E-Commerce Over Traditional Retail

LET’S MAKE RETAIL “PERSONAL”

Nada Ghaoui Abousaab brings over 26 years of experience across the MENA and North America business landscape, burnishing a strong reputation in driving brand recognition, placemaking, innovation, customer experience and driving market share and revenue generation through marketing strategies, partnerships, and data analytics. Drawing upon her experience in sales and marketing in retail, hospitality and international development sector, Nada designed and executed award winning marketing innovations, that garnered regional and international recognitions.

Today, we are stepping into the metaverse world discovery, defining what phygital really means and racing towards delivering the “first,” the “biggest” and the most “exclusive” experiences. Consumers are living in a highly noisy world where every ad, message, event, or initiative is seeking their attention. Recall is becoming harder, and loyalty is scarce. In order to succeed in today’s world (and the future, if I may say), prioritizing innovation is a good strategy and a customer centric approach will support a successful transformational journey. Let’s make retail personal and keep it personal by building a relationship, offering hyper-personalized value and focusing on authenticity and simplicity. Building a solid relationship with consumers starts by understanding them, what they like, dislike and what they will potentially like in the future. Insights into their behaviors and interests are as important as knowing their demographics, retail potential and spending habits. Unlocking what they are passionate about, what they truly love, today and potentially tomorrow is the ultimate goal. This is achieved by prioritizing investing in data analytics to drive invaluable insights into their needs and drivers. When consumers feel understood, trust is established, and this will trigger them to share more with the brand, which will allow for predictive insights into what could potentially attract their attention and most importantly, the share of heart in the future.

Personal is about the hyper-personalization, loyalty is no longer transactional. Spend and Win, Shop and Win and Buy One Get One are tactics that support short-term ROI only. It is a highly competitive field, easily matched with similar or bigger rewards by another brand. Consumers value a memorable experience that matches or surpasses their

NADA GHAOUI ABOUSAAB

CO-FOUNDER & PARTNER FIKRA CONSULTANTS- CANADA

expectations. Although they are triggered by rewards, they should be combined with more “meaningful” experiences, online and offline to achieve a long-term ROI. Campaign messages can be thumb-stoppers and support better conversion rates when personalized across all the channels shoppers transact in. Today’s relationship with consumers has become a two-way model, where “delight” leads to not only loyalty but a long-term, compounded impact ROI: a happy consumer shares recommendations with their followers and friends.

Let’s also keep it simple and authentic. Multiple step reward campaigns and confusing terms and conditions are key barriers to reward redemptions. It is evident that consumers will appreciate an incentive for their investment and loyalty, but they want it to be seamless and personalized. Promising a one-hour delivery, and 5-star service, but delivering a broken consumer experience journey will deter shoppers forever. While innovation rimes with breaking records and novelty, testing and learning are the names of the game. Although brands can sometimes “fail”, they will be forgiven and trusted if consumers feel listened to and acknowledged.