Being native to your audience is the most important part of any brand experience. It’s not always easy but in order to be (or remain) relevant, you can’t swim upstream without a very clear brand purpose. Retailers have to seriously play nicely in the sandbox because outside of a very select few (i.e. Amazon) you are not going to earn the right to space on a device.
Good catch (as always) from Retail Dive on the latest report out of Deloitte …
“Any retailer who thinks they can build their own personalized experience to interact with customers anywhere near the extent of major digital platforms and find success may be disappointed with their results,” Deloitte Consulting principal and study co-author Jeff Simpson said in the report. “Their limited interaction with customers — about six to eight transactions per year — limits their understanding of the ‘moments that matter’ in a personalized experience, such as purchase intent and preference. Instead, retailers should more aggressively embrace integration and the native capabilities of the major digital platforms where their customers have already chosen to interact and transact.”
The study also uncovered a fact also going under-appreciated by many retailers — that much digital behavior is no longer restricted mostly to millennials, but extends to older shoppers (who, by the way, still do most of the big spending out there). More than three-quarters (78%) of non-millennials are now using digital devices two or three times during each shopping trip. via Retail Dive
Deloitte Report (pdf)