In 2017, we have presented several posts on the retail experience. The topic is that important! Here are some of these posts:

• Omnichannel and Great Customer Experiences
• How Good Is the Customer Experience YOU Offer?
• Informative Infographic on the Customer Shopping Experience
• 2017 Temkin Customer Experience Ratings for Retailers

Today, we offer some new insights from Kali Hawlk, writing for Shopify:

“The products in your retail store speak for themselves. That’s all the experience your customers need: the joy and delight of interacting with the incredible items that line your (physical or digital) shelves. Many retailers slip into this line of thinking and then get stuck. As Doug Stephens pointed out in a blog post on his site, Retail Prophet, ‘most retailers assume customer experience is primarily an aesthetic concept and more about how stores and Web sites look and feel’ than anything else. Settling for this definition of retail experience will limit your brand and cause you to miss out on opportunities to craft something truly great for customers. Retailers and in-person sellers both big and small have the opportunity to create memorable, immersive experiences for their customers.”

These are Stephens’ five main considerations in offering a great customer experience:

1. “Engaging — Find ways to engage with customers—both where they’re at, in the store, and everywhere in between (like the Internet). If you’re not sure what would engage shoppers, start by building a customer persona to better understand their preferences and pain points you could address.”
2. “Unique —  Think outside the box to provide something that no other brand gives to shoppers. From your signage or logo to the colors you use or the music you pipe through the speakers, a uniquely branded experience makes a lasting impression.”
3. “Personalized — You could customize loyalty programs or create curated collections and special pop-up shops to tailor to specific customer needs and wants to design highly personalized experiences.”
4. “Surprising: Brush up on your consumer behavioral psychology to engineer experiences designed to provide something expected (and hopefully delightful).”
5. “Repeatable: A customer experience can fall flat if it’s just a one-time, happenstance occurrence. Make sure you create processes you can use to give every customer the experience you design, every time they interact with your brand.”

Click the image to learn more.