Have you considered how each store contributes to your overall financial success?

For digitally-native brands venturing into physical retail, a common challenge arises: understanding the specific impact of each store on the bottom line. Traditional methods of assessing store ROI struggle to keep pace with the evolving commerce landscape, where customers seamlessly transition between online and offline channels. So, how should brands navigate the importance of each channel? The answer: they shouldn't.

Relying solely on traditional metrics prompts stores to adopt conventional strategies, which often prove ineffective. Brands must shift from viewing physical and virtual stores as separate entities and instead empower them with tools to function synergistically, aligning with customer expectations in this dynamic commerce environment.

Traditionally, measuring store ROI is straightforward: did the store generate more revenue than its operational costs? However, relying solely on these metrics provides a limited view of your store's impact and can lead to suboptimal decision-making. In today's landscape, with the prominence of online and mobile sales, physical stores serve multiple roles beyond transactions. It's essential to evaluate stores considering these diverse opportunities for a more comprehensive understanding of their impact.

Physical stores serve as pivotal touchpoints across the customer journey—encompassing awareness, consideration, purchase, service, and loyalty.

Many customers visit stores as the final step in their decision-making. Armed with online research and reviews, they seek an in-person experience. Utilize online data, like purchase history and abandoned carts, to invite these shoppers for personal interactions and increase conversions. A simple hello message to potential buyers ensures they recognize the opportunity to vet items in-store.

Another segment uses shopping days for discovery (awareness phase), researching brands and products. Despite intending to buy online later, these customers often face the common question, "Do you have a website?" Empower associates to capture shopper information, send quick links to products of interest, and receive due credit for their role in the buyer's journey.

For some, physical stores enhance convenience, fostering loyalty. Embrace BOPIS trends to offer hassle-free buy online, pick-up in-store options, avoiding delivery complications. Customers also prefer in-store exchanges or returns. Transform your store into a personal warehouse, resulting in increased foot traffic, additional purchases, and higher lifetime value. Convenience truly makes a lasting impact.

When gauging a store's impact, relying solely on direct in-store revenue and YoY growth falls short. Retailers must adapt to the omni-channel reality customers navigate. Understanding how customers engage with your store and addressing their needs is crucial. In today's context, "The customer is always right" rings truer than ever, supported by data revealing a fondness for physical stores.

With Endear, your store transcends a mere entry in a brand's profit and loss report. Endear-powered stores emerge as additional channels for customers to discover, shop, and engage with your brand, akin to Instagram, Facebook, and Amazon in the online realm. Tracking and reporting each step of the buyer journey, regardless of the eventual purchase location, is integral. Endear empowers you to utilize the same data as your digital teams, enabling informed, strategic offline decisions.