{"id":12593,"date":"2018-03-20T19:03:07","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T19:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projecthermes.wpengine.com\/understanding-how-digital-affects-your-customers-journey\/"},"modified":"2023-06-06T13:41:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T17:41:49","slug":"understanding-how-digital-affects-your-customers-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovation.interac.ca\/fr\/understanding-how-digital-affects-your-customers-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding How Digital Affects Your Customer’s Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hovering near the top of business news headlines for the past decade or so has been a seemingly endless series of stories about how rapidly-growing e-Commerce giants and digital-first brands have disrupted the retail industry and driven yet another iconic \u201cbricks and mortar\u201d brand into bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

Yet while the admittedly large kernel of truth in these tales prompted many retailers to embrace e-Commerce as the solution to all their problems, the bricks-versus-clicks storyline is misleadingly simple and misses a larger picture \u2013 one filled with opportunity for the retail industry, and at all scales.<\/p>\n

What digitization has done is to change not just how we shop, but everything that comes before and after shopping as well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Consumers may post about a problem on a social media channel or online forum, and get a product recommendation link in the comments. That link may point not to a retailer or the manufacturer, but to a review posted by a vlogger. The consumer may consult an online magazine\u2019s interactive ratings site for that product category, and, while later visiting the manufacturer\u2019s site to watch an official demo, might put out a post on their social channel of choice to canvass the experience of their friends’ network. They may experiment with different personalization options that the vendor may offer.<\/p>\n

All of this before ever walking into a store and talking to a salesperson.<\/p>\n

Even the choice of which store they eventually visit will be conditioned by \u201cstore locators\u201d offered on many vendor websites \u2013 few people want to take the risk of travelling to a general department store on the assumption it will stock the product they want \u2013 and if they\u2019re able to confirm with the same tool that inventory is indeed available at a nearby location, even better.<\/p>\n

At this point, new options come into play. If the product can be reserved by the consumer so it doesn\u2019t sell out before they arrive, they may well register for that. The retailer\u2019s website or mobile app may offer a \u201cpay now\u201d button integrated with the device\u2019s digital wallet \u2013 a time-pressed consumer confident in the product they\u2019re buying will value the chance to pay from home and avoid the check-out line when picking it up.<\/p>\n

The consumer may prefer to wait, though, if they want to evaluate the item physically. After all, there\u2019s a lot to be learned from holding a product in your hands and feeling its weight, sensing how it\u2019s put together \u2013 even trying it out. And remember, because they\u2019re almost certainly carrying a mobile device with them, they may do some further research while standing in the aisle trying to make a decision checking your store\u2019s price against others, sending a dressing-room \u201chow does this look on me?\u201d selfie to a friend, looking for a negative review that might stop them from making the wrong choice.<\/p>\n

After deciding to purchase, the consumer could potentially pay immediately with the help of a tablet-armed salesperson, could use the traditional check-out process (with its variety of digital and non-digital payment options) \u2013 or could return home and order the product online, having tried it in the store.<\/p>\n

After purchase lies another basket of opportunities:<\/strong><\/p>\n