O2O Commerce: E-commerce is growing ten times faster than any other channel in India. These huge numbers and their growth are really worrying traditional retailers. By the end of 2019, worldwide eCommerce sales surpass $3.5 trillion. And yet, online sales only represent 14.1% of the global retail market. This is because the vast majority of customers still prefer to look-and-feel a product before buying it.

The Future in Contactless Retail Industry

What Is O2O Commerce?

Consumers are lured to online stores by a variety of means like ads in social media, SMS, emails, etc. The punch lines are lower prices and a wide range to choose from. The convenience of home delivery and a transparent return policy adds to customer confidence. That's why Reliance Retail is betting on the O2O model with its association with Facebook.

Online-to-offline or offline-to-online shopping is a business methodology that draws potential customers from online mode to make purchases in physical stores and vice versa. O2O commerce identifies customers using a variety of tools and approaches to entice customers.

The goal, therefore, is to attract a certain type of customer who is open to walking or driving to a local store rather than waiting for a package to arrive in the mail.

 

Benefits of O2O Business

The Benefits that even Reliance Jio could not resist.

1. Brand Reputation

The first and most important benefit that O2O brings out to retailers is the brand reputation. Branding is much simpler and more efficient with online capabilities like advertising, social media, SMS, mobile app, push messages, combined with real-time data analytics. Another key factor in the success of the O2O business is that it enhances customers’ loyalty.

2. Customer Engagement

O2O commerce also lets retailers build up a database of customers’ information including their name, age, address, interest, and even shopping behavior. It then improves the customer engagement strategy of the brands, leading to a higher level of customer loyalty. Once a company earns engagement from customers, that company will see a dramatic increase in revenue, both short-term and long-term.

 

Why is Online Expansion Necessary for Store Owners?

With store owners, and online expansion is inevitable to improve their business at the age of digitalization. First and foremost, online capabilities make collecting lead and customer’s data for marketing purposes much easier and more organized.

In O2O commerce customers are empowered to choose from a wider range of payment and shipping options, which makes purchasing an enjoyable experience. Retailers can offer in-store cash payment or payment booths for simpler payment methods, and free shipping, in-store pickup, pickup location, or center for online sale for more convenient delivery.

 

How to Start?

1. Google Local Inventory Ads - LIAs are a simple and effective method of driving in-store traffic. The ads provide the shopper with proximity, product price, and retailer/brand. Retailers reported increases in click-through-rates and store visits when they started using LIAs. LIAs maximize on the consumer’s location by providing relevant ads (optimized product data) from relevant stores (optimized Google My Business) close to their phone's GPS signal so they are more likely to visit your offline stores.

2. Location targeting with Facebook Ads - If executed right, your Facebook Ads along with Facebook Business Locations could have a profound impact on your ROI; but only once your product data is optimal. That way, Facebook will surface relevant ads when a consumer is in proximity to your store using historical local information.

3. Click-And-Collect Shopping - Where customers buy products online and then pick them up in-store. The convenience of click-and-collect shopping has made it one of the retail industry’s biggest trends in the last few years.

4. There are numerous opportunities for retailers to combine online and offline commerce into a complimentary shopping experience that keeps customers satisfied and increase profits. A man goes online and searches for a gift for his family on Diwali, right in an article giving recommendations for Diwali gift, he can see a picture of cutlery set from a brand, for example. If the man clicks on the picture, he is showing his interest in the products and consequently becomes a potential customer of that brand. Those kinds of marketing tactics these days help create the brands, products, or services awareness with less time and money spent.

Covid-19 Pandemic has forced small retailers to adopt O2O, even Kirana stores and other essential businesses like medical stores are looking online solutions to build their business. O2O potential is vast just waiting for you to tap it. Sri Technocrat has the expertise to provide the O2O platform for retailers.

https://www.sritechnocrat.com/ 16-Aug-2020
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