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The vast majority of shopping is still done in physical stores — nearly 80 percent, in the case of apparel — so retailers ought to keep investing in their stores, according to a Harvard Business Review study.
Stores should not only be attractive to shoppers, they should also do more to gather data on those shoppers — an area in which they are behind the online merchants, the study asserts.
“Technology could be used to customize the in-store experience by encouraging customers to swipe their smartphones as they enter, so that their profile could then be used to tailor the experience and offers”
"Online sites have a wealth of data on shoppers — from their tastes, as indicated by previous purchases, to demographic information and preferences," the study reads. "In a store, however, a sales associate tries to guess a shopper’s tastes in real time. As a solution, technology could be used to customize the in-store experience by encouraging customers to swipe their smartphones as they enter, so that their profile could then be used to tailor the experience and offers. Stores should also make shopping memorable — through drinks and other hospitality services, for example — and encourage customers to complete their transactions online."
By Edmund Mander
Director, Editor-In-Chief/SCT