Know Your Customer
While online shopping continues to increase, and is having an undoubted impact on retailers, not all shoppers who access the internet as part of their shopping process, ultimately buy their goods online. There are many shoppers who use the internet to acquire as much information as they can about products they might want to buy, and then got to a retailer’s bricks-and-mortar store to actually make a purchase. This can be especially true for high-value goods such as electronics and white goods.
There are many reasons for this kind of customer behaviour. Firstly, given the number of products available for purchase, carrying out research online makes it easier to get information about the hundreds of possible options, and reduce them to a few probable choices. ROPO shoppers also want to view the items close up, feel them, and try them before they commit to a purchase. They cannot do this when shopping online.
Other barriers to shopping online include occasions when customers cannot wait for the item to be delivered because they need it immediately, or because they simply like to receive goods as soon as they pay for them. When shopping offline, customers can avoid the shipping fees that are often additional to the cost of the item. Moreover, there are many shoppers who are wary of sharing personal information online although they are happy to use the internet as a research tool.
The ROPO Innovation
Ogloba’s ROPO system is an in-store solution that assists retailers in meeting the needs of these consumers. It offers kiosks and handheld terminals that allow customers, assisted by sales staff, to browse a retailer’s catalog of available electronic and household appliances, much as they would if conducting research online.
For retailers, this creates a unified cross-channel strategy that bridges on- and offline channels, improves sales in store, and allows sales representatives to be supported while they guide the customers during purchase acquisition. Essentially, it adds an extra layer to the in-store shopping experience that closes the gap between on- and offline retail. The digitalization of the acquisition process improves the fluidity of the buying experience by integrating a “Digital in Store” strategy, interconnects stores and the retailer’s cross-channel strategy, improves the circulation and transparency of key information such as inventory data, increases the number of products a retailer can display, lowers overall operational costs, and maximizes the impulsive buying in store by levering “good deals”, promotions, loyalty programs, services and after-sales.
Ogloba’s solution allows retailers to offer the advantages of online shopping such as an extensive and easy to navigate inventory for comparing products, alongside the personal, human interaction in-store shoppers already enjoy.
