No doubt like me in recent months, you will have seen frequent news articles describing the demise of the UK high street and the sad fall of many well-known retailers. It certainly makes depressing reading when recent retail figures from administrators Deloitte, show that 183 firms went into administration in England & Wales last year, sadly 11% more than in 2010.
I spent the last 15 years in the retail environment (before joining NICE Fizzback in February), so this is a subject significantly close to my heart. I’m no Mary Portas (and perhaps that it is a good thing!) but reading about Tesco’s new innovative virtual store in South Korea got me thinking, perhaps there is light at the end of the high street tunnel?
A large reason that companies use NICE Fizzback is so they can utilise VOC feedback to differentiate themselves from their competitors. However, with a 22% uplift in online spending during 2011, it strikes me that retailers will need to do more than just differentiate themselves, to lure consumers back to the high street in the numbers needed to stem the negative retail tide.
What we see in South Korea, is just the beginning of joining the benefits of traditional and digital retailing. We do see some minor examples of this already in some UK stores, with telco companies using QR codes and major department stores offering customers free Wi-Fi, enabling them to browse the physical store, but order for home delivery via their mobile application.Looking into my retail crystal ball, digital & interactive shopping enhancement options will be crucial in making the retail experience one that customers will want to go back to. Think virtual inventory or being able to see what the social network buzz is on your chosen product before you buy. Notably though, these new innovations will be reliant on insightful and actionable VOC feedback.
NICE Fizzback can provide the detailed insight retailers need, to create an effective digital future strategy, all using real time customer feedback. Sadly those that don’t jump on this ever growing bandwagon may find this economically challenging mountain ever harder to climb.
Hayley Kitson
For more info on NICE Fizzback please visitwww.nice.com/fizzback