How to deliver a retail experience that customers want.
Understanding and catering to the needs and preferences of customers is crucial for the success of any retail business. Creating a great looking store is only one aspect of the equation. The real magic happens when retailers align their brand experience across all channels and deliver on what their customers truly need and want.
This is how successful retailers keep customers coming back, driving brand loyalty and ultimately growing the bottom line. Let’s elaborate on how to create a stellar retail experience that customers actually want.
1. Customer experience strategy
Building a house requires a plan and a set of drawings so that the builders know what to build. Much like building a house, building a strong retail experience requires a plan. This is where a customer experience (CX) strategy comes in. A customer experience strategy is a crucial first step in building a retail experience. It sets the foundation and outlines a comprehensive plan designed to create positive and meaningful interactions between a retailer and their customers at every touchpoint throughout the customer journey. It involves understanding customer needs, preferences, and pain points, and then crafting strategies to address them effectively.
The most essential element in a customer experience strategy is to understand your customer. Many retailers think that they know what their customers wants. Consequently, delivering solutions that do not quite hit the mark. The most effective approach to truly getting to know your customer is by hearing from them directly. This could be done by conducting research and gathering data to understand your customers' demographics, preferences, behaviours, and expectations. Often, this may also lead to new commercial opportunities that meet your customers needs - and deliver on ideas that may not have previously been considered. There are many ways to conduct research depending on the budget and time available. Once this data is collected and analysed, it should be developed into a customer journey map (see point 2). Then a customer experience strategy can be crafted to meet the needs identified across each touchpoint in the customer journey.
Through research, Hairhouse discovered insights form customers that identified a desire for products that address hair health. This led to the development of a new ‘hair health’ zone in store, catering to customers needs and creating a retail experience directly addressing the needs of their customers, whilst providing education along the way.
2. Customer Journey Mapping
By understanding how customers interact with your brand from when they consider a purchase, to pre-entry, checkout and beyond, you can optimise each touchpoint to enhance the overall customer experience. Mapping out the customer journey helps in identifying pain points and opportunities for improvement. This may involve improving the store layout, streamlining checkout processes, enhancing staff interactions, and online experiences across channels. Retailers should always aim to create a circular customer journey map, rather than a linear one. As repeat purchase is what enables businesses to grow.
But first, you must identify ‘who’ your customers or target/ future customers are. This is where step one- investing in understanding customers demographics’ needs and desires is crucial. This information should be developed into customer personas. A persona is a fictional character who represents customers that engage with your brand in a similar way. They are based on a representation of ideal and existing customers. Retailers typically have multiple personas depending on the product or services offered. Personas are powerful tools that aid in customer experience planning, as they offer insight into what customers want and how they will engage.
Laying out the customer journey for each unique persona into a step by step map that clearly identifies each touchpoint from when they first consider a purchase, to when they step inside a retail store and post purchase allows retailers to clearly see how various customer types interact with their brand. Each touchpoint can be analysed with pain-points and improvements identified which are then aligned with customers preferences, behaviour and expectations as uncovered in the research phase. Creativity in this process can uncover opportunities for retailers to deliver new and innovative experiences that exceed customers expectations.
This is the recipe to creating a customer experience that customers actually want.
Case study- Space by Thynk showroom
A multi brand, multi category showroom showcases every finish and fixture required to build a home. A customer journey map was developed for personas including individuals, home builders and architects/ designers. The showroom and displays were laid out to suit each of their individual needs.
3. Brand Activation
Aligning your store design and retail experience with your brand's DNA and unique selling proposition (USP) is essential for creating a memorable and cohesive brand activation.
Strong brands clearly communicate what their brand stands for across all their retail channels- both online and in bricks and mortar. Identifying what the core of your business is, and what makes your brand unique should be clearly evident to customers through the expression of the brand across retail channels. Brand activation in store design should come through the materials and aesthetics, checkout process, product trial and interactive elements, staff and most importantly the overall experience that the store offers.
Developing an emotional connection with customers through unique brand activation, sets retailers, creates loyalty and gives customers a reason to come in store vs buying online. Encouraging trial is a great way for creating emotional connection as this allows customers to engage with your brand and product on a deeper level, it also increases the chances of purchase.
As retail designers we often ask retailers - if you were to cover up the logo on your shopfront, would your brand be identified by your customer? Or does it simply look like any other brand? This is a great test to identify the effectiveness of your brand activation in a retail setting.
Case study- Nudie Jeans, Brisbane
The DNA of Nudie Jeans is sustainability. All stores are ‘repair stores’ and offer forever repairs. By placing sewing machine in the shopfront this clearly communicates what Nudie Jeans stands for. The Nudie Jeans Brisbane store features fixtures tiled with tiles made from traded in Nudie Jeans- true commitment to circularity and a very clear brand activation.
4. Space planning
Getting the space planning right for a retail store will define the customer experience and directly impact sales. There are many different types of space planning methods. When planning a store, retailers must carefully consider their brand positioning, product type/ capacities and assortment, space available, fitting/ trial, checkout, storage and most importantly the desired customer behaviours and needs (see step 2).
Space planning should always commence with a clear zoning strategy to address each key touchpoint along the customer journey. This will clearly illustrate how the store flows operationally to ensure a cohesive customer experience.
During the space planning phase, each customer persona should be carefully considered and their shopping style catered for. As each customer persona is different, and has different needs, this may require different solutions in each zone to meet their needs. The space planning and eventually the design, should address each persona’s pain points to deliver a great customer experience.
The entry should tell the customers what the brand stands for and what products they sell - either through the shopfront display or entry display. Exemplifying strong brand activation. The front 30% of the store is the hardest working and will typically deliver the most sales. The entry of the store should always showcase the latest and greatest products. This is known as the decompression zone, where customers take in what they have seen and the strategic message that the retail store is communicating. Typically customers will look left and then enter the store. Depending on which side of the road they drive in their country, they will typically replicate this navigation in store (eg. drive on left = enter store on left). This rule should be used to strategically place key products that are unique to your brand, premium, in high demand or promotional- and the first area your customer will engage with. Often this determines whether they stay or leave your store. Hence the space planning is crucial to guide your customer to the key areas in your store, encouraging them to interact. Keeping customers in store longer creates loyalty and leads to conversion.
The various principles of space planning in retail include: figure 8 (also called loop or race track), free flow, boutique and more geometric versions known as: straight, diagonal, angular, geometric, grid/ herringbone. Some retailers opt for a mix. Retailers that have products that are very different, a grid style layout works well and allows each unique product/ range to be clearly identifies and experienced by the customer. The grid can also assist with increased capacity by creating more areas for products to be placed. For brands that are looking to create a more relaxed customer experience, slowing customers down so that they can engage with their brand and products, loop and free flow layouts work best.
Creating a robust space planning strategy will create a strong foundation for the retail experience.
Case study: Kate Spade New York
Kate Spade New York shopfronts create an eye catching display and showcasing all products from the lifestyle category in the decompression zone at the entry. The interior includes a loop / racetrack layout.
Case study: Fackelmann Housewares Australia
A grid layout is applied in this multi brand, multi category showroom. This allows maximum capacity and zones to be created for each unique brand, allowing customers to find what they are looking for easily.
Case study: Space By Thynk Showroom
A geometric layout in this showroom allows bulky items to be displayed and creates a clear shopping path for the customer.
5. Interior Design
Creating an interior design that looks great and is unique to your brand will not only set your brand apart but also encourage customers to spend more time in-store. This increases the likelihood of making purchases. There are many elements to consider in creating an effective retail interior these include:
facade design
fixture design
lighting design
storytelling through architecture
finishes selections
signage
visual merchandising / eye catching displays
interactive elements that encourage trial
fitting rooms/ fitting areas
mirrors
comfortable seating
imagery
check out
pack and wrap
All of the above should work together to create an atmosphere that reflects your brand identity and resonates with your customers and encourage exploration. Retail interior design is a unique science of not just pure architecture, but an intimate understanding of brand, product, operations and most importantly customers.
Case study – Smeg, Winning Appliances
Smeg is a premium brand. Their display at Winning Appliances Redfern reflects their luxury brand identity by setting products in context, into luxury kitchens that look like a setting in an aspirational home, rather than into a typical wall fixture display with rows of product.
By implementing these strategies, you can effectively meet customer expectations, foster brand loyalty, and drive business growth.
If you are curious about the changing retail landscape and what this could mean for your customer experience and retail strategy reach out to us at hello@xpluso.co or book a complimentary consultation.