A Blog by Jonathan Low

 

Oct 1, 2016

Why Can't A Store Be More Like A Website?

The answer is that, of course, it can. It just takes imagination, effort - and investment. JL

Elizabeth Holmes reports in the Wall Street Journal:

What if the two selling channels worked together, with the strengths of one making up for weaknesses in the other? That is what Saks Fifth Avenue is trying to do with a redesigned store and new web selling tool. The centerpiece is training in-store sales associates to connect with local shoppers and answer their questions online.
Luxury retailers face a frustrating paradox: Websites get a lot of traffic but few actual sales. Stores, on the other hand, are better at converting shoppers into buyers but struggle to attract crowds.
What if the two selling channels worked together, with the strengths of one making up for weaknesses in the other? That is what Saks Fifth Avenue is trying to do with a redesigned store and new web selling tool.
The centerpiece of Saks’s effort is training in-store sales associates to connect with local shoppers and answer their questions online. The newest Saks store, dubbed “Saks Downtown” in lower Manhattan, boasts a slew of web-inspired features aimed at making online and offline shopping a seamless experience.
During a recent visit in the store, which opened earlier this month, Saks President Marc Metrick described current shopping behavior in web-like terms. The goals is to get shoppers to “browse” and “dwell,” he says. “If they want to run in and run out, you are going to die trying to be that store for them.”
The new store is focused on women, and it is smaller than most other locations in the Saks chain, a division of Hudson’s Bay Co. The layout leads shoppers in a circle, mimicking the endless browsing available online. “When you finish a lap, the goal is to think you haven’t,” Mr. Metrick says. Cash registers are tucked out of sight. Many employees do mobile checkout via iPad.
Fitting rooms have plush carpeting, flattering lighting and communal seating. “What do people always like to say about shopping online? My dressing room is my living room,” Mr. Metrick says. “So don’t put it in some hole in the back of the store.”
Most shoppers today, when asked, will say they prefer not to shop with a sales person, Mr. Metrick says. But those who do shop with an employee spend more.
Saks has new expectations of its sales associates: digital awareness. When interviewing candidates for Saks Downtown, store managers asked, “Who is your inspiration on Instagram? How many followers do you have?” They aren’t looking for specific correct answers, a Saks spokeswoman says, “just that they are engaged, that they are already interested in what’s happening in the industry.”
At the store, Mr. Metrick pointed to a display of the up-and-coming label Vetements. A pair of ripped-hem jeans and a hooded purple sweatshirt lay stretched out on a table. The “flat shot,” Mr. Metrick said, is what a shopper might expect online.
Saks lowered the level of its highest fixtures to about 5-and-1/2 feet, so the shopper can see more of the store. Aiming to offer a range of options on the scale of a website, the small store is making big bets, with more than 1,000 pairs of shoes and more than 800 pairs of sunglasses on display.
In the first-floor designer section, many racks hold a single size per style, creating a showroom feel. Apparel and accessories tend to be displayed together by brand, rather than divided up among different departments.
Increasingly, luxury retailers see how intertwined their online and store sales are. Nearly six in 10 luxury purchases are “digitally influenced,” including researching an item online before buying it in a store, or vice versa, according to a new study from Boston Consulting Group. Only about 7% of luxury sales are made solely online.
Saks hopes its stores will benefit from offering online shoppers a customized personal-shopping experience. Visitors to Saks’s ecommerce site can connect with a real human sales associate, not an impersonal bot, which other retail brands are testing. The employee “can follow up on alterations or the event you went to, and develop that relationship with you,” Mr. Metrick says.
The new digital tool, from tech startup Salesfloor, is a button at the bottom of the web or mobile screen. It asks shoppers a few questions about what they are shopping for and pairs them with a nearby store employee.
An associate’s profile page on the Saks website features a photo and an “about me” section, with a list of “specialties,” like women’s apparel or men’s accessories. Shoppers get several ways to connect to the employee: Live chat (including notification of whether the associate is available at that moment); appointment scheduling, whether in store, over the phone or online at a later time; and an email form to submit questions.
Becca Levi, a personal shopper at the flagship Saks Fifth Avenue store, specializes in women’s apparel and accessories. “The world is your runway, I’m just here to help,” her online profile page reads. On her recommendation of a $595 Vince suede skirt, Ms. Levi wrote: “Loving this skirt with a slouchy sweater half tucked in. Size down in the skirt.”
Ms. Levi, who has been a personal shopper for more than a decade, used to describe new merchandise to clients over the phone. Then she moved to texting pictures to clients using her smartphone. Now, she uses the online tool to put together custom lookbooks, or shares a product page from Saks’s ecommerce site, complete with professional photos, sizing specs, and her own annotations. “It’s a much more seamless way of shopping virtually,” she says.
Shoppers who use the shopping tool and the digital lookbook have a 50% increase in average purchase size, according to a Saks spokeswoman. Saks has been testing the program for more than a year in its Fifth Avenue store and stores in Bal Harbour, Fla. and two suburban New York shopping malls. It has expanded it to 36 of its 41 stores and 1,200 employees. Saks declined to say what its actual conversion rate is using the new tools.
For Saks’s commission-based sales employees, the tool is a way to sell even when the store is quiet and eventually to develop a wider customer base. (Associates can be available after hours, but they have to report those hours.) During busy times on the sales floor, Saks says associates aren’t available to work with online clients, so as to avoid keeping in-store customers waiting. “Priority is always to the customer in front of you,” says Joe Milano, senior vice president of Saks.com.

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