1. The document discusses the challenges currently facing retail, including shoppers seeking information online and through mobile, and the need for retail staff to adapt. 2. It notes that while most transactions still occur in-store, staff are often poorly trained and fail to engage customers or provide the right assistance. 3. The document argues that retailers must empower staff through specialized training to recognize different shopper types, share appropriate product information, and build relationships in order to succeed in today's multichannel environment.

1. Retail Matters
www.beyondthebox.co.uk
www.beyondthebox.co.uk

2. Executive Summary
Armed with smartphones, online reviews and recommendations, shoppers are information
never before.
Even though 90% of all transactions still take place in bricks and mortar stores our research
it’s despite it.
We asked 200 experience, click-and-collect and online shoppers for their retail impressions.
Studying responses to questions that covered:
Customer service
Sales and up-selling
entify some of the main opportunities as well as the challenges facing
retail and ourselves asked the question:
Instead of being part of the problem what can retailers do to make their frontline staff
the foundation of future success?
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3. The Executive Summary Highlights:
1. That it really is time for retail to up its game.
2. That depending on their nature, shoppers are seeking trusted advice or an inspirational
3.
right decision wherever they shop.
4. That shoppers have multiple motivations and it takes training to identify and respond
effectively to them.
5. That off-line retail still offers the ideal environment to build brands.
6.
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4. Time for retail to ‘Step up’
With 75% of online shoppers believing that retail staff fail to communicate
well and only 50% of click and collect respondents feeling that ‘retail staff
shoppers are looking online for the in-depth information, the convenience
and the pricing that they want.
And when they get there? They love it. Nearly two thirds thought online
Only 44% of shoppers feel that
bricks and mortar retailers fully
showcased their products.
informed, empowered and engaged staff is vital.
Next Step
Skills development demands retail training
knowledge and designed to help retail staff
be they planned or more impulse experiential
type prospects.
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5. There is a sales skills gap. Staff are struggling
to sell in the multichannel retail world:
Teaching sells
decision. And to help them make the right decision what they really want is
trusted guidance. With 75% of online shoppers believing that ‘retail staff fail
Retail staff need both the knowledge and the ability to delight and inspire.
edge than their prospects and be able to relate that information clearly,
they have little or no chance of shaping the outcome.
Clarity trumps persuasion.
Online 25% of shoppers feel
a product.
Next Step
Dare retailers empower staff with a sales
toolbox containing the product information
competitor and pricing awareness to win
new business?
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6. The multichannel retail challenge still needs to be cracked:
Retail without boundaries
Our research tells us that shoppers are essentially channel agnostic. They
simply want to buy the right product, at the right price and as conveniently
Retailers that silo their sales channels and are unable to adopt a more
holistic sales approach will see customers following the path of least
resistance… to the competition.
store. British consumers spend
more online than consumers from
the other countries. 23.1% of UK
adults used their smartphones to
visit retail websites.
Next Step
its potential as part of an integrated
retail approach what tools and support
can be put in place to train and
empower staff?
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7. Retail staff need to recognise planned and impulse customers:
Content is King
customer engagement. A planned shopper will likely want a broader and
deeper product understanding, an impulse shopper will require a lighter
touch.
to successfully share the right information, to recommend, to upsell.
the retail personal touch seems to play an important role
when it comes to complementary
product impulse buys.
How much greater might sales have been
if staff had been trained to recognise and
expertly deal with impulse buyers?
complementary products in-store
compared with only 7% per cent
online
Next Step
What about other types of customer?
Could retail tap into a wider range of
intuition to maximize a sales opportunity?
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8. The retail space is still the frontline of the brand:
Shop staff or Brand ambassadors?
Merchandising, point of sale and the opportunity to evaluate products
At the heart of the in-store advantage is the all important role
of the retail staff - brand ambassadors - the ability to inspire
inspiration.
96% of respondents feeling that
they get a sense of brand when
shopping in store compared with
72% when shopping online.
protected through staff skilled in representing
relationship will be long lasting and rewarding.
Next Step
How to create brand ambassadors?
Buy-in through partnership?
Engendering a deep and detailed
understanding and appreciation of
the brand history, values, range
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9. Wisdom not Smarts
necessarily to sell, sell, sell. Customers like experience and they warm to
emotional intelligence.
that they trusted the knowledge of sales staff the least, customers are
are likely to shop in store the highest from our survey.
researched options online are the most likely to click and collect, fashion
Next Step
staff specialties. Should retailers be
more selective in matching personalities,
interests and life experience to different
retail environments?
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10. Summary
For retailers employing informed and engaged frontline staff committed
to building customer relationships, sharing the right information and
adding genuine value to the customer journey, the opportunities are
of their multichannel ecosystem.
poorly trained staff struggling to engage the customers with the right assistance at the
right point on their journey.
Not only should talent be directed to the appropriate retail environment but that talent
needs to be nurtured with a combination of multichannel aware education, training and
empowerment to deliver the kind of informed and dynamic sales and customer service
that shoppers now demand.
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11. Over view of the solution:
who wants the experience and the ‘planned shopper’ wants the knowledge
Both need to be treated very differently and in order to achieve brand loyalty and sales
tools to do so
tactic is also needed to improve bottom line and gain a competitive edge
This can only be achieved through specialist training which looks deeper than merely
and passion.
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