A new digital shopping sensation is sweeping retail stores combining personalisation techniques with Digital Signage networks to offer unique shopping services to customers from the comfort of their own living room.
Having been pioneered in China and now rapidly rising in popularity across Europe, Social Shopping is giving the high street a new digital lease of life and allowing retailers to get closer to their customers at a time when they might not want to be in physical stores.
It brings together the online and physical spaces in a more dynamic way than ever before. Customers login from their personal device and are greeted by a personal shopper who is in the store. After an initial consultation, they are taken around the physical retail space virtually and are able to view products, see what’s new and get a closer look when something catches their eye. The purchase is completed digitally and the products are shipped to the customer.
This embraces the trends that we’ve seen emerging from lockdowns of increased comfort and capability with video calls and people readily seeking out our digital advice in the absence of being able to meet experts in person.
Here’s a few things to think about when get started with Live Social Shopping:
Have a clear activation strategy
Make it clear to your customers what the experience will be. Are your broadcasts for lots of people to attend at the same time through a live stream? This makes the experience less personal but it might suit some people better, allowing them to see what’s new without being put on the spot to buy, so they can visit your website later and make their considered choices.
Or will you be setting up one-to-one sessions to dispense personal advice? These put the customer, or a small group of friends if they are sharing the feed, in the driving seat and lets them share their tastes and style with the shopper.
Broadcast quality set up
Consider how you want to set up your broadcasting solution to make it a seamless and professional experience for your customers. In Asia, one of the most popular ways has been using a mobile phone. Camera quality is improving all the time, they have wireless connectivity to networks and with the right lighting and a tripod to eliminate any shakes, they can be a great way to test the market and see if this is something for you.
Customer journey management
You can manage your customer relationships and the live broadcasts through our CMS platform thanks to our omnichannel integration solution. You can connect your customer database, including loyalty scheme data, to the system and automatically keep records with customer interactions and engagement up to date.
You can also schedule and manage the campaign messaging from social media platforms so you have everything you need in one convenient location.
To find out more, contact your account manager or speak to me using the details below.