Loek Wermenbol
Retail strategy director
08-12-2022

How To Get Customers Back Into The Store

Are your store visits back to pre-pandemic levels? Consumers are now used to shopping online and need to find their way back to physical retail. Studies show that consumers certainly want that but expect to be surprised in-store. So how do you achieve that as a retailer? The key is to create a seamless digital-to-physical customer journey. We give you some practical pointers to increase your store visits and to surprise your visitor with an experience.  

1. Unique interaction and influencing your customer.

You achieve this by adding an interactive experience to your store or even product. One way to do this is sampling and testing. Customers come to stores to experience, feel and test products. Add an interactive component to it and you can influence what the customer experiences. For example, by implementing Pick & Lift technology which is already a proven example. Rituals Home & body cosmetics uses an interactive perfume bar, where the customer enters their preferred fragrance into the application. Then three pipettes of fragrances from the Rituals collection that come closest to the customer’s preference light up. While smelling and selecting the pipette of preferences, the customer can make a choice. This process, in which the customer is in control of the initiative, contributes to an enormous positive customer experience.   

2. Digitizing the shop window. 

As a retailer, we don’t need to tell you anything about window display. This is the best way to get customers into the store. Maybe you already have a digital window display. If not, now is the time to start thinking about it! But a window display is so much more than a digital poster. With the right technology and right message, this digital solution increases traffic to the store. Take SchoonenbergHearingsupport for example. Within 4 weeks’ time we digitized 130 shop windows throughout the Netherlands. We opted for a high brightness display whereby the message is perfectly visible during the day due to high brightness. In the evening the screen is less bright to not let it be too present in the shopping street. The content is real-time tuned with for example the time, day or season. This way, the relevant content is shown at exactly the right moment. After hours it does not display ‘come in’, but ‘order online’. And of course, it’s all programmed by us, so your staff members don’t have to worry about it. 

3. The dual function of an interactive mirror as a digital fitting room.

Smart mirrors are innovative solutions that extend the shopping visit of your customer. Above all, again you surprise the customer. By using smart motion sensors or applying RFID technology, the ‘magic mirror’ can be used for multiple purposes. When picking up a garment, the mirror automatically displays product information, whether the product is in stock, or shows a matching product. This contributes enormously to cross-selling. Also perfect for an advertisement, which disappears as soon as the customer stands in front of the mirror and the normal mirror function becomes active.  

4. Music as a sales tactic.

With sensory marketing you tap in on all the senses of your customer. Hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling are powerful motivators when making choices. Through research in psychology and neuromarketing we understand more and more how the senses work and how you can influence behavior and brand perception. In your store you can realize this quite easily by adding music and scent. By timing the music to the time of day, crowds or target group, for example, you can give your store visitors different emotions. In fact, you create different experiences throughout the day. Studies show that slow background music in a supermarket causes buyers to spend at least 40% more. Worth thinking about! 

5. Creating positive associations with scent.

Scent links thoughts and experiences. With the right scent you can evoke pleasant memories in your visitors in a positive way. Think, for example, of the smell of sunscreen when they walk past the swimwear section. For many people, this evokes the memory of that wonderful day at the beach. It becomes hard to resist that wonderful swimming suit! 

Online shopping is often about convenience and speed, but once the consumer is in the mall or shopping area, it’s up to you to make sure they don’t walk past your store. Even better: make sure they come to the store for a fantastic experience. This also means that your webshop and your physical store should be well coordinated.  Ready all about it in the blog: From click to bricks: the ultimate customer journey in retail.