If you asked 100 retailers what is the most important thing to get right in their business, most would probably say the customer experience.

If you asked 100 customers, they’d probably tell you the customer experience could be better in most retailers.

So, where should retailers start?

We spoke to Ann Conway, Founder of CX strategy studio Amplify Design, about the two key areas where retailers should be rethinking their approach to the customer experience.

Ann Conway, Founder, Amplify Design

What are retailers getting wrong about long-lasting loyalty?

Most brands are still using transactional loyalty – giving points or money in exchange for spending  – and that is the wrong way to look at loyalty.

People aren’t coming to your store and shopping with you for the points. They’re coming to your store because they either really like your products or they like the customer experience. Retailers are not actually driving the behaviour with the rewards and they’re giving away a lot of financial value. 

The best way to get people to be loyal to your brand is through a customer experience that makes them feel good when they shop with you. Rewards don’t really work as an incentive but they’re really effective in developing emotional loyalty when it’s a genuine gesture of appreciation and recognition. 

Another thing that some retailers get wrong is thinking that putting benefits behind a gate is going to motivate customers to spend more to reach a new loyalty tier to get them. Customer research clearly shows that this isn’t what drives spending, and it’s a shame that many retailers don’t pay attention to those insights.

Moving from bronze to silver level doesn’t really change the shopping experience. It may earn you more points per dollar, but shoppers aren’t going to buy products they didn’t want in the first place to get that, so financial rewards are not motivating to move up in tier.

What’s the role of the store in today’s omnichannel retail world?

Each channel serves a different role for customers. The store experience hits all of the needs for customers who are shopping for fun and social reasons – it’s sensory, it’s inspirational, it’s discovery-led. That’s why people like shopping in-store.

I think a lot of retailers miss that point with their online experience because it’s so optimised for conversion. It’s not optimised for delight and inspiration and relaxation and fun. However, in-person shopping patterns have changed dramatically. 

Our research shows that since Covid, even people who prefer to shop in-store sometimes avoid it because of bad staff interactions,  or because their lifestyles have changed and they don’t have as many opportunities to be near a store. So they’re going online but really the need is for the discovery and fun and social experience that they had before and they’re not getting it.

I think a big challenge for a lot of retailers is how do you get people back in stores? How do you remove those barriers? How do you create new reasons to attract people to the store when it’s outside of their routine or not super convenient? That’s where experiential retail comes in, making the store into this incredible experience people talk about and make a point to go to.