What Do Customers Really Want from Retailers?

It’s an age-old question: What do your customers really want? If you want your organization to get a slice of the $5 trillion in total retail sales that will happen in the U.S. this year, you need to find some answers. The solution will be different for every business and industry.

At the same time, there are certain things that your customers will likely expect from you brand. Some of these things will be inherent to your business plan, or easily accomplishable. Other aspects will be more obscure and require some legwork on your end. Regardless, it’s essential that business owners do everything in their power to keep their customers satisfied. These are things that consumers really want from retailers.

Personalization

In the past, personalization has been considered too costly for most retail applications. It takes extra time and effort to create personal or curated customer experiences. This kind of shopping has been reserved specifically for boutique customers. Technology is making it easier for retailers to give this experience to everyone. There are a few ways businesses can use this personalization trend to their advantage. Personalized, curated email correspondences are a great way to keep loyal customers informed on your brand. It also makes them feel as though you’re going out of your way for them.

Experiences

Shopping can’t just be a chore anymore. Along with personalization, consumers want their excursions to be an experience. This can apply in more than one fashion. Consumers need to be incentivized if they’re expected to visit a physical retail location. Find novel ways to elevate your stores above just being places for transactions. For your online presence, consider ways to improve user interaction and overall website design.

Cross-Channel Integration

Simplicity is another thing that customers value from retailers. They don’t want to waste time or add unneeded steps to their routines. Cross-channel integration is a great way to accomplish this. This is when all communications between customer and brand are ongoing, regardless of platform. Consumers don’t want to continually input their information. Find a technology solution that will allow your brand to facilitate fluid communication with shoppers.

Knowledge ability

You might have the greatest product ever invented. That doesn’t mean you can just throw it in front of people and they will immediately buy it. This might happen. But you shouldn’t expect it. Customers want brands to understand their goods. You need instill the importance of knowledge ability in your employees. Part of gaining knowledge is doing in-depth work with data. Retail customer analytics can put your brand a cut above the rest. This will help you understand your customers at their cores.

Trustworthiness

All work you’ve put toward building your brand goes out the window the instant your customers don’t trust you. There are several ways you can lose the trust of shoppers. Make sure your products actually match their photos and descriptions. You’re not doing yourself any good by putting deceptive descriptions on your ecommerce sites. People will just want to return items that aren’t up to their standards. Always strive to put the customer’s needs first. Otherwise, you will come off as a purely self-serving enterprise, which is a turn off for a lot of people.

Mobile Friendliness

Mobile commerce is a growing industry. Some estimates predict mobile shopping will make up 45 percent of ecommerce by 2020. For this reason, you can’t afford to have a website that isn’t mobile responsive. People will simply abandon your brand if they can’t navigate your web presence from their mobile devices.

You can’t run a business without customers. Even if you have a great service, you will get nowhere if you can’t please consumers. Take note of these things that people are looking to get out of brands and retailers.