From point of inspiration to point of sale, and the other way around!

Yearly Marketing Survey 2017

Charlotte MarinFlorence Dierick

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When people think of marketing, they often think about driving traffic or creating content for a specific target audience. Primarily, however, marketing is all about getting people to buy your products. Making your prospects convert faster, with less hurdles, is the number one task of every marketing department. Making your content pieces shoppable is one way to achieve this.

Let’s take a look at some brands that put transaction at the same level as inspiration.

Interactive commercials

Shoppable online

magazinesT-Commerce

Making a point of inspiration “shoppable”I.

In October 2016, JBC launched a shoppable commercial, enabling viewers to immediately buy the shown products using the Spott app. Other brands, such as Swiss luxury brand Bally, have been experimenting with these shoppable videos since 2012. It’s only recently, however, that the practice is becoming mainstream, and this with good reason!

Giving your customers the opportunity to shop at the exact moment they fall in love with a product is the ultimate way of facilitating impulse buying. Making your commercial shoppable is one way of doing so. You’re taking away several barriers such as the risk that the customer forgets about the item they saw during the break of their favourite TV-show.

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#1

JBC launched Belgium’s first “interactive commercial”

Source: Pub

Back in 2012, Bally launched one of the first shoppable video’s starring Miranda Kerr and Julia Steigner.

In 2016, Belgian JBC collaborates with Appiness and creates a shoppable ad with Spott.

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In the era of inbound marketing, online content creation is thriving more than ever. It thus only seems logic that online retailers try to make content shoppable.

Luxury retailer Net-à-Porter inspires customers with their magazine and pairs their online fashion editorials with buy buttons, to smooth out the buying process and facilitate the journey of their customers.

Net-à-Porter lets customers discover their products through a shoppable magazine

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Source: Blog.styla.com

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Where there used to be limited points of transaction, the brick-and-mortar store and more recently the webshop, there are now more and more channels that are getting a transactional layer. One of the newest transactionable touchpoints are television series. This concept is appropriately called “T-Commerce”.

The Girlfriends Guide to Divorce enables you to select one of the actors and browse through what he/she is wearing, all of this while continuing to watch your series.

Girlfriends Guide to Divorce introduces T-Commerce

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Source: Bravotv.com

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You can not only make your point of inspiration a point of sale, you can also turn it around and make your point of sale an inspirational touchpoint:

Enhance the in-store customer experience by offering a seamless integration of online and offline and using innovative technologies to surprise your customers.

Connected stores Buy online

and/or offline in-store

Offer personalized services

Make a Point of Sale a Point of InspirationII.

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What is the added value for the company? Increase customers’ time spent in stores Boost clothing sales (30% more) Find out which items are taken into the fitting room, and what’s being

purchased or left behind

Customers can browse and select the latest looks to try in the fitting room.

While in the fitting room, customers can order new sizes, colors and even change the lighting.

2The connected mirror suggests other products that might suit the customer.

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Rebecca Minkoff offers a seamless & connected in-store experience through its interactive mirrors

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Source: Digiday.com

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The new shopping style of Bonobos are called “Guideshops”. The physical representation of their online store where the main advantage lies

in availability of sizes and colors (traditional showrooming) The store offers “bonobos guides” as styling assistants After their shopping experience:

1) Customers can purchase their clothes in-store on the website (but can’t take them home on the spot)

2) Customers can receive an e-mail with their best fit and style preferences

Bonobos’ “Guideshops” offer the possibility to try their clothes in-store but to buy only online

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Source: bonobos.com; uk.businessinsider.com; picsolds.com

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Follow the robot NAO’s advice and take a Digital Card that functions as a virtual shopping basket.

1Place any desired product onto one of the connected in-store screens, and look for additional information or product sizes and add the item to your basket.

2Combine your physical with your online purchases and pay for the entire basket at the cash register before deciding on shipping options (delivery or collect in-store) for the online purchases.

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Sephora launches its first highly connected store: “Sephora Flash”

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Source: lmvh.com; omnichannel.me

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The aim of a car dealership at Tesla is to educate their customers by: demonstrating their different models teaching about the electric technology by the use of interactive screens

The customer can completely design its own car on interactive screens and order their car online.

Tesla educates their customers in-store, but sells cars purely online

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Source: tesla.com; nurun.com; youtube.com;

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5 KEY TAKE-AWAYSIII.

Stay true to your core as a brand and dare to take bold decisions (e.g. no sales in-store anymore, dealer as training center)

Push the blended use of channels to the extreme (e.g. combining online sales in-store)

Experiment with new technologies: Find out what connected devices can mean for your business

Take back control of the customer journey and look where it can be streamlined or simplified

Let go of the original role of your touchpoints: Can a point of sale become more inspirational? Can you make your usual content output shoppable?

Even though our given examples were retail-inspired, there are some interesting lessons to learn for all marketers. Shortening the customer journey and speeding up the transaction process is a priority of all industries.

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