Business | Economy
Retailers now relying on online marketing to sell
There has always been a general philosophy to retailing - that once you have the customers in your store, the hard bit is out of the way, and so making the sale therefore, is the easy bit.
- By Neil Tunbridge, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 23:32 December 15, 2008
There has always been a general philosophy to retailing - that once you have the customers in your store, the hard bit is out of the way, and so making the sale therefore, is the easy bit.
Generally this is true, and it carries all the way through the retail chain, from small independents to huge super-regional Malls, where maximising footfall, as a proxy has a direct impact on sales and the bottom-line profit of the business.
Making the sale however is the most crucial and critical element of the whole system.
It is for this very reason that retailers are always on the lookout for new and interesting ways, either to lure in new customers or to find alternative ways to reach their existing customers.
By looking for new opportunities to reach the existing customers, invariably retailers have also then found ways to reach entirely new audiences, and also creating new or alternative forms of shop floor space, into which they can encourage these new customers to shop.
One of the most long standing 'alternative' ways to reach the customer has been via the mail order/catalogue system, where the shop and all its contents drop through the letterbox of the customers after which the customers can shop at leisure from their armchair.
Another successful format has been to make sure that as many other retailers as possible stock your product, as such the business can then evolve into a wholesale and retail business.
More recently of course has been the emergence of many and varied forms of customer interaction that the internet has spawned, from interactive stores where clothes can be 'tried on' through to shops that can be walked through, virtually of course, with all of them having the added benefit of being transactional websites where purchases can be made directly online.
Combining all of these formats has led to the evolution of the multi-channel retailer, where the integration of stores and catalogues in various formats have maximised the retailers presence.
However it has been this last point that has really been the driving force behind the expansion of the retail format; the greater the reach of the retailers towards their customers, has mean't increased levels of customer interaction with the retailer with the result being that the customers have more and more ways to buy into that brand.
Until now, that is.
Recently there has been a trend for retailers and brands to want to continue to broaden their customer reach but to negate or ignore the previous requirement of increasing their point of sale outlets.
Instead what has been happening has been the development of spaces or places (more often than not, online) where people and customers can come together under the general ethos of brand appreciation.
Facebook-era advertising
Facebook groups have been the main driver of this, where people show their general appreciation of the brand by joining a group that essentially lobbies all of the great and wonderful things that such a brand to store has to offer, without the previous requirement of trying to turn those visitors into buyers.
What this online format achieves is something that retailers have previously spent very large amounts of cash on, namely maximum exposure.
These sites offer customers a chance to discuss, to sometimes view and generally to interact with similar likeminded people, without the requirements of having to purchase.
As a consequence these sites offer a much easier route for people to 'buy into' that brand without having to part with their money.
This is a new form of advertising, but also and more importantly a new form of retailing, where sales are not the desired result but instead a steadily growing appreciation society that gradually spreads the word and builds a growing band of loyal customers.
- The writer is Head of Retail Services, GRMC Advisory Services.
Share this article
Popular in Business
-
Budget travel
Airlines in the region
Take a pictorial look at some of the budget airlines in GCC
Business Editor's choice
-
It costs a million to raise a child
Generation Z doesn't leave home at 18, but stay with the parents until mid-20s
-
Investing in funds doesn't come cheap
Many people are unaware of the effect of different expenses on their returns
-
Firm turns televised events into marketing dream
Drops anchor in Dubai to sell world's richest yachting races
