There has never been as much choice as there is today; the world of e-commerce has ballooned, which means that there are seemingly endless options at the click of a button. The pandemic has only accelerated this trend, and, as a result, some of the best-known brands globally have seen a considerable peak in sales. For example, in September 2021, Boohoo reported a record £976 million in sales over the previous six months.  

Competition is tough, so retailers must make sure that they meet consumers’ current needs and even the future needs they don’t yet know they want. Additionally, modern customers are increasingly concerned with the environment and sustainability. Developing an offering covering all these bases is taxing on retailers’ resources, particularly for less established brands. Consequently, retailers are turning to partnerships more than ever before in order to resolve these challenges. 

Collaboration is the Key  

There are multiple benefits to partnerships that can help us manage the biggest challenges set to hit retail in the coming years:  

• Recruitment, Floor Space, and Infrastructure. 

One challenge that every organisation is up against is finding enough skilled people to facilitate the number of roles available. For example, it has been commonplace for some companies to partner with department stores or other retailers by utilising some of their store space to sell products. This means that existing staff are upskilled to be able to support a level of customer queries for partners.  

Another way to tackle recruitment challenges is to partner with an outsourcing organisation, such as DDC OS. Slight sales puns aside, outsourcing has been a huge supplier of customer services for many years, giving brands strategic insight and access to a skilled workforce, all without the pains of resources and intricacies of contact centre management.  

Back to physical retail space, despite high street struggles, we still see mega supermarkets appear on what sometimes feels like a weekly basis. Interestingly though, we are witnessing the collaboration of brands sharing floorspace (or what is known as brick-and-mortar benefits) and, in turn, footfall, infrastructure and setup costs. Take Asda and Greggs, for example, which became the first supermarket to open the bakery goods counters within its own stores. There’s no doubt we’ll see more and more of this in the coming years.  

• Technology 

The challenges of keeping up with the fluid world of technology are plain to see. The sheer cost of reimagining your tech offering every few years is enough to scare even the most established organisations – the cost of not investing is even scarier. So, to help share this burden, we see a rise in collaborations:   

Take Virgin Media and O2 – a broadband giant and a mobile giant, working together to offer customers the ultimate bundle. Rather than competing and investing huge sums to do so, together, their offering has sent ripples through the telecoms market.   

Taking a more physical view of how technology partnerships can work, we shift our gaze to the US, where Walmart and Verizon have joined forces. The 5G rollout is well underway, and what would be a costly release for Walmart in its superstores is instead handled by their mobile partner, who in turn benefits from more users and exposure thanks to Walmart’s customer base; a win-win.   

• Brand building for specific demographics. 

We have all become increasingly more aware of the impact our actions are having on the planet. For some brands, attaining a green image is a vast and costly task, yet there is hope in the shape of collaboration.  

Roll back the years, Body Shop was making waves in the cosmetics industry. By highlighting how ethical they were, they, in turn, were displaying how lacking some cosmetic firms were with their own practices (at least in the eye of the customers). Impressed by their work, L’Oréal bought Body Shop in a huge deal, in turn showing a massive investment in ethical cosmetics and gaining an existing customer base and chain of stores. Natura have of course since purchased the Body Shop brand from L’Oréal.  

Ok, maybe a buyout isn’t the best example of collaboration. But, as ‘environment’ and ‘sustainability’ continue to gain airtime in boardrooms up and down the land, we see new articles every day highlighting the latest projects and partnerships.  

Take Tony’s Chocolate – their passion for improving the supply chain in the cocoa industry is inspiring. Aldi, possibly the UK’s biggest disrupter in the supermarket game, has partnered with them by first joining Tony’s Open Chain, which facilitates their supply chain’s goal. This was then followed by launching a chocolate bar partnership with them, the first in the UK.  

So, if you’re looking to increase your green credentials and appeal to conscious customers, ask yourself, who can I partner with?  

In a post-Covid world (still an uncertainty even today), things will continue to change quickly and remain challenging, and handling this as a retailer, regardless of size, will be testing. Therefore, partnerships are more appealing than ever.  

Collaboration felt like the ideal place to conclude this short blog series. We hope you have enjoyed the topics covered; we’d love to hear your take on any of the areas important to you. Moreover, we’d love to hear about your services that will help take retail forward.  

As we continue to develop in the wonderful world of retail, we will share more thought pieces with you. Why not get involved?  

With thanks, 

Team DDC.  

 ~

Get in touch 

DDC OS in Retail 

The Rise of Digital Window Shopping 

A quarter of consumers return between 5 and 15 per cent of all the items they purchase online, which is one of the more conservative estimates. There’s a variety of reasons for this trend, not least the fact that it’s hard to judge the quality and fit of certain products when online shopping. Notably, this statistic sharply rises when customers are effectively ‘window shopping’ from the comfort of their own homes.  

For example, when it comes to fashion, a consumer may buy three different sizes of the same item or three outfits for one event, intending to try them all and choose a favourite. The return rate shoots up for such purchases; it’s a whole new level of stock management and returns processing. 

Some retailers are choosing to walk into the ‘£7bn storm’ –consider the Amazon Prime Wardrobe service. It allows customers to select eight items, receive them, try them before returning any they don’t like, before finally being charged for the items they keep. We must ask, would we have imagined a service like this ten years ago? Or would it have been considered too high risk? Which is the higher risk move now, to ignore the demand for these services or embrace them?  

Alongside this trend, the demand for swift deliveries and return options naturally grew. Of course, specific retail sectors were impacted more by this shift than others; according to the IMRG Quarterly Benchmark Q4 2020, women’s clothing has the highest average returns rate at 23 per cent, with footwear closely following, coming in at 20 per cent. Therefore, we must also consider what retailers can do to ensure deliveries and returns are as simple as ever for customers.  

Customers Demand a Smooth Returns Experience 

Returns remain a difficult and inconvenient part of the online shopping journey for many – with research InPost conducted finding that 83% of people who shop online say retailers should do more to make the returns process as easy and fuss-free as possible. Meanwhile, 86% say that a poor returns experience will put them off shopping with a retailer again*, highlighting the critical importance of retailers getting returns right.  

• Parcel Lockers 

With returns now a crucial part of the customer experience, innovations such as lockers can play a central role in driving customer lifetime value and giving retailers a competitive advantage. Available 24/7 and positioned at convenient locations such as supermarkets, train stations and petrol forecourts, lockers offer people a genuinely convenient and easily accessible way to return online purchases as part of their daily routine — be it during their daily commute or while meeting a friend for coffee.  

InPost’s Instant Returns solution is the first of its kind where there is no need for the customer to print out a label at all — not at home nor at the drop-off point — customers can simply scan and drop. With labels being replaced by QR codes, it means it is completely self-service, giving online shoppers ultimate control and convenience, with the whole process taking as little as 10 seconds to complete.  

• In-Store Returns  

There is a straightforward solution if your business has brick and mortar stores and an online presence. Allowing customers to return items in-store when they have purchased items online could be a significant advantage. This is because 62 per cent of shoppers are more likely to buy things online when they know this is an option. Moreover, it can lead to increased footfall instore and, therefore, increased sales.   

• Postal Returns 

Perhaps the best-known method here (and cause of queues at the local post office!) is postal returns. Most retailers now allow customers to print off their return labels at home and take them to a local post office/selected convenience store or have the label printed in-store.  

Steps are being taken by some retailers, such as Next, to make postal returns even more convenient by utilising the delivery vans that stop at our houses or a neighbours’ houses almost daily. It allows the customer to return items from their doorstep. Delivery services are now being used as tools for returns, a clear example of a UX focus.  

All of the above is great, but we must also consider the customer experience element. Here are some thoughts on what should supplement the above.  

• Excellent self-serve tools.  

Customers are happy to do things for you; in fact, 40% of customers now prefer self-serve over human contact. They are often happy to arrange their returns, collect items, and check status updates on their order. They’ll even chat to a bot. So, it’s important for CX that retailers recognise this and then deliver the tools that allow the customer to do exactly what they need to.  

• A knowledgeable customer service team.  

As we all know, irrespective of how innovative your organisation may be and how easy your delivery and returns processes are, there are always situations whereby your customers will want to talk to you. Therefore, the customer service team must know your processes so they can firstly relate and understand the customer and then solve the issue. This can be a difficult task given the options available. Still, through extensive training and support and knowledge bases, your customer service team should be able to provide the final touches to your delivery and returns processes.  

* All figures, unless otherwise indicated, are based on a survey of just over 2,000 UK adults conducted by Opinium on behalf of InPost from 25 February-1 March 2021. 

Get in touch 

DDC OS in Retail 

Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, many of the most beloved retailers have gone into administration; just over a year ago, the Arcadia Group – including Topshop, Topman, and Miss Selfridge – closed for good, and this shift has left the high street looking more and more desolate. However, while many physical shops have been forced to look at new and innovative ways to keep interest in an in-store experience, the e-commerce market has quickly adapted to the challenges, and demand continues to grow as a result.  

On a further positive note, e-commerce first businesses are now looking at what impact can be made with a physical presence. Amazon, the world’s largest e-commerce site, continues to push on with the opening of physical stores around the globe. It’s a trend that seems to be catching on with the likes of Gymshark and The Boohoo Group joining the movement. It will be interesting to see the innovative approaches they take to a more traditional channel.  

Online shopping has seen a 22% year-on-year increase since the pandemic started, so many UK consumers have evidently taken the transformation in their stride. Ordering products online — such as clothing, cosmetics, games, and homeware — has become the norm. This has created a gap in the market for new features and offerings in customer service: what can be done to handle the increased communication volumes driven by digital activity? How can we begin to replicate in-store experiences so that the customers leave with positive shopping experiences that go beyond a few clicks?   

The Interactive Digital Experience  

Most of us by now have used a chat bot or live chat, but could it be time to also make co-browsing, and virtual agents commonplace? Almost 40% of internet users prefer interacting with a chatbot instead of a virtual agent. Still, there are many ways to implement one of these systems into your online customer service setup.  

When a customer is browsing on your website and has a question about your products or services, they may be able to seek support through a live chat/bot feature or hesitate to interact at all. However, retail firms have the opportunity to take this to the next level: “Hi there, are you looking for something specific today? Here’s something to match the jeans in your basket. Just let me know if you’d like to ask any questions or see some recommendations.” So now, through pro-active chat there can be an in-store experience online.   

Whilst chatbots can deal with numerous customer concerns, co-browsing or virtual personal shopping is a tool that allows online agents to help consumers select the right products in real-time. For example, when a customer is searching for products on your site, a live agent will be able to see their active screen and look at products alongside them simultaneously. 

One of the significant advantages is that it allows agents to play a vital role in the customer journey. During this process, the agent can offer technical support, recommendations, upselling options, and deal with customer onboarding (to membership schemes and the like). In addition, as a retailer, you can install co-browsing platforms or add-ons into your existing online offering to give customers an entirely new—more immersive—experience.  

Further to co-browsing, we saw the rise of live video consultations. High-end purchases often require a more detailed shopping experience, which is often tricky online. Allowing customers to speak to an advisor “face to face” can make that daunting proposition easier. As highlighted by the Retail Times, “demand for live video consultations sees no let-up as physical retail reopens.” It is a great option where co-browsing may not be suitable, or the customer is looking for that next level of service.  

These kinds of tools are enabling market “disruptors” to have an impact on traditional practice. Take the world of estate agents – video consultations for viewings and beyond are becoming standard with the likes of Strike and Purple Bricks. As well as making the UX as simple as possible, it also enables the organisations to grow and manage resources in markets previously out of reach.  

Future Proof your Experienced Team  

As many stores close, redundancies unfortunately follow, and brand-loyal and highly experienced staff members are lost, the value of which can be immense. Yet, the need for online customer service advisors still exists. Taking the time to reposition your talent elsewhere could be the answer; after all, customer-facing service roles have a plethora of skills ideal for delivering an in-store experience digitally. These individuals are well-versed in all your brand’s values, understand customers’ needs, and are comfortable sharing their expertise with the people who need it most.  

Making these staff members brand ambassadors and allowing them to play a vital role in this new chapter of your company sounds great, right? As highlighted above, there are means in which to enhance your online customer support, an ideal place for such team members.    

As Retail Week stated, “Those that get it right will secure the talent that can lead their business into an uncertain – but exciting – future.”  

 ~ 

Get in touch 

DDC OS in Retail