Technology has impacted the way people interact, communicate, eat, and buy things. The retail sector, especially the brick-and-mortar stores have suffered due to the change in the shopping habits of consumers. Slowly but steadily, brick and mortar store chains are embracing technology by making their products available online as well. A systematic approach, along with a foolproof plan is crucial for grabbing opportunities that are available in the retail sector. This is where advanced CRM comes into the picture.
Customer Relationship Management software helps businesses understand the needs, requirements, and buying behaviour of their customers. It allows them to strengthen relationships by providing tailor-made offers and superb customer service. Overall it helps small and large companies to boost performance, retain customers, and optimise expenditure.
Two decades ago, retailers were facing a challenge to create an effective customer database to cater to their interests and offer a personalized experience. Today, feature-loaded CRM softwares can quickly help brick and mortar shops or even a small seller to serve the customer better. Here are some of the benefits offered by CRM software development company for the retail industry.
Keeping Track Of Purchases
Online sellers already have details about the shopper’s browsing history, interests and other unique personal details when they make payments for online purchases. On the other hand, representatives at the physical store do not know much about the customer unless they have a membership card.
Keeping track of every customer’s purchase is crucial even for brick and mortar stores. A CRM system helps in storing purchase-related records along with their customer ID. These records can help a retailer to track purchases and ensure a positive shopping experience. Customers can also be sent promotional emails and product warranty related information.
Such information can also help in running promotional campaigns to target customers during each product cycle. Thus, several physical stores are slowly changing the rules of their game to know their customers better. Even small business stores are embracing CRM.
Adjusting Retail Strategies For Offering Better In-store Sales Experience
CRM system empowers retailers to divide their customer data based on their preferences that then helps them to augment customer experience. For example, stores that cater to a higher number of senior citizens can be modified with wheelchair ramps and other facilities in the store layout for ease of access for senior citizens.
Targeted Promotions
It is common knowledge that e-commerce sites gather customer data and use the same for targeted advertising. Besides widgets and other tools on e-commerce portals, CRMs also play a crucial role in handling email promotions to buyers.
Brick and mortar retail players, especially those in home improvement, grocery, and the automotive industry, also collect such data from customers. Data retrieved from customer surveys and point of sale systems can be fed to the CRM. Several customers pro-actively share their email IDs at brick-and-mortar stores for receiving coupons and offers.
CRM email and SMS automation tools can be programmed to automatically send messages with promotional materials to customers according to the range of products that they had expressed interest in buying.
Retaining Tactile Shoppers
Customers read reviews, seek advice, and compare prices online before buying something as simple as a bottle of apple cider vinegar. Some of them prefer to purchase perishable items, fruit juices, and vitamin supplements from a physical store rather than online.
Tactile shoppers appreciate the opportunity to touch, taste, see and smell the product that they buy. E-commerce and even highly-appreciated virtual reality technology cannot provide such experience to these shoppers. Thus, in-store shopping is the only option for such tactile shoppers. Retail CRM software can help physical retail stores to continually keep in touch with such customers via emails and promotional text messages for sending details of newly stocked products.
Unified Customer Support
Irrespective of how the customer gets in touch with the firm – whether via email, customer helpline, social media handles, or at one of the physical stores, people expect consistent engagement. CRM helps small and large retailers in offering the same with features like unified notes that generate automatically after every customer interaction and can be accessed by employees at various locations.
Keeping Track Of Retail Credit Accounts
Long ago, retailers in the west started offering an open line of credit to their customers. The practice is followed by several retailers in developing countries even today. Consumers make purchases and pay for the same after a month (or any similar period of time) without paying any interest. Customer relationship management software can prove to be the perfect tool for retailers to keep track of customer’s bills. The system can also send a timely email and text message to customers, alerting them about the pending bills to be paid.
Well-informed On-ground Sales Reps
CRMs can be accessed via mobile phones as well, which enables sales associates to go through customer interaction history on a real time basis to answer consumer’s questions effectively, resulting in better sales.
Data Security
CRM systems are backed with cloud-based secure servers. These systems offer maximum data security and privacy with SSL encryption, PCI compliance and other features. Customers feel at ease sharing details and feedback forms knowing that their data is secure.
Only staff members with dedicated user-IDs and passwords can access the customer information. The administrators can allot a different information access level to every employee.
Choose the best retail CRM system
The retail sector has the most significant number of CRM users. Several studies have highlighted the benefits of CRM in the retail industry. Remember, there’s suitable consumer relationship management software even for a small retail store. If you wish to choose the best retail CRM system, you should consider discussing your needs with the Smart Sight Innovations team of engineers.
