There’s a new wave in retail that’s attempting to take the best aspects of the digital landscape into the physical world: live video-support kiosks that engage, educate and personalize the shopping experience for in-store visitors.
This kind of integration is helping to solve a major pain-point many brands and retailers now face – that of placing the right information in front of a customer at a key moment, especially when their intent to purchase is highest.
A True Differentiator. Kiosks can address the lack of visibility in crowded, high-trafficked stores. [Some retailers have caught on and decided to adopt the store-within-a-store concept to help brands find more effective ways to stand out.] And for vendors who’ve considered placing an extra team member on-site in order to bring attention to their product, implementing a kiosk program in stores can be a cost-effective way to drive more traffic.
For premium goods sold among more affordable products, video kiosks can also help to overcome potential “sticker shock” issues and leave a lasting, positive impression on customers.
In this way, brands are not only putting a spotlight on their in-store presence but also extending their brand’s human reach. Offering a direct line to those that know a brand best – team members – gives a brand an authentic and unique differentiator.
Personalization. The best way to show new and old customers alike just how much your brand is thinking of them is to offer some one-to-one assistance. Brick-and-mortar advocates believe that despite the newfound empowerment found in the Information Age, consumers are still often left looking for someone to guide them through the purchasing process.
Brands are beginning to realize the importance of focusing on making the customer experience as interactive and immersive as possible.
Providing this extra step of support and curating the experience to better meet their customers’ needs can help brands establish deeper relationships with them.
Education. This is where the in-store shopping experience falls short. Customers are exposed to a shelf of possibilities, with little direction and information on the value that each product can bring.
Providing customers with the right information at the critical moment before purchase is crucial, especially for high-consideration products like luxury goods. With their most knowledgeable product experts available to their in-store visitors, brands using video chat will better educate their customers.
Brand experts can reach their customers directly, right when they demand them, removing the need to rely on the third-party retailer’s staff to understand and push their products to consumers.
With this improved access to the right information, brands can expect to have more control over the in-store shopping experience while increasing their conversion rates.
Brand consistency. Customers expect all of their experiences with your brand to be frictionless and consistent. With all of the different touch points associated with a brand, it becomes difficult to maintain a brand’s image, and therefore, to manage customer expectations.
The best way to take full control of the omni-channel experience is to limit the number of third-party representatives and focus on bringing the most trusted brand experts to the forefront of all customer interactions. This will allow a seamless brand experience, no matter the channel.
Wherever you make your brand present, your end-users and potential customers will always find comfort and confidence in two things: accessibility and consistency.
Danielle Ungermann is community director of LiveNinja, a collection of real-time applications that help brands better engage and educate their customers via video chat directly on their website and from any retail location via – you guessed it – live video-support kiosks.
