In a world that is increasingly driven by online technology, it is easy to forget the importance of connecting online with offline for creating the best possible customer experience. For retail businesses, this connection is essential to success. There are a number of reasons why connecting online with offline is important for retail businesses.
Customer Reach
One of the main reasons why it is important to connect online with offline on retail is because it allows businesses to reach a larger audience. In today’s digital world, more and more people are shopping online. However, there are still a significant number of people who prefer to shop in-person. By having a presence both online and offline, businesses can cater to the needs of both groups of customers. Additionally, connecting online with offline can help businesses to reach a wider geographical area. For example, a business with an online store can ship products to customers anywhere in the world, whereas a business with a brick-and-mortar store may only be able to serve customers in a specific location.
Seamless Customer Experience
Another reason why connecting online with offline is important is because it can create a more seamless and convenient shopping experience for customers. Customers who are able to shop both online and offline can enjoy the best of both worlds. They can browse products online at their convenience and then head to a physical store to make their purchase. This can be especially helpful for customers who want to avoid the hassle of shipping and returns. Additionally, businesses that offer both online and offline shopping options can provide a more personalized experience for customers. For example, a customer who makes a purchase online can opt to pick up their order in-store, which can save time and money.
Customer Data
Connecting online with offline can help businesses to better understand customer behavior and preferences. By tracking data from both online and offline sales, businesses can get a more complete picture of what customers are buying and how they are shopping. This information can be used to improve the customer experience and make better business decisions. For example, if a business notices that a particular product is selling well online but not in-store, they may decide to increase advertising for that product online.
call a BOX - connecting online and offline
For our customer call a BOX we at IKANGAI devised a process that connects online with offline in a very elegant manner.
call a BOX is a self-storage service where you can order boxes online. call a BOX then delivers the boxes to your address. Once you have your boxes, you fill them and after the boxes are full, you can schedule a pick-up time. call a BOX will come and pick up the boxes and put them into storage for you.
call a BOX is extending their customer reach from online to offline retail. Customers will be able to purchase boxes in supermarkets. To that end we developed a special QR-Code that is printed on every box. By scanning the QR-code customers can activate the storage-service of call a BOX. In doing so, every box becomes a digital touchpoint for customers. The beauty is that customers can decide at any time to use the call a BOX storage-service - a simple scan of a QR-code is enough.
The takeaway
In conclusion, it is important to connect online with offline in retail for several reasons. Businesses can reach a larger audience, create a more seamless and convenient shopping experience for customers, and better understand customer behavior and preferences.
call a BOX is one good example of how we at IKANGAI help our customers to build innovative value added products by connecting online and offline services. Get in touch with us to and talk to our experts about your o2o (online to offline) project.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
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