Is frictionless in-person shopping good for business?
This weekend I bought some school shoes for my two children. Obviously, and why would it be any different, my children could not pick shoes in the same store, so I ended up going to two different stores and having completely different experiences. Same product, same location, same customer base, and different approaches.
Neither experience was bad. They were just different.
Now, at first, I thought I knew immediately which I prefered as a customer, and therefore which approach was better for the business. However, reflecting on it, I am not too sure and will let you the reader decide. :-)
The Schuh experience
The first store we entered was Schuh. There were several store assistants on the store floor, all ready to assist me. They were all wearing scanners (portable POS) on lanyards.
We walked in, were greeted by the staff, and asked if they could assist and we answered that we were just looking. My daughter spotted the pair of shoes she wanted.
The assistant came over, scanned the tag, asked what size we want, advised us on possible size/colour alternatives and then said
“Take a seat, and we will bring them right over. If you scan the QR code and join our loyalty scheme, we can give you an extra 10% off”
We sat down, scanned the code, completed the sign up, and it showed my membership barcode.
By the time I completed this the assistant was back with the shoes, we tried them on, and told her we will take them. She scanned the membership code, scanned the shoes, I presented my payment card, she asked for my email address, and sale was done in less than two minutes. Fast, efficient and with a personal touch and all while sat down on the couch.
It was a great experience for me, as I had not had to stand in a queue, wasn’t handed over from one staff member to another, and felt pampered by the instore staff.
My only extremely minor gripe would have been that my loyalty membership should have provided the email address for the receipt, but they are two separate systems apparently, and therefore not integrated together yet.
Complete shopping experience was less than 5 minutes, no stress and I had exactly what I wanted. All enabled by technology being a co-pilot, focusing on the sales experience and assisting at the points of interaction. It would not have been possible without each assistant wearing a portable point of sale.
The Footasylum experience.
Across the street was Footasylum, and we headed directly there. This turned out to be a more traditional store experience. There was one sales assistant on the floor at the door greeting customers as they came into the store.
We went over to the shelf and my son picked out a shoe that he liked. We went over to the assistant, who radio’ed her collegues in the storeroom, told us they would be out shortly, and said if we have a loyaly account we would get a 10% discount. No QR code, so had to do the search for the website and register myself.
Waiting time was a bit longer, and with nowhere to sit, we wandered around the store. This led to some extra buying, e.g. sneaker balls and socks that had not been the intention when walking into the store. When the shoes arrived, we tried them on, and when saying we will take them, told to go to the till at the back of the store.
There was only one till working so there was a queue of people. It took longer to purchase our products as the till was slow, just the purchase journey took 10 minutes.
Total time in the store was 30 minutes, and we came out with more than we had wanted going into the store.
Which is better?
So the question really is what is in the interest of both the customer and the business?
- A completely frictionless service where I can go in, and buy exactly what I want and nothing else.
- Or a service that has friction points, which slow me down but give me a chance to consider other items that were not my primary goal.
For me it is a balance. How might we balance the efficiency that technology offers with the serendipity and engagement of traditional shopping?
You want a service which allows hyper-focused buyers the ability to go in, purchase and leave ala the Amazon model, but includes the ability for customers to engage and view alternative/additional wares while doing so.
Some thoughts for how physical store purchasing journeys may change in the future to create a pleasurable experience for all types of shoppers:
- How can we cater for different purchasing styles by making parts of the journey optional, and thereby allowing for fast shoppers and those that like to browse?
- How might we introduce a hyper-personalised recommendations process instore that does not get in the way of a frictionless in-store purchasing experience?
- How might we use technology in the form of an updated mobile app to enhance in-store shopping, Smart Fitting Rooms that can suggest complementary or alternative items, interactive displays and kiosks that show highly personalised alternatives, and Predictive Inventory Displays to subtly nudge customers to buy the last in stock?
Change is happening in the way we purchase and the whole in-store shopping experience is catching up with the digital experience.
I now find myself analysing every shopping experience which makes the whole experience a little more fun and not as mundane :-)
I am really excited to see those brands/stores that take the whole experience to a new level.
