It’s become trite to say that retailers are going through a rough patch due to a lack of digital initiative. It’s become trite, but not necessarily true. Retailers going through a rough patch are, for the most part, massive corporations modelled on the brick and mortar past. It would actually be unfair to say that many of these companies which have recently ended up under bankruptcy protection, such as Radio Shack, The Limited, and Toys R Us, didn’t see that a digital strategy was the way to save their business. What was likely the case, is that these companies were so big, so bureaucratic, and so siloed that it was impossible to make any headway on a truly digital transformation in a timely fashion.
But more than just omnichannel marketing and fragmented business approach is necessary in order for retailers to fully transform digitally. As a personalization technique, Domino’s allows customers to complete a profile to retain their favorite order, complementing its omnichannel approach, and other companies are following a similar strategy . Among those are REI, with its invaluable content, and Walmart, with its unending resources to experiment with emerging technologies. Sephora’s Pocket Contour Class, though, takes personalization to the next level.
So what’ the next step in a retailer’s journey to digital transformation? Combining omnichannel and personalization strategies with a mobile strategy is arguably top of the list. Proximity marketing or geo targeting, as it’s sometimes called , has been rolled out to over 4,500 Rite Aid locations, where they are able to hand out coupons and other offers in real time.