When Retail Consumers Have Infinite Options, Make Your Brand an Easy Choice

A shopper may want a pair of size 8½ sneakers immediately but may not know exactly which brand and style to buy. With hundreds of brands available in a $6.9 trillion retail market, customers have difficulty choosing—so much so that American psychologist Barry Schwartz has labeled the phenomenon “ the paradox of choice .” When customers are presented with too many options, it requires more effort (and time) to decide, and it can even leave them questioning or feeling unsatisfied with their choice. This observation has also been validated by Forrester Research, who found customer confidence decreases across the lifecycle from researching to purchasing and even using the product, as a result of the uncertainty and complexity of the entire experience. Given the low switching costs between retail brands and the paradox of choice, how can you build confidence, and subsequent loyalty, with your brand?

Use Appropriate Omnichannel Communications

The key is to leverage real-time, contextually accurate communications that cut through the noise. But what does that mean? Less is more — “Real-time” doesn’t mean all the time, and “omnichannel” doesn’t mean blasting customers on every channel. You need an intelligent and complex decisioning engine that offers up the right choice, on the right channel, at the most relevant time to make it easier to achieve the desired outcome. Sales notifications — If a customer hasn’t purchased anything in a few weeks, you can determine which type of sales promotion to send based on the customer’s buying and browsing history. Then send a personalized ad over the channel (e.g., email, push, text) where the customer is the most active and responsive. Don’t stop there—after their purchase, follow up with a customer satisfaction microsurvey to garner real-time insights on the experience. Shopping cart abandonment follow-up — If a customer placed an item in the cart and then abandoned the site, determine whether to send a reminder or promotion to encourage completion. Send an email or SMS with a link, making it easy for the shopper to complete the purchase. If the person purchased the item, continue sending them cart abandonment reminders in the future (when contextually appropriate). Web content personalization — With consumerism growing more and more digitally driven, your website is integral to a successful omnichannel strategy. Dynamically changing landing pages are key to pushing customers down the funnel. For instance, if a customer was looking at patio furniture in a past session, when they return to the website again, the first page they land on might have a call-out to outdoor furniture and deals.