Consumer Chain Standard Response

The consumer chain framework provides a means for the retailer to provide a standard message to all consumer accessing the chain either from the consumer community, directly through the eCommerce channel, or through the brick and mortar store channel.  This is a very powerful capability in for the retailer and should not be looked upon lightly.  The value of this standard response and message is the power of consistency in response and the message across all channels that interact with the consumer.  This consistency provides a standard level of communication to the consumer across the channels to provide a unified approach across all channels to the interaction with the consumer regarding sales, shopping and product mix.

There is a great value in the consistency of message across all channels in promoting retention and also shopping and purchasing opportunities.  One of the greatest opportunities in sales is the opportunistic purchase and one of the greatest values of the omni-channel approach is the ability of the retailer to take advantage of the sale through any channel at any time when the consumer makes the decision to purchase.  The ability to provide a standard response and message across all channels is a powerful encouragement for the consumer when the opportunity, or urge, arises to make a purchase.  

The next aspect of the standard response is related to the frequency of message delivery.  This can be a tricky matter because for one thing you want the communication to be frequent to ensure your store is top of mind and you don’t want it to be too frequent where the consumer checks out and unsubscribes.  Another area of opportunity is partnerships with external marketing firms.   There are two methods in this area that provide a value for services provided;

1. Services such as Groupon or Brad’s Deals that provide notification to subscribers of special offers and special sale prices.  This service provides introductory type mass distributions of generic offers.
2. Location based services such as Retail Me Not that provide notification to subscribers of special offers from stores that are near their location.  This service require your smartphone to have the location available to provide sales and special offers for other stores near your location.  

And now for the audience participation portion of the show…

ECommerce will have wide ranging impacts on both the retail and manufacturing sectors.  How can you focus these abilities to improve the consumer's experience?  Improving the consumer’s experience will require a re-evaluation of the sales channels, the manufacturing channels and practices and the supply chain channels and practices from the raw materials to the consumers’ homes.  In order to ensure and maintain success in this new reality you must harness the tools and capabilities in many new areas.  How can you support these continuously changing requirements?