Endear's Modern Retail Blog covers articles from luxury clienteling to advanced tips & tricks to stay on top of your retail business.

A growing collection of case studies of how our customers have effectively used Endear to innovate and invigorate their retail sales.

Hear it straight from the industry experts! Endear founders share their expertise in the retail industry to inspire business owners to do more for their brands.

We highlight the functionality of some of Endear app's key features to arm your team with the know-how to make them work for you.

Need fresh ideas for customer service training & building brand loyalty among customers? Read our articles for best practices for your retail strategy.

Sometimes when you're building a product, it's not about creating something completely novel (adoption would be terrible). Instead, it's better to first consider the obvious, "low-hanging fruit" problems that your customers can't solve on their own. We learned this lesson first hand in the early days of Endear. 

Before we started building anything, we spent a lot of time speaking to our target audience. It became clear very quickly that retail associates had a lot of logistical obstacles and hurdles that stood in the way of how well they could do their jobs. Try as they might, without any tech solution, many of our future users were stuck in the stone age of physical notebooks, pen, and paper at the same time that their customers were flocking to e-commerce.

Endear is all about moving retail forward, we also knew that overlooking pre-existing pain points that may have seemed small on the surface could also limit user interest. A solution to a pre-existing problem is often more welcome than an entirely new approach to a job that also comes with a learning curve.

The immediate problems we solved are not the reasons a brand is interested in using Endear, but we believe they are part of why adoption is so rapid. 

Problem 1: Limited number of clients to clientele 

It has become harder and harder for stores to rely on organic foot traffic in order to reach their monthly goals. With that in mind, many associates take it upon themselves to clientele so that they can better predict and ensure both traffic and sales. The problem we saw early on is that without a CRM like Endear, associates only felt comfortable reaching out to customers they were closest with - ones who had expressly asked to be contacted about a specific product, or ones who shopped so often that it was only natural to have their contact info. That meant that any time something news-worthy would happen at a store, most associates would repeatedly reach out to the same dozen or so clients - and of course all of these conversations lived within an associate's personal phone if they were texting with that customer.

Just because a customer is shy doesn't mean she doesn't want to hear from you or your retail team. For the first time, store associates can use actual data (contact info, geographic location, shopping frequency, product preferences) to determine who to reach out to based on the content they want to share. By broadening the size of audience for store associates to reach out to, Endear also enables associates to target the right customers based on the content they want to share rather than sending every message to the same few customers. 

Rolling Stone

Check out Endear Academy to see how our CRM works. Get an introductory understanding of how you can manage customers and build different audiences right through the app. 

Problem 2: No awareness of other stores' clienteling activity

The beauty of a strong brand is that your customers will seek out your store in every city they visit. That means that as you open up more locations, customers may build unique relationships with each of your store teams. While that's great news overall, you run the risk of overwhelming customers - getting a note about your brand's latest product drop from three different salespeople makes for a pretty lousy experience. 

Endear's Solution: Consolidate outreach history 

In Endear, every store is represented by a team, but all the teams exist within one Endear account. This structure means we can tell every user the last time a customer in their brand-wide CRM was contacted, and by whom. Associates can even see messages that their colleagues in other cities sent to make sure no one is repeating what the customer has already heard. While customers like having a unique relationship with each store, having a tool like Endear means that your brand can still ensure that the customer is getting top-notch service without getting bombarded. 

When we spoke to associates about what details were most important about their customers, logically they told us it was their order history. But they also told us that a lot of the time, they could only see what a customer purchased at their exact location, and sometimes reviewing this data was so cumbersome that many took to recording their top customers' purchases on their own (in a notebook or google sheet). The inefficiency of this approach was one thing - but what frustrated us even more was that a customer's order history was there, in one way or another, it was just not being shared with retail teams. 

Endear's Solution: Omnichannel purchase tracking 

By integrating with a brand's e-commerce and POS system, we're able to give each user a comprehensive list of every item a customer has ever purchased (even before they installed Endear), no matter where the transaction occurred. At a minimum, this order history prevents associates from recommending items the customer has already bought. But the upside is infinite! Most importantly, associates can track a customer's true lifetime value and use these insights to better determine which customers are at risk of lapsing and which are the most engaged. Teams also now have all the data they need to understand what types of items or price points a customer is interested in purchasing in-store vs online and can find out if customers have different styles based on where they are located or what season it is. 

Brands that sell online invest heavily in high-quality product photos. They capture every product in different layouts and on different models so that e-commerce customers have an endless supply of content to inform their purchase - now sometimes even in the form of video! But before we came along, these assets were exclusive to e-commerce - admittedly, not always by choice. It may not have been clear why a retail team would need these assets - customers were seeing the product in person, why would associates need access to product photos? Plus, manually uploading every asset to a shared folder was too inefficient to manage long-term. 

Associates often need to use this type of imagery in order to entice customers to come visit in the first place. But without access to these high-production images, they would instead send pictures of clothes on hangers or selfies of themselves in the products. They'd send these images one after another, sometimes a dozen at a time. Of course, these products were not linked, no title, no price, no information whatsoever.

Endear's Solution: Lookbooks & linked products

Endear's first built-out product was our Lookbooks module, which allows any user to put together a landing page of curated products to suit a single customer or group of customers' preferences. Created in mere seconds thanks to a live feed of a brand's  assets, lookbooks also automatically include product titles and pricing, and auto-link to the products' e-commerce pages. For our users, the ability to create lookbooks or even simply insert a product into their outreach with all this data associated dramatically expedites the recommendation process, making it easy to provide this level curation for a wide audience. This structure also speeds up the customer's decision-making process and limits the number of steps to purchase. 

Periwinkle

Not quite sure what we mean? We can email you a lookbook built in Endear so that you see if our solution could be a good fit for your team. 

When we asked potential users how they determined which customers to contact, many said that they would receive a static report at the beginning of the month from the corporate team. Then over the course of the month, they'd gradually reach out to these customers. Here's the problem: between the time it takes to compose this report, distribute it to stores, and then actually reach out to customers, the data is stale and does not allow the sender to confidently incorporate any of the insights into his or her outreach. 

Endear's Solution: Real time integrations & dynamic reporting

There's no doubt that thanks to POS's and e-commerce platforms, there's almost too much data to take into consideration when practicing clienteling. But Endear's segments enable store associates to put together dynamic lists of customers for a specific purpose, such as sending thank-you notes. Segments update in real-time based on new customer behavior so that associates can keep up with activity as quickly as it takes place. Some of our most popular filters to layer together include a customer's most recent purchase location, what items they've ordered, or even what promo codes they've used.

Store associates dedicate a lot of time and effort to motivate a customer to purchase something. However, their capacity and enthusiasm is capped by an unnecessary limitation: their commission potential. Until Endear, most associates were disincentivized to encourage online purchases because they wouldn't get credit for the sale and, as a result, also miss out on commissions. If an associate is not willing to generate a sale, even if it means it happens online, neither they nor the brand they work for are truly reaching maximum performance. Without the opportunity to benefit from online purchases, there's very little motivation for an associate to work with customers interested in shopping online. 

Endear's Solution: Omnichannel attribution

The in-store only commission structure should be a relic of the past. But it has stuck around largely due to a lack of technology, not a lack of interest. When we ask potential customers if they offer commission for online sales, we hear all the time, "We wish we could, we just don't know how." But with Endear, store associates can email and text with customers, send them products, and rest assured that no matter where the customer purchases, they will receive recognition for their contribution. Over time, we've continued to improve our attribution model, also enabling brands to customize the exact terms of what should "count" as having driven a sale, based on level of engagement (clicks, opens, responses) and days to convert. 

Thanks to our omnichannel sales tracking, we know every customer's return on their investment in Endear. We can even predict yours! Find out how much your team could be generating in sales on Endear with our ROI calculator. 

Oxford Blue

The more associates rely on their own devices, the less protected customer data becomes and the less control a brand has over what is said to its customers. And while turnover at any company is inevitable, the big problem for stores is that when an associate leaves, she may be taking customer relationships, contact info, or new developments with her. Depending on what an associate has access to, there may be even riskier outcomes at stake. 

Endear's centralized messaging makes it easy to assign clients to associates, but should an associate leave, Endear also ensures that the entire conversation history stays with the brand. Admins can deactivate users at any time, and new users can take over pre-existing conversations and make surethat customers don't get left hanging. 

When we spoke to retail decision makers, one question we frequently asked was, "How do you know what your store teams are up to on a daily basis?" We took a look at some of the reports that store managers were sharing with regional managers or directors of retail and reports were primarily made up of anecdotal stories about customer interactions or general impressions of traffic. This type of reporting makes it nearly impossible to compare different stores' performance or track changes over time. 

With Endear's reporting, an admin or decision-maker can get an instant understanding of how each location is faring, based on their total message sends, conversions, and dollars driven overall. With this reporting, managers and admins can set realistic goals and expectations around daily user activity.

Finding time to sit down with every member of your retail team to review their performance on a regular basis can be a challenge. But the problem for associates is it can often be hard to gauge how they stack up compared to their peers. Without a way to keep tabs, their performance can often come down to one number: total in-store sales. That can be a very limited view of someone's contribution, and can also be very discouraging for the individual if they have no course of action through which to improve. 

Endear's Solution: Benchmarking & leaderboards

With Endear's platform, every associate can see how many messages she has sent per week, and what is typical for the team overall. These insights can make it easier for both the associate and the manager to address potential issues early on, and provide more time for additional training and support if an associate is not reaching her goals. These performance metrics can also help a manager determine an associate's strengths, and decide what responsibilities to give which salespeople. Most importantly, it enables associates to take ownership over their performance and progress over time. 

Endear's mission is to help associates enhance the work they do in order to play an ever-growing role in a brand's success. With the right tools, a sales team can be as powerful online as offline, and make the difference between an average quarter and immense growth and increased customer satisfaction. Learn more about how we can bring your team into the modern era. 

In the early days of Endear, we uncovered a ton of overlooked but immensely impactful problems that prevented associates from doing their best work. Here's how we solved them. 

Learn how Endear solved some of the most pressing problems retail associates faced in the digital era. Check out additional sales resources on Endear's blog.

10 Operational Headaches Endear Solved in Retail 

With the Covid-19 lockdowns and varying nation-wide restrictions, it’s no secret that the shopping economy has been suffering. Even so, as Kelly Wing writes in Entrepreneur, 2021 might just be best year to start a business of your own. While launching a retail business or digital brand has become increasingly easier thanks to readily available software and increased dependence on e-commerce, it has also become that much harder to stand out in a crowd. 

So where can brands and retailers turn? The answer is clienteling. With a strong clienteling program, a brand can re-invest in the relationships it has already started building and maximize loyalty in order to maximize profit. By adding a top-notch clienteling experience to your retail business, you’ll be able to distinguish your brand and motivate customers to return to you again and again. Put another way, your brand will be recognized as the one unicorn in a stampede of zebras. 

Most e-commerce businesses have three key areas on lock: sales, marketing, and customer support. Though at the same time, these areas have also become increasingly difficult to turn into “differentiators” – identifying a unique marketing channel no one else has thought of or offering one-of-a-kind support is no easy feat. 

Thanks to platforms like Amazon, Shopify, Squarespace, Target, Etsy, and a plethora of others, setting up a sales portal takes just a few clicks. Customers can easily purchase from you on your own site, or through a marketplace, with a seemingly unlimited number of ways to check out and fulfill their orders. 

All these different online destinations also create more competition for your dedicated website. Other sites may offer cheaper, faster, or more appealing fulfillment options, or accept a payment method you don’t offer yet. As the e-commerce landscape becomes more saturated, customer expectations around these types of services have gotten harder to satisfy for a small retailer or brand. In fact, 82% of consumers say they are more likely to check out with a brand who offers multiple delivery options - it's no longer just about having the best product. 

SEO, Google Ads/promoted links, and social media advertising are obviously very important methods of drumming up increased traffic and awareness for your business. However, these strategies have become “table stakes” – they are necessary, but not enough, to achieve success. 

68% of online experiences start with a search engine, so there’s no doubt that an investment in SEO is a worthwhile endeavor and can pay off in the long run. In fact, advertisers earn, on average $8 for every $1 spent on Google Ads and promoted links! Not too shabby, right? But, it can be competitive and expensive, particularly for popular keywords. Sites can count on spending anywhere from $9K and $10K per month on keyword advertising. That’s quite the budget!

Social media marketing and advertising is a must for every business, regardless of growth stage. Channels like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok create a whole new world in which you can capture and engage and interested audience. But finding the right social media strategy still takes time and money – two things that a large organization will almost always have more of. 

Customer Support Drives Costs More Than Revenue

With the highest satisfaction rate of any support channel, livechat continues to grow in popularity with an expected total market value of $997M by 2023, up from $510M in 2016. There’s no doubt that implementing a live chat for your online audience is a good idea – in fact, customers who engage with a livechat tend to spend 60% more than the average! However, livechat is also clearly becoming more common-place, and can often become a cost center for companies rather than a revenue-driver when the conversations that occur are exclusively operational in nature ("Where’s my order?" or "How do I make a return?"). 

So, with so many companies competing for attention (and dollars) both online and in-person, standing out has become even more challenging than before. Make no mistake: each of these methods are important to your business’s visibility and profitability. But to truly stand out? At Endear, we believe the best path toward differentiation is through the power of omnichannel clienteling. 

As we’ve mentioned before, clienteling is “the process or tools used to promote customer satisfaction through the shopping experience.” Put another way: clienteling means treating each shopper as the individual sparkle-pony they are. 

But modern clienteling adds an extra layer to this definition: offer personalization at scale. A modern CRM and clienteling platform (like Endear) will enable you to offer the same level of high-touch service to every customer, not just your VIP’s. 

Whether you're new to clienteling all together, or just trying to ramp up your team's efforts, Endear can help you build the right strategy for your unique needs. Book a time with us to learn more about what we have to offer and take advantage of our 14-day free trial.

The goal of any business is to increase revenue and profitability over time. Looking at the unique benefits of clienteling one by one will illustrate how you can achieve this overall goal. 

Instead of leaving customer satisfaction in the hands of a few superstar sellers, clienteling (particularly when done at POS) manages customer information in a way that makes it available to every sales associate who needs it. This ensures that each customer has a good experience regardless of whether they are shopping in one of your brick-and-mortar stores or online. After getting most of its sales associates comfortable with the clienteling program, one company (who chose to remain anonymous) saw a 33% increase in repeat visits and a 6% bump in total traffic!

Customers with an emotional tie to a brand have a 306% higher LTV

of companies’ revenue comes from 20% of customers

of customers say they only engage with personalized offers

Alabaster

Clienteling gives your team the information they need to create personalized and individually targeted messages to shoppers. This helps customers feel valued for who they are and not just for the money in their wallets. According to a research study conducted by Epsilon, 80% of customers are more likely to buy from companies that create personalized experiences for them. By investing in a clienteling software, you can uphold a level of personalization for your entire customer base while simultaneously decreasing your sales team's workload. 

Through emotional relationships, brands can dramatically increase a customer's lifetime value by 306% according to Motista. Keeping in mind that a 5% increase in customer retention can yield a 25% increase in profit, clienteling proves to actually be an efficient, and high-return path toward growth compared to the money invested into acquisition channels like advertising and paid search. 

Learn how our customer Kirna Zabete relied on a clienteling strategy to overcome the challenges of COVID. 

How to Implement an Omnichannel Clienteling Program

“Clienteling” traditionally refers to courses of action only available to an in-store salesperson, working with a client she knows personally (or has encountered face-to-face). But with a surge in e-commerce shopping brought on by the pandemic, it’s no longer feasible or wise to keep clienteling activity to just the in-person shopping experience. Omnichannel clienteling is meant to merge the gap between brick-and-mortar retail establishments and their online offerings so that customers can move between these channels seamlessly and still receive the same level of service only previously available at high-end department stores and boutiques. 

Whether you’re an e-commerce-only company, a small pop-up, or a larger omnichannel operation, clienteling presents you with an opportunity to extend the lifetime value of your customers and ensure that they continue to shop with you and your brand. Here are a few ways to institute a proper omnichannel clienteling strategy at your brand: 

70% of online shoppers said they’ve engaged in BOPIS, while 71% of in-store shoppers say their mobile devices are an important part of their experience - if customers are leveraging multiple channels to achieve their goals, so should your brand. An omnichannel associate acts as both your online and offline salesperson, making sure that customers receive consistent service across all their interactions with you. Omnichannel associates are in large part a product of Coronavirus. While Covid-19 forced many brick and mortar shops to implement or invest further into their online shopping experience, these stores also realized that their sales staff would similarly have more to do and more customers to serve if they could work with a digital audience on top of store visitors. The beauty of an omnichannel associate is that they serve as a consistent point of contact for your customers regardless of geography or channel – they can help a customer find the right product in-store or online, and answer questions one-on-one over remote channels like email and text. 

In the old world, clienteling usually occurred on the back of a store associate’s little black book and a lot of phone calls. While this process resulted in high-value customers, there was a limit on how many of them a single associate could actually manage. But a proper clienteling solution offers your business the following improvements on this approach: 

diverse methods of getting in touch: Personalization sits at the core of a good clienteling strategy, and that includes personalization around the channels your customers use to communicate. Providing options on communication will increase the likelihood of response and engagement. Some customers may still like using the phone, but channels like email, sms, and videochat also are more trackable and are make room for asynchronous, ongoing conversation.  


Give Customers a Reason (and way) to connect: While Livechat is certainly powerful, one of its largest drawbacks is that it only exists within the actual e-commerce experience. Providing a way for a customer to get in touch or continue the conversation through more readily accessible channels like the ones mentioned above establishes the foundation for true long-term clienteling. When a customer walks into a store, she may ask for assistance from a salesperson. For those customers who are a bit shy though, they may not actually seek out attention until offered assistance directly. A good clienteling strategy creates opportunities for customers to reach out about the products they are seeing, and ensures that customers are connected to the right person. 

The most overlooked and simultaneously the most important way to introduce omnichannel clienteling at your company is to build in new methods of attribution and accountability. Historically, associates were rated almost entirely by one number: their sales total at their store location. But the more we talk to brands and their retail teams, the more it has become clear that associates’ play a large role in online sales as well. In order to keep sales associates motivated, they need to feel confident that they will get credit (and potentially commission) for the sales they drive, regardless of where the transaction takes place. With Endear, sales associates not only receive credit for purchases made online, but can track their conversions in real-time. 

Whether your company is a luxury brand, a chain store, or a tiny indie shop that you run out of your garage, clienteling is what will help you stand out among your competitors. As more brands move online and diversify their sales channels, it will become that more important to develop long-term relationships with your customers to ensure that you’re offering something no one can compete with. Let us know how we can help you get started implementing clienteling into your company platform! 

With more digital businesses popping up every day, learn how to build the right omnichannel clienteling strategy to keep your brand top-of-mind with customers for the long haul.

Learn how to build the right omnichannel clienteling strategy for your retail business. Receive more retail tips and tricks on the Endear blog.

Why Clienteling is the Future of Retail

After the holidays, we'll be releasing an exciting update to the way we track sales for our brand customers. As one part of the larger retail CRM we offer, Endear's omnichannel sales tracking module has always been a major draw to our audience because it enables brands & retailers to trace the influence of their store team on sales regardless of where the transaction happens (in-store or online). This solution addresses what we believe to be one of the biggest blind spots for true omnichannel players.

With our upcoming release, I thought I'd take the opportunity to share a bit more about our tracking system's history and what we have planned for the future.

Why sales attribution is important to Endear

Endear is the first CRM built specifically for helping retailers drive sales over email & SMS. What makes us special is that unlike the CRMs & messaging platforms that came before us, Endear offers the retail industry a unique way to attribute sales across all of your sales channels, including your website, in-store POS & mobile app. We believe offering sales tracking as part of our solution not only helps to demonstrate the value of our product, but also delivers brands a clearer picture of how their various channels work together. 

The problem with today’s sales attribution systems

One of the reasons we built Endear is that the attribution system that exists today is fundamentally broken. “State of the art” sales attribution methods still rely almost entirely on pixel and link-tracking that is not only privacy-unfriendly but also increasingly error-prone. Modern browsers are constantly implementing additional features that make many of these old attribution systems unreliable or, in some cases, impossible (meaning, no tracking at all). Conversely, we have built an attribution model that requires little to no complex technical setup on the brand’s part and also avoids intrusive, privacy-unfriendly techniques such as digital fingerprinting in order to function properly. In other words, good for our customers and non-intrusive for theirs.

Some of the gaps in pixel & link tracking include:

If the end customer uses different devices or even different browsers on the same device, you cannot track the sale.

If the customer has any ad-blockers or other privacy-preserving extensions, you cannot track the sale.

If you have multiple ways a customer can buy, such as an online store, physical store, and/or mobile app, you cannot track the sale.

In the simplest terms, Endear attributes sales by comparing the messages users send to customers via Endear's centralized email and SMS platform to the sales that occur after those messages are sent. We do this by integrating with a brand’s POS & eCommerce site to analyze & match orders placed with the brand to the messages sent through Endear.

A salesperson, affiliate, or marketer texts or emails one or more customers about a sale, product release, etc & they have a two-way conversation with that customer through Endear

Let's say those customers later visit the brand’s store, website, or app and make purchases over the next few weeks

Endear pulls the orders into our analytics module in real-time & matches them to the messages sent before the sale took place based on a customer's email address or phone number

No matter how the customer buys (regardless of channel, browser or device), you can attribute the sale

This method of attribution does not require tracking or fingerprinting the customer in their browser

This method of attribution cannot be blocked since we are matching messages sent through our own system rather than relying on the browser for data-tracking

You can attribute sales cross-channel & cross-campaign

While we knew when we built our system that the old way wasn't delivering a clear enough picture of how sales were being generated, our unique attribution model has also required us to take on new challenges as our brand customers scale their outreach through Endear.

Burnt Sienna

Thanks to our sales attribution model, we're also able to forecast what sort of ROI we can deliver to potential customers. Find out what your return on your subscription can be with our handy ROI calculator. 

The challenges of Endear’s unique attribution model

Today, Endear boasts an average 5% conversion rate on our messages. This is, on average, 100x better than standard email marketing. We achieve this high conversion rate by making it easy for our brands to scale hyper-personalized, hyper-localized outreach to their customers.  However, the most common question we get about our attribution model is, “How can I be sure that this specific message drove this specific sale?” While pixel & link tracking have the problem of generally attributing too few sales, our attribution model sometimes attributes too many sales.

Building an attribution model without tradeoffs

To adjust for us attributing too many sales to users' messages, many of our brands began to rely on different interactions on these messages in order to filter out those that likely did not drive a sale. Each brand has a different perspective on what combination of interactions should indicate that a message was responsible for a purchase, but generally speaking they were asking themselves four key questions about messages:

Did the email get opened? (open tracking is impossible over sms)

Did any of the links in the message get clicked?

How long has it been since the customer received the message?

Until now, Endear only used the 4th question to determine and report that a message was responsible for a sale - i.e. if a purchase was made within a certain number of days after a message was sent, we'd count it as being responsible for that purchase. According to our data, over 70% of the messages sent through Endear that converted into a sale did so within 5 days so, for the most part, our approach seemed to deliver an accurate picture of how a sale came about. However, to push our model to become better than traditional pixel & link attribution and achieve a no-compromise solution, we decided to incorporate all the interactions available to us.

Endear will now attribute messages differently depending on the types of interactions we capture about a message. Instead of only considering how recently a message was sent to the purchasing customer, we will also assess if the customer engaged with that message in a meaningful way. And the beauty of this system is that we can still do all of this attribution without needing to introduce any technical complexity for the brand! Just as simple for the user with more sophisticated, accurate results. And of course, no two brands or organizations are the same, so we've also made room for more customization and rule-setting on a per-customer basis.

This new model aligns better with how we hope brands use Endear. First & foremost, our brands want to engage in meaningful dialogue with their customers. By designing our attribution around that dialogue, we help our brands align incentives for their salespeople with those goals.

In 2021, we plan to introduce many new messaging & chat services to Endear including video chat, WhatsApp, Instagram Direct, Facebook Messenger & more. We also plan to make it easier to integrate Endear with customer service platforms so you can use Endear to focus purely on selling. As we introduce these new integrations we also plan to introduce new & better ways to drive & attribute sales over those channels.

Endear offers its customers a unique, modern approach to retail sales attribution. Learn about the problems with the industry's current methods and our unique way of solving them. 

Brands count on Endear to track retail teams' impact on sales in-store and online. Learn how Endear's approach is different from the rest of the industry.

How Endear Attributes Retail Sales Across Channels

Endear's Unique Approach to Omnichannel Sales Attribution

<p>It’s a brave new <strong>retail</strong> world today. If you’re a retailer and not excited, you should ask yourself why. <br></p><p>There has never been a clearer opportunity for breaking new ground and taking on new and exciting projects as consumer habits force us all to upend everything we thought we knew. <br></p><p>As the title of this post suggests, any new retail trends worthy of attention will have an online and offline component — in fact, even thinking of these two channels separately will immediately slow you down (hence why we’ve written about the <a href="https://endearhq.com/blog/omnichannel-retail" target="_blank">importance of omnichannel retail</a>). <br></p><p>We’ve already seen traditional retailers launch online while digitally native brands take to the streets with brick and mortar stores, but it’s no longer enough to simply exist both in-store and online — the next step is to ask how you can make your omnichannel presence do more for you and for your customers. The rest of 2020 presents a compelling opportunity to try new ideas and test the boundaries of what it means to offer customers a seamless shopping experience. <br></p><p>As a software company that works with omnichannel brands, <a href="https://endearhq.com/">Endear</a> has had a front row seat to what our customers are trying. Given what we’ve learned from them, we’ve put together a recap of the trends we believe all retailers should be paying close attention to, if not already finding ways to act on. </p><h2>Top Retail Industry Trends to Bookmark for Your Business</h2><p>Broken down by the actual purchase journey of a customer, we hope this list can spark inspiration for what should come next for your brand. </p><h3>Retail Industry Trends around New Ways to Discover</h3><p>Nothing has been more impactful on brand discoverability in the past decade than social media. Whether you start a Facebook group of fans or have thousands of followers on Instagram, these public profiles create great opportunities for new customers to find you and enter into your ecosystem. <br></p><p>However, the last year or so has shown a path of even more organic, authentic means of discovery that supplement what has become a highly competitive social media landscape. One such example is a return to the traditional retail model, but in the form of more flexible, <a href="https://endearhq.com/blog/modern-physical-retail-formats-how-to-choose-the-right-one" target="_blank">affordable formats</a> such as pop-ups or pop-ins. <br></p><p>In fact, one study suggests that a physical store presence can <a href="https://www.icsc.com/news-and-views/icsc-exchange/physical-stores-key-to-retail-success-study-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increase traffic to your website in that area by up to 37%</a>. Given how competitive the digital advertising landscape has become, finding new ways to get exposure is certainly key. Another strategy that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere is the brand <a href="https://www.modernretail.co/startups/to-stave-off-growth-woes-dtc-brands-partner-with-others-to-create-marketplaces/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collaboration</a> — teaming up with a complementary brand or service to create a shared community of customers that you both target. <br></p><p>By working together with other brands to create unique opportunities for discoverability, you can end up saving a lot of time and money that often comes with  building a new channel from scratch.</p><h3>Retail Industry Trends around New Ways to Browse</h3><p>I recently had my own experience with online browsing, and it didn't take place on an e-commerce site. A friendly associate at a local store texted me a series of product images, and even offered to have the items I liked sent to my home for a private shopping session. <br></p><p>These are exciting times! Between Instagram's shopping and saving capabilities, iMessage's quick reactions, and all of our new-found love and obsession with text message, it should come as no surprise that customers are browsing your products in places you would not even imagine. <br></p><p>Online streaming platforms such as <a href="http://www.shopshops.com.cn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ShopShops</a> also empower customers to browse digitally, with the support of an online host on the scene to show them what's in-store. What our customers have pointed out as a game-changer for them has been how easy Endear makes it to share these kinds of product images with more customers without sacrificing personalization. <br></p><p>What used to be a tedious task of taking multiple images of products and sending them one by one has become not only easy but also a more efficient, visually-pleasing experience thanks to Endear's lookbook capabilities — particularly handy for formally <a href="https://endearhq.com/personal-styling-programs" target="_blank">styling customers</a>.  </p><h3>Retail Industry Trends around New Ways to Engage</h3><p>As we all learn to depend on digital resources to get sh*t done, we’ve grown more comfortable with new communication channels and methods of staying connected. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/30/video-conferencing-apps-saw-a-record-62m-downloads-during-one-week-in-march/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Video conferencing app downloads have surged</a>, and customers are readily engaging with LiveChat apps in order to learn more about the products they can no longer touch and feel in-person. <br></p><p>While each of these various communication channels contributes to a more immersive customer experience, the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. In other words, the more you can unify the conversation a customer has with your brand across these channels, the more likely your strategy is to generate <a href="https://endearhq.com/blog/customer-loyalty" target="_blank">customer loyalty</a> in the long run. At Endear, we’ve found that one way to unify the retail experience is by ensuring that the <a href="https://endearhq.com/messaging" target="_blank">customer is always talking to the same person</a> no matter what channel she’s using. <br></p><p>In fact, customers’ main gripe with live chat solutions is that they can often feel impersonal, sometimes forcing customers to either repeat their questions or never delivering solutions at all. But customers should be able to communicate with your brand across any channel and feel like it is one fluid conversation. By equipping your entire team with the right communication tools, customers will have a better time shopping with you.</p><h3>Retail Industry Trends around New Ways to Sell</h3><p>Speaking of salespeople — ever wonder why the conversion in-store is about <a href="https://internetretailing.net/industry/industry/retailers-must-do-more-to-increase-personalisation-and-replicate-the-high-conversion-rate-of-in-store-interactions-study-recommends-19651" target="_blank" rel="noopener">7 to 10x</a> what it is online? When customers walk into a store, they have the opportunity to engage with an expert in real-time in order to get their questions answered and learn more about the products they see. <br></p><p>A big challenge for most e-commerce shoppers is that they often do not have someone knowledgeable about your product to count on for information. However, as more customers move online, brands are starting to understand that having a team of omnichannel associates is a necessary upgrade from the traditional retail sales strategy. Having a team that can educate customers face-to-face and remotely may be the thing to motivate customers to visit more frequently and, more importantly, convert. <br></p><p><a href="https://www.gucci.com/us/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gucci</a> is a prime example of the digitization of the associate — in June of this year, <a href="https://www.voguebusiness.com/technology/gucci-live-personalised-video-shopping" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the luxury brand launched Gucci Live</a> and dedicated a full team of salespeople to support digital-only shopping and clienteling for its customers. Another is <a href="https://endearhq.com/blog/rhone-endear-virtual-concierge">Rhone</a>, which relied on Endear and our <a href="https://endearhq.com/lookbooks" target="_blank">lookbooks</a> to easily showcase new products to customers who weren’t able to come to the store. <br></p><p>Through virtual appointments, customers could see new merchandise and have a selection of items sent to them over email or text in order to decide which items from their appointment to purchase. While most digital brands today will have support teams to aid with shipping issues or returns, still few have made moves on a proactive sales team to replicate what stores offer, creating a prime opportunity for brands to stand out from their competition through <a href="https://endearhq.com/blog/examples-of-delightful-customer-service-in-retail" target="_blank">top-notch service</a>. </p><h3>Retail Industry Trends around New Ways to Buy</h3><p>Only in the past few years, when I’d check out on an e-commerce site, I had two options: PayPal or adding my credit card details. Sometimes I forgot my PayPal password, sometimes my credit card was nowhere near me, and just like that, another abandoned cart. Most e-commerce brands will know their abandoned cart rate like their own phone number; <a href="https://www.barilliance.com/cart-abandonment-rate-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in the US, it’s a little above 70%</a> — meaning only about 1 in every 4 people ends up buying something they added to their cart. <br></p><p>But there has lately been a surge in payment options that reduces the friction of checkout, including new portals such as <a href="https://www.shopify.com/blog/shop-pay-checkout" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shopify’s ShopPay,</a> and <a href="https://pay.amazon.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amazon Pay</a>. Perhaps more important than these though, has been the rise of the “buy now pay later” platforms — apps that allow you to pay a small amount up front and pay for the remainder of your item’s price in future installments. Platforms like <a href="https://www.afterpay.com/index" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AfterPay</a>, <a href="https://www.affirm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Affirm</a>, and <a href="https://www.klarna.com/us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Klarna</a> are popping up left and right so that shoppers are able to buy more expensive items today by paying for them over time. Boasting increases in conversion north of 20% for the merchants that use them, these platforms also are a big help to customers who don’t have credit cards (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/26/americans-near-record-levels-credit-card-debt-is-helping-bolster-banking-industry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about 45% of Americans don’t have one</a>), freeing up cash flow while still enabling them to acquire more expensive items the same way a credit card would. </p><h3>Retail Industry Trends around New Ways to Return</h3><p>While e-commerce makes it super easy to order pretty much anything, returns still prove to be hard on customers and on retailers — in fact, apparel retailers face a <a href="https://www.shipbob.com/blog/ecommerce-returns/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">43% return rate</a>! Putting aside the decision to return an item in the first place (which may come with its own disappointments), the next question is how easy is it for the customer to return an item, and how much will it cost the retailer. For most retailers, those two things are inversely related so that reducing return costs also means potentially dismaying customers. <br></p><p>However, returns prove to be another opportunity for omnichannel retailers to shine. By having both an in-store and online presence, you’re in a position to enable your customers to return however they like. Enabling them to return in-store if possible also reduces costs to you by eliminating the need to cover shipping and enabling your retail store to keep returned items on-hand as local inventory. This option may also prove easier for the customer, who no longer has to deal with re-packaging her item but instead can simply drop it off with a receipt. If you are not an omnichannel retailer however, there are still options available that may help lower your costs and also make life easier for your customers. <br></p><p>For example, <a href="https://loopreturns.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Loop Returns</a> encourages customers to consider exchanges and store credit instead of a standard refund, which can dramatically reduce your losses from returns. There are plenty of reverse logistics platforms that provide customers with a positive experience returning items, so be careful not to sleep on the post-purchase part of your customer’s journey. <br></p><p>All these trends have already started to take form, but there is still plenty of time to join in on the fun and find a way to make them work for your business and your customers. At <a href="https://endearhq.com/" target="_blank">Endear</a>, we focus on helping our customers come up with creative omnichannel solutions to ensure that they are always one step ahead.</p><p><br></p>

Discover the retail trends the Endear founders believe are here to stay — and how you can implement them.

Top Retail Industry Trends: What's in Store (and Online) for 2020

<p>The future of retail may seem harder to predict than ever, primarily due to how <a href="https://endearhq.com/blog/the-future-of-work-in-retail" target="_blank">the coronavirus upended most of what we understood about the retail landscape</a>. While retailers will certainly think about their businesses differently in the short-term, it’s also important that retailers think beyond the next few months to determine what new technology, products, and services they want to offer as part of their physical and online <a href="https://endearhq.com/blog/shopping-experience" target="_blank">shopping experiences</a>. As consumer behaviors shift, retailers and brands alike will have to adjust as well. <br></p><p>At Endear, it’s our job as a retail technology company to always be thinking about what the future of retail holds and how we play a part in that evolution. Technology and the future of retail are of course dependent on one another: trends inform what technology the retail industry needs, while technology helps the retail industry address those trends more quickly. <br></p><p>Given all the uncertainty surrounding us today, it seemed like a good idea to share our take on what’s to come. Below is a run-down of the trends and opportunities we believe the industry will have to embrace in order to succeed based on the consumer trends that have emerged. <br></p><h2>1. Sales will become omnichannel.</h2><p>The biggest missed opportunity in retail to-date has been in the sales department. While store associates have previously been confined to selling solely face-to-face, COVID-19 has taught anyone with a brick-and-mortar retail business that their salespeople are potentially even more powerful online.<br></p><p>There are a few critical reasons why salespeople should serve as online resources as much as they serve as in-store support. Perhaps the biggest reason is the return rate problem: <a href="https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/ecommerce-returns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">e-commerce stores face an average 20% return rate (30% during the holiday season), nearly doubling the return rate at retail stores.</a> Factoring in that customers expect brands to foot the bill for shipping returns, plus the cost of inventory that can’t be resold, <a href="https://www.voguebusiness.com/consumers/returns-rising-costs-retail-environmental" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the retail industry spends about a third of its revenue on reverse logistics.</a></p><p>When you think about how salespeople could dramatically decrease the likelihood of returns, it should be a no-brainer to brands to introduce their sales team to online customers. At Endear, we’ve already seen a number of our customers, such as <a href="https://www.mansurgavriel.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mansur Gavriel</a>, <a href="https://schutz-shoes.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Schutz</a>, and <a href="https://mishanonoo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Misha Nonoo</a>, use the past few months as a time to leverage their store teams to drive online sales—<a href="https://endearhq.com/omnichannel-tracking" target="_blank">with all this activity completely trackable (and commissionable!) through Endear.</a></p><h2>2. Customers will prioritize convenience.</h2><p>While customer expectations include free shipping and free returns, it doesn’t mean they won’t invest in speed <em>and</em> convenience. In other words, just because you offer free 7-10 day shipping doesn’t mean you can’t charge a premium for one-day or even same-day delivery.<br></p><p>Same-day delivery is coming at us quickly, primarily thanks to the infrastructure provided by food delivery and ridesharing apps. In fact, companies like <a href="https://www.shipsi.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shipsi</a> are making it even easier for brands and retailers to offer shoppers their goods within a matter of hours. Similarly, customers are more likely to offer information and data about themselves if it means receiving more tailored goods and personalized services in return. <br></p><p>Especially if you’re a retailer with tons of products to offer, you can no longer expect customers to scroll through pages and pages of results—<a href="https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/improve-customer-experience-with-artificial-intelligence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">they would rather you analyze their purchase or browsing history and serve up results that are most likely to appeal to them</a>. Otherwise, you’ll likely lose them to a product they find on social media. </p><h2>3. Customers will save through sustainability.</h2><p>Customers may be interested in spending time and money on convenience, but they’ve found ways to save through more sustainable shopping options, a necessary balance seeing as <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/consumer-business/us-retail-industry-outlook-2020-final-100720.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">growth in disposable income has dropped in the last year</a>. For example, more customers are forgoing purchasing new items and instead participating in the “re-commerce” and rental world. <br></p><p>In fact, while spend on apparel overall has stalled, the “re-commerce” (the re-selling of previously-owned goods) <a href="https://www.retaildive.com/news/5-predictions-for-the-future-of-retail/570085/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">market value is expected to approximately double to $51B by 2023</a>. Re-commerce is attractive to the next wave of shoppers not just because it saves them money, but because it also extends products’ shelf life, a major priority for Gen Z shoppers in particular, <a href="https://www.cgsinc.com/en/infographics/CGS-Survey-Reveals-Sustainability-Is-Driving-Demand-and-Customer-Loyalty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">whose loyalty is more likely to be influenced by a brand’s sustainability efforts than other generations</a>’. <br></p><p>While the re-commerce industry has been popularized by resale brands like <a href="http://rebag.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rebag</a> and <a href="https://www.therealreal.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Real Real</a>, even traditional brands like <a href="https://www.rag-bone.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rag & Bone</a> are starting to offer <a href="https://www.rag-bone.com/denim-recycling.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discount programs to help ensure that products are properly re-used or recycled</a>. Similarly, while rental pioneers like <a href="https://www.renttherunway.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rent the Runway</a> have encouraged our education around the power and benefits of renting apparel, services like <a href="https://www.caastle.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CaaStle</a> have enabled other brands to offer rental options, thus also lowering the barriers to entry into the luxury market for potential customers.<br></p><p>Another major consideration for eco-conscious shoppers is in the form of fulfillment. For many, BOPIS and BORIS (buy-online-pickup-in-store / return-in-store, respectively) offer both a more efficient, cost-saving, and eco-friendly method of retrieving and returning items, by avoiding unnecessary shipping, packaging, and warehouse processing. While not all brands have brick-and-mortar stores, companies like <a href="https://www.happyreturns.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Happy Returns</a> make it easy for pure-play companies to enable this method of returns for their customers because of how the tech platform teams up with larger retailers.  </p><h2>4. Retail technology will become more accessible.</h2><p><a href="https://endearhq.com/shopify" target="_blank">Endear prides itself on its easy-to-install</a>, easy-to-learn platform. But the reason why we’ve been able to make getting started so quick and affordable for customers is that the core infrastructure that brands are building on, predominantly their e-commerce platforms, have also become more consolidated and more nimble. <br></p><p>While there are very robust solutions out there, once Shopify entered the scene and brought its app store with it, the company challenged every other player to make it as easy to start using a new app for your business as it is in your personal life. While there are tons of great apps that have benefited from Shopify’s ecosystem, there are tons more who have taken a page out of the world of digital marketing and made it a priority to offer plug-and-play solutions to retail businesses, once plagued with large up-front development costs and long-term licensing contracts. When we think about other companies like <a href="https://www.getdor.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dor</a> or <a href="https://fiddle.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fiddle</a>, we see that we weren’t the only ones who knew that the SaaS model would catch up with retail eventually. </p><h2>5. Subscriptions will thrive (though subscription boxes may fall).</h2><p>Even before Covid, there has been a ton of chatter about the potential value of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands—there have been big wins and flame-outs, and the question is still up in the air about what kind of exit these brands can expect to have. One major differentiating opportunity, though, is subscription. Similar to my comment above, most tech companies count on subscription models and their ability to scale their software across customers to justify their need for up-front capital and the potential return on the other side.<br></p><p>While even I’ll admit that subscription boxes feel <em>sooo </em>2015, subscriptions may be the saving grace for a lot of brands. In fact, companies like <a href="https://www.fabletics.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fabletics</a> and <a href="https://www.savagex.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Savage x Fenty</a> bank on this model because it yields a much higher retention rate, which helps them overcome perhaps the biggest challenge facing retailers: constantly having to win back customers. <br></p><p>While subscription services may not apply to every category (e.g. mattress companies), basics brands and beauty brands alike have started introducing subscriptions as a way to keep customers happy and keep retention rates high. Subscriptions can also vary on the frequency, so that customers never feel trapped but instead feel comforted knowing that a product will reappear right when the original runs out or wears out. The more you can help customers feel this way, the better. For any company considering subscription, I would recommend investing in how you can demonstrate to customers the potential monetary advantages and their pre-existing behavior to encourage them to switch to a regular purchasing schedule—a discount on their subscription is encouraged! </p><h2>6. Barriers to physical retail will continue to lower.</h2><p>Today, opening a store is almost as easy as launching an e-commerce site. While some of this shift is due changes in the real estate market, a lot of it is because of the rise of retail-as-a-service companies and consultancies who offer turn-key solutions to brick-and-mortar operations. <br></p><p>These services, in tandem with new retail technology solutions like <a href="https://endearhq.com/" target="_blank">Endear</a>, make the prospect of physical retail much less daunting and much less expensive. It also means that physical stores can see returns faster since the playbook has been written. </p><h2>7. Brands will pervade our lives, not just our closets.</h2><p>When we think of our own company, we know we offer a product, but we also hope that we can offer our customers a sense of community, a reliable library of resources, and overall be generally helpful to them in all things sales-related. Brands today, especially during and because of COVID-19, are taking a similar approach to how they operate. <br></p><p>It’s not just about how good their products are —in fact, depending on your sales strategy, customers could just as easily find that same item at another retailer, maybe even for less money. So how will brands shift to encourage more customer loyalty?<br></p><p>One trend that is becoming more popular is to create more opportunities to engage with both the brand and the other people who are as obsessed with it as you are. <a href="https://endearhq.com/blog/customer-retention-strategies" target="_blank">I wrote about this type of community building in a previous post,</a> but when we think about what it will look like in the future, what we see today will be taken to another level. As brands become more customer centric, it will be less about “What do we make?” and more about “What do our customers want from us?” <br></p><p>And what customers want may be more than products—it may be in the form of events, services, or new types of content. All these things combined will still have to be “true to the brand” but a brand will no longer be a label you see on the inside or bottom of an item, it will truly be its own entity that customers will engage with through any channels it puts before them—likely, the more ways to engage, the more loyalty there is to be earned. <br></p><h2>Technology and the Future of Retail</h2><p>I’ve shared a lot of trends, ideas, and hypotheses here, but I’ve also included some of the technology we think will drive these changes forward. To make your life easier, I’ve recapped those solutions here. I hope it’s helpful! <br></p><p><a href="https://endearhq.com">Endear</a>: Whether you operate entirely online or have a large fleet of stores, Endear is here to help you keep your customers and sales team happy. See for yourself with a 30-day free trial of Endear.<br></p><p><a href="http://shipsi.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shipsi</a></p><p><a href="https://www.caastle.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CaaStle</a></p><p><a href="http://getdor.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dor</a></p><p><a href="http://happyreturns.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Happy Returns</a></p><p><a href="https://fiddle.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fiddle</a></p><p><br></p>

Learn what trends the founders of retail CRM platform Endear predict will matter most for the industry.

Predictions for the Future of Retail

Predictions for the Future of Retail as Forecasted by the Founders of Endear

<p>It seems like we're getting closer to the day when we can safely roam free once more.  But with all this time not only working from home, but also exercising from home, shopping from home, and eating from home, a new normal will take hold, and every industry will have to reckon with how to adapt.</p><h2>Corona's Impact on Retail</h2><p>Different retail verticals are being impacted very differently by the crisis: while grocery stores are overwhelmed with traffic, <a href="https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/fashion-industry-faces-up-to-covid-19-disaster-coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">high-end shops are pretty much catatonic</a>, with omnichannel brands have fared slightly better. But on some level, <a href="https://fashionista.com/2019/12/retail-market-store-closures-bankruptcies-2019-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">did Coronavirus just speed up the inevitable</a>? And <a href="https://www.modernretail.co/retailers/as-physical-retail-falters-retail-startups-fall-back-on-virtual-sales/?utm_campaign=mrdis&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mrdaily&utm_content=032520" target="_blank" rel="noopener">f</a><a href="https://www.modernretail.co/retailers/as-physical-retail-falters-retail-startups-fall-back-on-virtual-sales/?utm_campaign=mrdis&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mrdaily&utm_content=032520" target="_blank" rel="noopener">or those who have the means and the strategy to fight through the crisis</a>, what will retail look like post-Corona?</p><p>Before the crisis, the split between online and offline purchasing (let's ignore all the cross-over steps in between for now) was somewhere between 80-90% on the store side, and 10-20% on the e-commerce side. But with most of apparel retail still closed, customers who may have previously resisted shopping online have likely found their groove, and the gap will likely shrink even more rapidly than it was before (my 70-year-old father is the ultimate testament to this).</p><p>As a CRM platform for retail sales teams, <a href="https://endearhq.com" target="_blank">Endear</a> has had front row seat to retailers' thoughts and conversations around how to repurpose their store associates, once only available to the customers who could make it to the store. What was particularly exciting about these conversations is that the online world presents a whole new way to think about sales and what the role of an online sales associate should look like, <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/saint-laurent-fashion-show-canceled" target="_blank" rel="noopener">especially in the higher-end market</a>. While online traffic is inherently easier to track, those browsing online are getting less attention from sales teams. While Livechat has provided a temporary band-aid for customers' sales inquiries, what we at Endear always believed was missing from the e-commerce landscape was the capacity to proactively reach out to online shoppers, the digital equivalent of "is there something I can help you with?" or, "Would you like to try that on?" </p><h2>How Will Associates' Jobs Change?</h2><p>So the question on our minds (and hopefully on the minds of retailers) is how the role of the "omnichannel associate" will develop. Will retailers start offering WFH opportunities in conjunction with in-store positions?</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/26/nyregion/old-navy-workers.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The role of the associate was already starting to evolve</a> even before the crisis hit, and stores will still play a crucial role in any brand's growth and expansion - if we've learned anything from being cooped up inside, it's that we should never underestimate the value of human contact - But as my team and I know first-hand, the lines between a brand's retail associates, digital marketing team, and customer service reps are blurring more and more as we all navigate how best to engage and support consumers.</p><p>Most of us remember a world without e-commerce, and now we've experienced a world without brick-and-mortar. If there's a silver lining to what we're currently enduring, it's that brands should have more insight now than ever before around how consumers respond to these channels in isolation, and therefore should also now know how to create an even better shopping experience when putting them together.</p><p>‍</p>

Now that consumers have been forced to embrace e-commerce as their sole shopping channel, how will the role of the store associate adapt to this new behavior?

COVID's Impact on retail and what the role of online sales associates should look like post-COVID. Browse the rest of the blog for more industry updates.

How will Corona impact the future of work in retail?

<p>This past week, Jinesh and I had the privilege of attending Shopify Unite, the company's annual partner and developer conference - it was a blast. It was a blast to learn how much this ecosystem has accomplished together, and it was a blast to find out what's in store for Shopify and, in turn, all of the small businesses, solopreneurs, and large companies that take advantage of Shopify's never-ending pursuit of retail innovation.</p><p>Yes, I've clearly drank the Shopify cool-aid. I'm okay with that. But in the spirit of making this blog actually helpful and beneficial to the reader, I will try to cool it with the general praise and focus more on the major take-aways from attending the conference.</p><h2><strong>Why Does Shopify Host Unite?</strong></h2><p>Unite presents an opportunity for Shopify to educate its world-class network of partners and developers on what new features and improvements are coming down the pipeline so that this group of innovators can incorporate these enhancements into their various products and services for merchants. In other words, if Shopify is serving up the ball, it's up to the conference attendees to hit it out of the park.</p><p>But why do they do this? Why not host this conference for merchants instead?</p><p>Instead of trying to be a one-size-fits-all platform for all their merchants, Shopify focuses on making it easy and affordable for merchants of any size to create the right experience for their brand by tapping into a large network of developers and agencies. With this approach in mind, Shopify can use a conference like Unite to educate this ecosystem of partners who are then incentivized to improve their own services and market these new enhancements to their respective merchant customers - this strategy proves much easier than educating the 800,000 merchants that are currently using Shopify on what features are coming out.</p><h2>What We Learned</h2><p>Attending Shopify Unite meant hearing first-hand what Shopify has accomplished over the past year and where it’s headed. Below are some of the details I found most interesting:</p><ul><li>If you combine all the merchants on Shopify, Shopify represents the third largest retailer in the US, after Amazon and Ebay</li><li><a href="https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/shopify-tightens-its-grip-on-the-ecosystem-at-annual-developer-conference/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shopify’s new fulfillment centers</a> will enable all their merchants to compete with the likes of Amazon when it comes to faster, more reliable shipping for customers</li><li>Shopify POS now powers over 100k merchants globally</li><li>The company is introducing subscription options directly into its checkout, so that any merchant can turn a one-time purchase into a recurring opportunity for shoppers</li><li>With Shopify’s multi-location functionality, merchants will soon be able to offer customers BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) so that shoppers can choose how they’d like to actually acquire their new items</li></ul><h2>What We Shared</h2><p>As a POS app, Endear was invited to speak on a panel to help educate the Shopify community on why we are invested in seeing physical retail succeed. We were thrilled to speak about working with brick-and-mortar stores alongside the founder of <a href="https://apps.shopify.com/marsello" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marsello</a>, Brent Spicer, and the founder of the Shopify app <a href="https://apps.shopify.com/clockedin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ClockedIn</a>, Rhian Beutler. Together, the three of us focused on the following:</p><ul><li>Stores lack a tremendous number of tools and resources compared to their digital counterparts</li><li>Endear and its POS friends believe that in order to continue to grow, most brands will need to evolve into true omnichannel players, offering their customers in-store and online experiences that work together harmoniously</li><li>Customers have already adopted the mindset that they should be able to start their purchase journey anywhere and end it anywhere – its now up to merchants to deliver on this expectation</li><li>Store management is still incredibly analog, and its up to apps like Endear to help retailers overcome these outdated habits and ways of operating so that they can improve their performance and continue to grow</li><li>As more apps, services, and agencies that cater to stores emerge and digital marketing becomes increasingly more expensive and competitive, stores will once again become efficient investments from both a sales and marketing standpoint, particularly when done in a modern, data-driven way that leverages everything brands have learned from managing their online businesses</li></ul><h2><strong>Endear hearts Toronto</strong></h2><p>While previous Shopify Unite’s were held in San Francisco, I was thrilled that the company decided to re-locate to its own HQ city of Toronto, so shout-out to Toronto for being an incredible host city – visiting right after the Raptors’ big win only made the city more alive, and yet not at all overwhelming. It’s truly a wonderful place to visit and I’m already looking forward to returning next year. Highly recommend making the trip!</p>

A recap of the 2019 Shopify Unite Conference from our co-founder, Leigh Sevin.

Endear co-founder Leigh Sevin shares key take-aways from the 2019 Shopify Unite Conference. Browse the rest of the Endear blog for more industry tips & updates.

Nowadays you can buy almost anything at the click of a button. Many brick-and-mortar stores are pulling their hair out struggling to keep up with the dizzying pace of ecommerce, but some traditional retail practices are still relevant in the age of online shopping.

Take retail sales associates, for instance. Shoppers may be more informed than ever thanks to the wealth of knowledge available online. But every now and then they’re still going to have doubts about buying a physical product without experiencing it in-person. 

This is where a digital sales associate comes in. Their job is to build tight-knight relationships with your online customers in order to drive more sales for your ecommerce business. Similar to their in-store counterparts, digital associates serve as experts in response to the lack of touch and feel that comes with digital shopping. In this article we’re going to show you how digital retail sales associates will play an increasingly bigger role in the future of ecommerce, and how you can use the digitization of retail workers to increase retail sales. 

The Role of Traditional Retail Sales Associates 

Salespeople can typically be divided between two types:

Sales Representatives, who mostly sell to businesses (wholesale, B2B).

Sales Associates, who sell directly to customers (B2C).

Retail sales associates are usually responsible for ringing up customers, helping them find the product they’re looking for, processing returns and refunds, and merchandising the store. As the price of merchandise increases, sales associates are also held responsible for reaching certain sales goals. Since a Sales Associate acts as the face of the brand, their role is crucial to creating positive customer experiences which in turn drive purchases. In retail settings, the way a Sales Associate treats a customer is often the deciding factor in whether they will buy again, and associates are often financially incentivized to ensure customers don’t leave empty-handed or unhappy in the form of store commissions. 

Here are some of the traditional responsibilities of a sales associate:

Greeting customers when they walk into a store and offering help.

Listening to customers and identifying their needs.

Helping customers find specific merchandise.

Explaining the qualities of a product (and how it works).

Informing customers about current discounts and promotions.

Keeping track of inventory and informing managers of low stock. 

Recommending certain products to customers based on their needs.

 Helping keep the store clean and presentable.

Detecting possible cases of robbery and notifying the authorities.

To manage these various responsibilities, sales associates require skills that span sales, customer service, operations, and general problem-solving.

With the rise of ecommerce, retailers have had to adapt to a new reality. But in the minds of consumers, there’s not much difference between online and offline shopping. In fact, a modern path to purchase can actually involve up to six different touchpoints across the virtual and physical world. At the end of the day, customers are looking to satisfy a need in the most efficient and enjoyable way possible. In order for traditional retailers to truly take advantage of digital, they first have to understand how ecommerce has changed offline shopping forever. 

The Customer’s First Impression Is Digital

As ecommerce grows in popularity, so does the likelihood that a customer will learn about a product digitally before experiencing it in-person. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Every digital touchpoint (whether it be an email, a Facebook ad or a blog post) represents another opportunity to convert the customer or move them down the funnel toward a purchase. But to make the best of omnichannel shopping behavior, all your online assets should be cohesive with your wider brand, presenting the customer with a seamless experience.

Webrooming: when a consumer goes through much of their pre-purchase research process online before eventually heading into a store for final evaluation and purchase. 

Gone are the days when people visited stores with zero knowledge. Shoppers today do their own research before they check out, and 52% feel they are more knowledgeable than a store associate. Where do you as a business owner fit into this journey? Your job is to develop the right content and sales resources that provide all the information customers need to make a final purchase decision, whether in-store or online.

Shoppers used to have to tell Sales Associates what they needed before they were provided with personalized suggestions. But now, through site visits, clicks, and cart abandonment, your ecommerce experience can get to know customers better than they might even know themselves. Cookies track sessions and follow shoppers across the web to offer them tailored suggestions. Now a modern ecommerce website is expected to deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time. 

Shoppers are faced with endless product choices online. The advantage to the consumer is that it’s easier than ever to find the same product for the lowest price.

There was a time when people felt the need to hold and inspect a product for themselves before buying it. While that is still more common with pricier items (e.g. cars, houses), it’s a declining trend (just as Carvana). 360º videos, augmented reality and virtual reality are closing the gap between the online and offline world. You can now overlay 3d models of furniture in your home to see if it fits your aesthetic. Companies like Zeekit are even developing ways for us to virtually try on clothing, eliminating the need for fitting rooms. All these developments have had a growing impact on foot traffic at retail stores. 

Background

See how we can help your team merge online with offline to drive more sales.

Why eCommerce Would Benefit From a Digital Sales Team

As ecommerce continues to grow in popularity, retailers and salespeople alike may be wondering what the role of an associate is in the new digital world. Ecommerce brands have implemented chatbots that customers can ping for help, and algorithms can tell customers what products they should buy based on data. Indeed, while customers may not be able to touch and feel the product, they can certainly see how it moves and even see the same product on various body types and skin tones thanks to video PDPs.  

But does all of that mean this the end of the retail associate? In fact, quite the opposite. While salespeople certainly have to change with the times, their contribution is perhaps even more valuable online than it is in-store because of the level of personalization and customer attention that’s embedded in their role. Here’s how ecommerce companies can use salespeople to increase revenue and lifetime customer value.

Your marketing team has no doubt done an incredible job bringing a new audience to your ecommerce site thanks to the power of social media and SEO. But if we compare all of that marketing to a beautiful storefront that catches a customer’s eye, what happens once the customer "walks in the door" for the first time? 

Ecommerce sites face an uphill battle when it comes to actual on-site conversion – the typical ecommerce site has a 2.4% conversion rate and a cart abandonment rate of about 58%. If either of those numbers were to improve, revenue overall would soar. 

Just like in a store, a digital sales team can be counted on to actually initiate a conversation with a potential customer, taking the time to look into the data you’ve already collected, and deliver a personalized, informative message that boosts the customer's confidence about purchasing. A strong sales team empowered with tools like Endear can do much more than a chatbot can, by sparking conversation and continuing to engage with this customer one-on-one over any channel she wants – livechat, email, text or anything else. Better yet, all communication gets consolidated in the form of a helpful human who knows the brand's products inside and out. Through outbound outreach backed up by real-time data (also known as clienteling), a sales team can turn potential customers into actual buyers.  

Once a customer has purchased, the name of the game is retention and lifetime value. All the money your marketing team spent on acquiring that customer is measured entirely on how long she sticks around and how frequently she spends. A sales team can help dramatically increase customer lifetime value through clienteling and making each customer feel special and unique. Especially for customers who only have access to your brand online, providing them with a point of contact who they can speak to and rely on for information helps to alleviate concerns about future purchases and also ensures that these customers have the most relevant info shared with them directly (rather than through a generic marketing email). Every time a customer purchases, your business is collecting additional data. A salesperson is in the best position to incorporate this data in an ongoing basis instead of lumping this customer in with the rest of your marketing subscriber list. 

Over time, you may notice that some customers stop purchasing as often or as much as they used to. Most marketing that targets this group is all about discounts – we’ve all gotten the “Hey Name, here’s 40% off just for you!” email. But rather than trying to win back customers with discounts, a sales team can help you pinpoint exactly what would motivate one customer to re-engage versus another. The answer might be changing up which products to recommend, or which channel you use to contact them. But a sales team can more quickly adjust the strategy in order to change a customer’s mind when armed with the right details. 

While shopping certainly looks different from ten or even one year ago, the move online has actually created more space for the retail sales associate, allowing her to stretch her responsibility into a new channel where she’s needed even more. Whether you’re operating online, in-store, or both, it’s never too soon to invest in the right sales process and sales team to increase your customer lifetime value. 

As consumers migrate online, don't be surprised if sales associates follow. Digital merchandise won't sell itself. 

Our predictions on the future of the retail sales role and why everyone should hire a digital sales team. Hear more from the Endear founders on the blog.

The Rise of the Digital Retail Sales Team

Target customers based on what and where they’ve purchased, whether online or in-store.

Track how outreach impacts sales across in-store locations and online.

Curate customers' online shopping experience based on purchase history.

All your messages across email and text sent and stored in one place.

Connect your POS or e-commerce platform with ease.

The Endear experience on mobile, available for iOS.

Discover best practices, retail guides, and how Endear is empowering retail teams to sell smarter on our blog.

Get answers to FAQs and learn how to setup and use Endear.

Becoming an Endear all-star by watching video-guided skills training, tips, and tricks.

Continue to grow your sales knowledge with guides and white papers from Endear.

Learn more about working at Endear and see our open roles.

Endear's brand guide for design and type.

Build tight-knit relationships with customers no matter where they are.

Keep customers engaged 24/7 over text message.

Give your top customers the attention they deserve.

Take your best sellers, new arrivals, or over-stocked inventory and use it to drive sales.

Win back customers with relevant content and offers.

Offer curated recommendations across channels.

Learn about Team Endear and our mission to re-invent the retail sales experience.

Endear in the news! Read how Endear is empowering retail associates to market their stores through customer outreach.

Hear from brands like Rebag, Koio and Gorjana about how and why they count on Endear to keep growing their sales.

Find out how much your brand could be driving in sales with Endear's ROI calculator.

Interested in partnering with us? Learn about who we work with and opportunities to collaborate.

From The Founders' Perspective

From The Founders' Perspective

10 Operational Headaches Endear Solved in Retail

In the early days of Endear, we uncovered a ton of overlooked but immensely impactful problems that prevented associates from doing their best work. Here's how we solved them.

From The Founders' Perspective

Why Clienteling Is the Future of Retail

With more digital businesses popping up every day, learn how to build the right omnichannel clienteling strategy to keep your brand top-of-mind with customers for the long haul.

From The Founders' Perspective

Endear's Unique Approach to Omnichannel Sales Attribution

Endear offers its customers a unique, modern approach to retail sales attribution. Learn about the problems with the industry's current methods and our unique way of solving them.

From The Founders' Perspective

Top Retail Industry Trends: What's in Store (and Online) for 2020

Discover the retail trends the Endear founders believe are here to stay — and how you can implement them.

From The Founders' Perspective

Predictions for the Future of Retail as Forecasted by the Founders of Endear

Learn what trends the founders of retail CRM platform Endear predict will matter most for the industry.

From The Founders' Perspective

How will Corona impact the future of work in retail?

Now that consumers have been forced to embrace e-commerce as their sole shopping channel, how will the role of the store associate adapt to this new behavior?

From The Founders' Perspective

Our Trip to Shopify Unite

A recap of the 2019 Shopify Unite Conference from our co-founder, Leigh Sevin.

From The Founders' Perspective

Why eCommerce Needs Salespeople

As consumers migrate online, don't be surprised if sales associates follow. Digital merchandise won't sell itself.