Creating a retail experience
by Shane on 02/11/07 at 12:47 pm
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South African retail in general really needs to learn how to create an experience!
When last were you blown away by a shopping experience?
Maybe you have recently visited a store where the staff were super efficient and really knew what they were talking about? (Please tell us which store). Maybe you walked into a store and you were encouraged to try out various products, a store that didn’t have those terrible “Don’t touch, and if you break this you’ll pay” signs all over the place. You phoned a customer support center and you really didn’t mind having to hold a few minutes because you were simply enjoying the entire experience (and the fact that you didn’t have to crack a code to get through their telephone menu).
I’ve chatted to a couple of people who have come back from abroad, who rave about their super shopping experiences – places like Pike Place Fish Market. Get this:
We are the Seattle fresh fish company that everyone talks about. Besides offering only the best quality, freshest seafood, our dedication to having fun and creating excitement while we work makes us “world famous.”
I love the “dedication to having fun and creating excitement” bit – Fantastic! People, we can learn from this.
Here’s a picture of a kids bookstore in Beijing. How cool is this?
A couple of years back I went to a huge multi-story toy shop in New York City. On every level there were toy demonstrations being performed by the sales staff – from magicians doing trick demo’s to guys racing control cars around the walking areas. It was absolute chaos, but for a kid it must have been heaven.
This week Andrew Smith and Mark Forrester posted on their recent online shopping experience. Mark had a GREAT experience with Oddica.com and Andrew had a really DISAPPOINTING experience with the ZA Store, oh and he also mentioned my shopping experience with PCMall.
We’ve tried really hard to try and create an experience when people receive one of our products, realising that the little things like packaging and letters can make a huge difference to the overall experience. Online retailers need to work extra hard at this because the actual online experience can be rather clinical. Focusing on your packaging is a great way to add a personal touch and communicate your brand. The free prize inside is where it’s at; it’s the little extras that your clients were not expecting.
Having said all of this, we can’t ignore the basics which add to the overall experience. Getting back to people when we said we would, delivering on time, trying to help customers wherever possible, even if it means referring them somewhere else.
Shane Dryden is the 'Maven' at Ideate. The driving-force of Yuppiechef, Shane loves to write on advertising and innovation. He spots the non-obvious stuff behind the obvious, which seems obvious, but isn’t really that obvious (obviously). View more articles by Shane.
