Today’s retailers face the challenge of providing the right product at the right time — while squaring off against extreme competition from multiple channels. In addition, customers expect unique online experiences that recognize and cater to their specific needs, wants and requirements. It’s a daunting task, one that requires retailers to avoid cookie-cutter approaches and to embrace ones that encourage an atmosphere of familiarity and trust.
Enter personalization.
For brick and mortars, personalization is more straightforward, and usually means some combination of engaging customers through casual but purposeful conversation, maintaining warm and friendly connections through eye contact, or being cognizant of what a customer is expressing through his or her body language.
But no matter what channel a customer pursues — and they often use more than one — there are keys to making a personalized approach not only profitable for retailers but also welcomed by the shopper.
