The pandemic came and pressed a major reset button on many things. Conspiracy theorist are even starting to entertain the thought that the pandemic mainly helped the world glide into the 4th industrial revolution which is a tech powered revolution. While we can never make enough conclusions about the pandemic, there is just one conclusion we can easily make, that the world over was prompted to transform digitally in the past 6 or so months.
While it is true that digital transformation is not a one size fits all glove as some businesses and service providers cannot go virtual either partially or permanently, retailers have also been prompted go digital. Retailers especially in the beauty industry are still wondering how they can transform their business and go digital in line with the new world order imposed on us by the pandemic. Here are a few quick way beauty products retailers can transform their business and go digital.
Mobile Shopping And E-Commerce Platforms
While some beauty products retailers believe in making exclusive sales through the traditional marketing methods for various reasons, the time to migrate to e-commerce and mobile shopping in the wake of the pandemic and the social distance guidelines is now. Using e-commerce platforms like gumtree, and developing mobile shopping apps increases brand visibility, it in some cases cut holding costs as there is warehousing involved in some instances as the chain simply moves from manufacturer to end user. This means the time to join all those retailers’ platforms or setting up your own e-commerce platform is now regardless of the brand you are selling.
AI, Chatbots And Or Robot-Assisted Customer Assistance
These can be used to provide customer support for example responding to customer queries online either during normal operating hours or after hours, this might improve the customer interface with the business as it the technology usually makes sure customers are responded to promptly which is a major win for customers. This is one of the customer experience retailers especially in the beauty industry should be pushing for as it separates other brands from other brands that want to retain and lure more and more customers.
Proximity Marketing
The use of smart beacons like the ones made by google beacon technology which allows users to be promptly notified about your beaty products when they are in the vicinity of your shop can also be a game changer in this digital era. This means some customers who have not used or heard about the brand will get to know about it and this will also increase the retailer’s exposure and allow brands to enter a whole new territory, and it according to some “push customers in the direction they initially didn’t want to be taken to”
Omnichannel Marketing
A true COVID-19 curbing solution for retailers. With omnichannel marketing a customer will log on to the retailer’s system and select all the products they want from home, the office etc and then just go and pick up the readily packaged order from the brick and mortar building which seriously decreases the chances of interaction and not maintaining social distancing measures. This is fully functional in those countries where lockdowns are still strictly enforced. But moving forward, any retailer can make use of this digital game changer and use it till time stands still as it has its advantages for example it doesn’t require too much retail space, which means cost cutting.
Retail Cardless and Cashless checkouts
A little to far fetched to be talking about cashless cashpoints right now, I heard myself say as i thought about this. The 21st business model is SMART as in witty and intelligent which means cardless and cashless retail is here to stay. This is where you select your products instore through a scanning system and pay for them online using an app connected to your credit/debit card and just walk out of the store without going to the till to join annoying ques to pay at the point of sale. This means, a retailer can actually make use of this transformation first to help maintain social distance 2 to provide customers with a seamless experience that is hustle free.
