How Digital Can Save Brick-And-Mortar Retail with Customer Experience Objectives

“Omnichannel Retail: How to Build Winning Stores in a Digital World,” Is an Insider’s Guide to Digitalizing the Modern Customer Experience for Profitable Growth

 Tim Mason, CEO of digital marketing technology company, Eagle Eye and former deputy CEO of Tesco, has released a new book, Omnichannel Retail: How to build winning stores in a digital world as a guide to bringing the best of online to bear on the survival of the physical store. This trailblazing book is written specifically for consumer-facing businesses and offers practical recommendations for harnessing the value of digitally connecting with customers wherever they are to drive loyalty and sales.

Mason taps into 30+ years of retail industry experience to deliver his learnings and insights in this new book, which outlines the “digital imperative” retail brands face to connect with customers today through relevant and timely engagement, as well as the value of customer connections and the need for omnichannel approaches to loyalty. Previously the CMO and deputy CEO of Tesco, the largest multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer in the UK, Mason led the launch of Tesco Clubcard in 1995, creating the world’s first major grocery loyalty program. As the current CEO of Eagle Eye, he has also helped Loblaw launch its PC Optimum program, Canada’s largest loyalty scheme, combining the Shopper’s Optimum and PC Plus programs into a single cross-banner initiative.

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Digital as an Opportunity, Not a Threat

Headlines often blame the growth of online shopping as the cause of Main Street’s demise. In Omnichannel Retail, however, Mason argues that this digital trend actually presents an opportunity for brick-and-mortar retailers, not a threat, and that digitalization can foster more meaningful customer connections, boost loyalty and increase sales, both online and offline.

Retailers still need to deliver a differentiated customer experience, and that means connecting and engaging customers in the most relevant and timely ways possible – often through the digital channel. With 90% of shopping transactions still completed in a physical store, the physical retail space is far from dead. But traditional sales outlets need reimagining to re-establish their place in a digital world, as well as their ability to both compete with and enhance online shopping experiences. 

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Retail needs a “mobile makeover”

Omnichannel Retail shows retailers how to give their stores a ‘mobile makeover’ to maintain their relevance and connection to today’s customers in order to drive growth. Rather than discouraging digital interactions in-store for fear of driving customers to online rivals, retailers need to digitally augment their physical advantages – of expert customer service, sensory selection, “try before you buy,” and instant gratification and fulfilment. Delivering personalized experiences that resonate with consumers and challenge digitally enabled and data-driven competitors like Amazon, Alibaba and Jet.com mandates that retailers transform their businesses – today.

Mason co-authored Omnichannel Retail with retail technology expert and bestselling Amazon co-author Miya Knights. Knights has spent 20 years as an enterprise technology journalist, analyst and research director, studying the demands and challenges faced by retailers and the technology-based best practices that can best support their needs. The two experts explore how the use of digital technologies to transform the omnichannel shopping experience can help shine a light into shops, restaurants or showrooms that are like a digital “black hole,” devoid of connectivity and from which little meaningful interaction takes place.

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