I recently had the pleasure of hearing Jerry Storch, the CEO at Target, speak at an recent event and he said, “The future belongs to brands that create the best customer facing experience across all channels.” The retail brands that can best leverage their consumer touchpoints to build, nurture, and grow their audiences won’t just have direct lines of communications to potential customers, they’ll have a distinct competitive advantage over competitors who fail to build such audiences.
In our 16th Subscribers, Fans, and Followers research report, Retail Touchpoints Exposed, we tracked and analyzed the marketing techniques of the 100 fastest growing retail chains in the United States. We began our examination on their home turf—their brick and mortar stores. I wanted to take the time and breakdown some important stats from the report and give you a better idea of where we stand in regards to marketing in the world of retail.
The In-Store Experience
We began our examination of the Hot 100 Retailers on their home turf—their brick and mortar stores. Ninety-five of the Hot 100 Retailers operate such stores, and in theory, any retailer with a physical presence has the potential for a huge home field advantage with consumers—but only if they leverage it.
In-Store Signage
- 2% promoted email or SMS (text message) engagement
- 8% promoted their social communities on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- 2% promoted a coupon via SMS messaging
- 5% promoted a YouTube channel in-store
- 5% promoted a mobile application
- 8% promoted Facebook and Twitter engagement
- 18% promoted a website URL
Point of Purchase
- 44% asked for the consumer's email address
- 32% asked for the consumer's zip code
- 27% asked for the consumer's phone number
- 24% asked for the consumers postald address
Sales Receipt
- 68% included the website URL on receipt
- 18% included a sales incentive for feedback of purchase
- 13% included call-to-action for contest
- 10% included social icons and URLS on receipt
- 7% included feedback via the phone or website
- 6% included an email opt-in
- 5% included discount code or coupone
- 5% included career opportunities for the brand
- 5% included SMS opt-in
- 4% included email opt-in for discount
As our anonymous shopping efforts revealed, even the fastest growing retailers have ample room to improve their in-store audience building efforts. Just capturing the attention of 10% more of a store’s foot traffic could translate into thousands more subscribers, fans, and followers with whom the retailer could communicate directly.
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