brick-and-mortar drivers of customer interest include:
- Presentation: The way a product is presented, including optimal description or store clerk description of features.
- Availability: A selection of the product or similar products to choose from.
- Branding and pricing: With the ability to compare prices and choose, customers can easily be disengaged when pricing is quite different from competitive modes of purchasing.
- Customer service and support: Employees that give personal attention and have a detailed understanding of the product.
The Online Experience
When we translate the brick-and-mortar experience to an online portal, customer interest requirements are not very different at the base level. However, expectations are higher. Online purchases have more requirements. Customers expect a 360-degree view of a product – a plethora of information – organized succinctly to address their needs. Without the information they’re looking for, they’ll discard the site and find another seller without guilt over leaving empty-handed.
Product experience management (PXM) is focused on this exact issue. How can online businesses harness the interest requirements of an in-person retail experience while keeping them from leaving their virtual storefront?
Online drivers of customer interest include:
- Personalization: Customer favorites or products of interest make the shopper more inclined to shop when they feel catered to.
- Convenience: There is no need to stand in line to make a purchase.
- Competitive comparison: Immediately know what alternatives exist and whether the product in question is the right choice with competitive analysis on why and what to buy.
- Delivery speed: Variety of options in delivery methods and times.
Putting Product Experience Management into Play
Personalization is a key element of the online experience that can’t be accomplished in a brick-and-mortar store. So how do we accomplish this level of information? It isn’t possible without an analytics engine or artificial intelligence (AI) running behind the scenes. These tools understand customer behavior, capture data on logistics and supply, as well as store data on buying habits, competitive landscapes, and more. Without that data in one place, online retailers lack a system that enables customers to decide faster and keep their attention on one site.
What does this look like in the real world? Imagine you’re a heavy equipment manufacturing company that wants its customers to experience a 360-degree view of their machinery with supporting specifications. Your customers should be able to toggle through specifications in order to find an appropriate match for their business needs. Well, we’ve done it! Our client saw an improved ecommerce functionality, increased part sales, and enabled real-time decisioning.
- 10% year-over-year ecommerce part sales growth
- 25% reduction in ecommerce part returns
- 67% reduction in elapsed time from data master to ecommerce app
Are you ready to implement an end-to-end solution for digital transformation and integrated AI solutions? Contact us to learn more about enabling your customers through product experience management.
By Malik Azeez, Director of PIM