Many retailers are still struggling with what it means to deliver a great, unique in-store experience. This paper contains eight examples that will help retailers visualize personalized experiences and better serve their customers. It also answers the question "Why translate omnichannel personalization into today’s food retail?"

1. Making Retail Personalization
More Relevant
Based on the Brick Meets Click presentation
given at the Annual Food Industry Summit
Saint Joseph’s University, March 13, 2014
By Bill Bishop
Chief Architect, Brick Meets Click
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Brick Meets Click delivers the strategic insight and guidance that retailers, suppliers, & technology
providers need to drive growth by meeting shopper needs in an omnichannel environment .

2. March 2014
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Many leading food retailers have made progress in personalizing offers – in
particular, their circulars. This is key to making it easier for customers to find the
items they want from among the 30,000 to 40,000 on store shelves.
But the real question is:
Does personalizing the offer go far enough to win the “hearts and minds” of
shoppers?
A report on Omnichannel Personalization by The CMO Club* indicates that the
answer may be NO and shows how retail marketers are moving beyond just
personalization of offers to personalizing the shopping experience and building
the basis for future purchases.
We want to build on the conversation started by The CMO Club’s paper and
explore examples that will help food retailers move beyond the limits of
personalized offers and toward engaging more fully with their customers via
omnichannel personalization.
* The reports lead author is Nadine Dietz, SVP of Global Consultancy 5one; request a copy
Why personalization?

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What’s the problem?
Shoppers are not reacting the way they used to to marketing and promotions.
Takeaway:
Your offering has to change.
More
Information
Greater
Choice
Increased
Market Power

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Why translate omnichannel personalization into
today’s food retail?
Aligning the offer with your shopper’s perspective
Winning the trip
Interaction makes customer segmentation more
dynamic
Retention is more profitable/efficient than
acquisition

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 Accessing more new
information sources
 Communicating more
frequently online
Takeaway:
These shoppers expect more options.
Omnichannel describes the empowered
shopper who is:

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 It shows you understand who
they are.
 It sorts through all the choices
to make it easier for them to
find what they want.
Takeaway:
Personalization will soon be REQUIRED to satisfy
the empowered shopper.
Personalization is one way to appeal more
effectively to the empowered shopper

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The core principles of omnichannel personalization
Takeaway:
Emphasize these
principles as you
navigate the
changing
marketplace and
embrace the digital
path to purchase.
Expanding
engagement
Creating
experience
Increasing
retention

8. March 2014
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Adjusting to the Digital Path to Purchase
One of the ideas highlighted in the CMO Club report is the shift from the traditional
concept of path-to-purchase to the notion of a customer journey on which all the new
digital touchpoints can play an active role. We see opportunities to translate this
idea to food retailing.
The
shopper
In
home
On the
go
In-
store
On the
web
GETTING STARTED
Here are eight examples from outside
of the food industry that fit into a
customer’s digital path to
purchase/journey. These will help you
visualize what is possible.
At the end of each example is specific
guidance in the form of a takeaway,
plus a call-out for ideas about
translating the key idea to your
business.

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In home
Following the customer’s lead
IKEA personalizes communications by analyzing the way customers
communicate inside the store’s loyalty program, IKEA Family. They
look at how each customer engages with them via email, mobile,
social and the store website, and then IKEA develops “purchase
triggers” to deliver communications in a way that shoppers have
shown they want to get them.
In this way, IKEA personalizes communications to fit each individual
customer’s digital preferences. Their engagement is particularly
effective as they connect customers with what’s available in the
store. IKEA believes “our store…is our richest source of content.”
Takeaway: Find ways to personalize communications
that match your shoppers digital activities. This shows
you know them so well you can anticipate their
preferences.
Ideas?
Expanding
engagement
Creating
experience
Increasing
retention

10. March 2014
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Reserving items anywhere/anytime
Takeaway: Identify options for customers to blend
online shopping with the convenience of store pick-
up, and give them the confidence that what they want
will be there when they want it. This encourages a trip
to the store.
Ideas?
The Gap opens up more personal choice for its customers through
a “Reserve In-store” program that was tested in 2013. The service
was so well received that it’s now rolling out across the country.
Online, customers can reserve an item at a nearby store anytime
of day or night. The store sends them a text reminder when the
item(s) have been set aside for them, and customers then
complete the purchase at the store when it’s convenient for their
personal schedule.
In home

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Creating value from "moments"
Takeaway: Look for opportunities to increase the
personal value of rewards by delivering them
immediately following the desired action by your
customer. This connects your business with the
satisfaction and emotion of being rewarded. In the
words of Brian Wong, “Respect the customer.”
Ideas?
Brian Wong, Founder of Kiip (pronounced “keep”), uses rewards
to create a wow experience with apps. It’s a way to connect the
virtual and the physical worlds by bringing alive the moment with
an immediate reward.
In a task management app sponsored by manufacturers called
any.do rewards, customers are given a reward each time they
cross a task off their to-do list, thus providing immediate
gratification.
On the Web

12. March 2014
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Experiencing life with your shopper
Takeaway: Retailers can tap into the popularity of
reality shows by providing individual customers
with ways to become part of events themed
around holidays and other occasions like back-to-
school.
Ideas?
Target’s Bullseye University streamed a live, 24-hour reality-
TV-like dorm event to connect with college students.
The program offered advice as well as fun and prizes, and
students could personalize it by:
• Calling in their own question
• Sending in a photo for a chance to have a caricature
drawn on the show
Bullseye University didn’t simply break through the clutter
with a video of college students; it invited them to be part of
it.
On the Web

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Making shopping easier
Takeaway: Develop ways to personally engage
shoppers that simplify their lives by helping them
keep track of what they’ve bought, especially the
products that are really important to them.
Ideas?
Sephora has streamlined the way it connects personally with each of its
shoppers via the store’s app and website.
• They make it easy for customers to keep track of all their Sephora
purchases in one place, whether they were made in-store or online.
• They give customers an easy-to-use and fun place to personally
engage called My Beauty Bag.
• They reserve a special area for “products I love,” and make it easy
for customers to access the rich content of Sephora’s website.
• They automatically enroll customers in the store loyalty program
when they sign up for My Beauty Bag.
On the go

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When “At Your Service” is at your finger tips
Takeaway: The same customer will come to the
store with different needs depending on the
shopping occasion. Good customers can be made
even better customers by giving them exactly the
experience they’re looking for.
Ideas?
Neiman Marcus offers an “At Your Service” app that gives
customers an easy way to build the personalized experience
they want on their next visit to the store.
Via the app:
• A customer can book an appointment with their favorite
sales associate as well as ask questions and send them
messages.
• Customers can also call out their favorite products to be
automatically communicated to the sales associate, and the
app will alert the associate the moment they enter the
store so they can have immediate service.
On the go

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Augmenting the in-store experience with iPads
Takeaway: Food-shopping customers also enjoy the
discovery that can happen when they learn
something new. Imagine how you could surprise and
delight your customers with this experience.
Ideas?
Kate Spade, the apparel retailer, is personalizing the in-store
experience in its Saturday Stores by building on the insight
that sometimes “dwell time is more important than sell
time.”
They’re using IPads located throughout the store to give
shoppers expanded access to different products: What was
the design inspiration? How was it made? When and where
should it be worn? This can be helpful and fun. The tablet-
size screen also lets it be a shared social experience.
In-store

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Making in-store more “my own” experience
Takeaway: Some suppliers have plenty of good
reasons to increase their personal experience with
your customers. We’ve seen it in the Nutella section
at Eataly, where staff interacts with customers.
There’s plenty of room for partnerships with
suppliers that deliver high-value, personal shopping
experiences.
Ideas?
Media Markt, a German retailer, is leveraging ideas from
employees and partnerships with suppliers to transform the
shopping experience into one that helps neutralize the
advantage of online retailers by personalizing their experience
in the store.
Among the many ways they do this is by encouraging
customers to bring their own content to play or listen to on
the products displayed in the store, thus simulating the
experience of owning the item before it’s actually purchased.
In-store

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providers work smarter in today’s omnichannel
environment.
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the future of shopping and grocery retailing - Give us a
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