Virtual Shopping: How it Drives Digital Clienteling
Posted by Alex Samuely on May 6, 2024
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As brands leverage more tactics to connect with digitally savvy and on-the-go consumers, virtual shopping continues gaining popularity. By creating a virtual shopping experience that encompasses features like live video and web chats, as well as augmented reality try-on tools, retailers can enhance their digital clienteling approach and reach customers in new markets. Retailers can also leverage virtual shopping to upsell and cross-sell more products, boost their service offerings, and increase average basket size.
Read below to learn about:
Virtual shopping is a type of digital retail experience that incorporates digital tools and virtual and augmented reality – while relying heavily on sales associates to engage in clienteling via personalized customer interactions. By enabling shoppers to virtually interact with both sales associates and products, retailers can create a truly immersive shopping journey that also drives deeper levels of customer engagement, more interactivity, and better visualization features.
Other interactive technologies that retailers can leverage in their virtual shopping environments include artificial intelligence, ecommerce solutions, and 3D modeling. These allow shoppers to enjoy personalized recommendations, easy checkout experiences, and the ability to virtually examine products from all angles.
Read below to learn more about how sales associates can create engaging virtual shopping experiences as part of their digital clienteling approach – and ultimately fuel more customer engagement and sales.
In addition to digital capabilities, virtual shopping experiences include a slew of features that enable consumers to better interact with both products and retail staff, such as the following:
Sales associates can initiate a virtual shopping experience by reaching out to customers via text to offer product recommendations, recognize customers’ milestones – such as a birthday – answer any questions, and even share pictures and GIFs. This type of visual dialogue enables associates to send images of new products that customers may like or share 360-degree views of online items that shoppers may want to examine more closely.
Associates can also use this feature to cross-sell or upsell products by sending consumers a photo of a product that may complement one that’s already sitting in their shopping cart, such as a pair of shoes to match a handbag.
If shoppers have any questions about specific products or the checkout process, they can use the live web chat to speak with a customer service representative – or even better, a store associate – within seconds. Not only does this capability offer a smoother customer experience, but it also helps reduce shopping cart abandonment. If customers can get their questions answered quickly, they will be more likely to complete their purchase on the spot.
Similar to the benefits that associate-to-customer text offers, retail staff can leverage live video to show all of a product’s angles to an interested shopper, or even hop on a video chat themselves to answer the shopper’s questions or conduct a 1:1 virtual styling session. Sales associates can also tap live video features to showcase new products before their launch date and build customer anticipation, as well as promote flash sales on limited-time merchandise through a livestream.
Virtual shopping experiences use augmented reality to provide 3D modeling of products. This lets customers look at products from all angles, zoom in on particular features, and view product details at the same time. Augmented reality can also offer product demos.
Meanwhile, virtual reality features can allow shoppers to virtually try on products by scanning their face or body with the retailer’s mobile app. This eliminates the need for consumers to visit a brick-and-mortar store to test out products in real life, and it helps retailers sell to customers in faraway locations.
Brands can also build virtual shopping experiences by delving into the world of social commerce. Many social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, allow retailers to sell to consumers directly via those channels. Retailers can also take advantage of other social media capabilities – such as sharing products with friends, targeting customers with specific product ads, and promoting product reviews – to widen their audience reach and make it easier for shoppers to interact with their virtual shopping features.
While omnichannel retail encompasses many different technologies, it ultimately caters to a goal of creating top-notch customer journeys. Retailers that invest in omnichannel technologies – many of which allow associates to create virtual shopping experiences – will be better positioned to drive successful clienteling programs.
Clienteling refers to a customer service approach that enables companies to foster long-lasting customer loyalty, provide more personalized experiences to shoppers, and equip sales associates with valuable data to help cross-sell and upsell products. Since clienteling relies upon technology and human interactions, a virtual shopping experience is one of the best places to put it into action.
For example, within a virtual shopping experience, retail staff can leverage an associate-to-customer text feature to engage consumers on a regular basis and send them updates on new products they might like. Clienteling tools keep track of customer data like birthdays and previous purchases, so an associate could send a shopper some item recommendations for a new birthday outfit.
Additionally, sales associates can prompt more store visits by using clienteling to send customers tailored retail promotions. For instance, if a customer’s favorite style of shirt is on sale, an associate can reach out to that individual to inform them. This type of personalized service can foster more long-term customer loyalty while increasing the consumer’s lifetime value for the brand.
UNTUCKit, which offers both brick-and-mortar stores as well as web and mobile shopping experiences, is a prime example of a brand that uses digital clienteling tactics to design a virtual shopping experience for customers. The apparel retailer leverages the NewStore Unified Commerce Platform with a native clienteling solution to connect with shoppers virtually – sending them texts and visuals – and separately provides customers the ability to chat live with sales associates while shopping online.
The omnichannel POS also supports inventory visibility across the enterprise and endless aisle technology, which makes it simpler for sales associates to showcase the full breadth of available products to digital shoppers. The end result? Virtual shopping journeys that boast all of the elements of an in-person experience – and more.
A virtual shopping experience offers many benefits to both retailers and shoppers, especially from a clienteling perspective. Read below to learn more about several major advantages.
The personalized interactions that virtual shopping enables can make an impact on increasing customers’ average basket size. Average basket size refers to the number of items sold in a single transaction.
By leveraging strategies like upselling and cross-selling or offering 1:1 virtual shopping appointments, sales associates can recommend products that shoppers may not have otherwise considered. With cross-selling, associates can suggest complementary items from a different category – such as a top to match a pair of pants – and potentially offer a small discount. This could result in the customer deciding to purchase more items on the spot and check out with a higher average basket size.
Associates can also use interactive features to boost consumers’ average order value (AOV). Average order value refers to the average amount that shoppers spend every time they purchase from a retailer. As an example, if a brand earns $1,000 of revenue from four orders, its average order value is $250.
To increase average order value, retailers can encourage their associates to upsell in addition to cross-sell. Upselling is the practice of giving shoppers a reason to buy a more expensive product than they planned. For instance, a sales associate may recommend a high-quality leather jacket to a customer by highlighting that the item will offer more longevity than a faux leather jacket at a lower price point. And by leveraging virtual try-on features, the customer can test out the product before purchasing.
Thanks to the “Know Your Customer” aspect of clienteling, sales associates can look up virtual shoppers’ profiles to view their style preferences, sizes, and previous purchases. This allows associates to make more personalized product recommendations, which in turn can help the shopper feel more engaged. Some shoppers may also prefer to communicate with sales associates through a mobile device instead of in person. By leveraging associate-to-customer text and live web chat features, retail staff can ensure they meet consumers’ needs at any time and from any location.
Virtual shopping offers many features that can help foster long-term loyalty with consumers. A digital interface lends itself well to incorporating loyalty program benefits – which could include a complimentary 1:1 shopping appointment with a stylist, points for making purchases that can be redeemed for discounts or free products, and social media perks, like free filters or access to games where users can win redeemable points. The associate-to-customer text options also make it easier for staff to stay in touch with shoppers and reach out to them periodically or around milestone occasions.
The interactive nature of a virtual shopping experience also helps reduce shopping cart abandonment. For instance, if a sales associate realizes that an item is lingering in a customer’s shopping cart for more than a day, the associate can reach out to offer more information about the product, assist with the checkout process, or even send a tailored promotion to help close the sale. The associate can also plug features that the shopper may not have used yet, such as virtual try-on tools. This way, the shopper can envision themselves using the product without having to visit a store – and perhaps become inspired to make a purchase on the spot.
Another method of reducing shopping cart abandonment hinges on offering the customer a variety of order fulfillment options. Even if they’re shopping virtually, the customer can choose from buy online pickup in store, reserve online pickup in store, or ship-to-store options, if the retailer has a nearby brick-and-mortar location. This enables the shopper to retrieve their order even faster.
To provide both sales associates and customers with the best virtual shopping experiences, it’s important for retailers to invest in the right technology. A mobile POS is one of the best ways to serve digitally savvy shoppers, as it encompasses many interactive and personalized elements.
With a unified commerce platform featuring a mobile POS, retailers can offer consumers endless aisle purchases – thanks to real-time views of inventory across the enterprise – as well as contactless payments, a variety of order fulfillment options, and instant connections with sales associates through text or video chat.
Retailers can also customize and configure their POS to add new functionalities and ensure they’re meeting customers whenever and wherever they prefer – therefore increasing their brand’s footprint and unlocking new markets of customers worldwide.
Interested in discovering how your business can offer immersive virtual shopping experiences to customers? Speak to one of our experts today.
