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Greetings!
The newest mantra in marketing is finally bringing us back down to earth about "New Media." Today, the Gurus are admitting that social media is merely a piece of the marketing puzzle, and works in tandem with all your other tools within the marketing "mix". It is a tactical, more than a strategic, challenge.
Below are two articles that get to the same point: Are you prepared to meet your customer wherever they show up, and sell them effectively?
Enjoy this latest newsletter!
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Shoppers are still moving their business online
And merchants are going to chase them all over the web
A staple of the market research business is to confirm what makes sense. A recent survey done for Shop.org confirms the following:
Shoppers are moving their activity online.
"About one-third (32.2%) of online shoppers say they'll make more of their holiday purchases on the web this year...Online shoppers who say they'll spend less of their holiday budget online than a year ago: 6.1%."
So far so mundane. What I found interesting is that, more than ever, merchants are waiting to pounce online all over the web, not just on their own sites:
"Online retailers know shoppers care about low prices and free shipping, but they also appreciate the ability to easily find gift ideas or shop around the clock," said Phil Rist, Executive Vice President for BIGresearch, who did the study for Shop.org. "Instead of trying to entice shoppers to come to them, retailers will be leveraging social media in an even more vibrant way this holiday season to reach consumers where they already are: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube."
Both quotes are from the survey results article on Shop.org.
What are you doing to pounce (gently) on consumers while they are out shopping in cyberspace?
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Back in the bricks and mortar world, no one is pouncing
And retailers are missing out for a lack of investment in people
To counterbalance the online rush, merchants are also finding the need to rediscover "the art of selling at the point-of-sale," according to McKinsey and Co.
"Many retailers assume that customers walk into stores for purely transactional purposes," McKinsey reports. "They know what they want and just need to buy it. Yet McKinsey research indicates that as many as 40 percent of customers remain open to persuasion once they enter a store, despite undertaking extensive product research, reading online reviews, and comparing prices on their own." In other words, if your in-store staff is unprepared to close the deal, a good percentage of your store visitors will walk out with nothing.
"There's a powerful and straightforward business case for investing in frontline sales staff: When done correctly, adding salespeople offers one of the more attractive payback opportunities in retail."
Read more about this renaissance of traditional sales training here. | | (Registration may be required, but it's free.) |
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The year is almost over, and we haven't had coffee yet. Remember, I'm buying, and can come to you (within geographic reason). I look forward to it.
Sincerely,
Kern Lewis
GrowthFocus, Inc.
510-329-8155
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