Digitally contactable customers are high spenders in-store and account for 27% of in-store revenue and 73% of ecommerce revenue in the luxury sector, according to a study by customer engagement company Contactlab in conjunction with Exane BNP Paribas.
The figures – taken from the report Digital Frontier 2016: Digital Luxury is turning Mainstream – strengthen the evidence for brands to connect ecommerce with bricks and mortar stores to develop an integrated offering and innovative marketing programmes through mobile.
Getting personal: how digitally contactable customers can make all the difference
Massimo Fubini, CEO of Contactlab, explains: “Luxury brands need to shift their perception and open their eyes to the mutual benefits of engaging with digital customers. Digital contact with customers is transforming the luxury industry and with the rise of ecommerce and digital engagement tools, luxury brands are gifted with information from customers’ online activity, allowing them to know 80% of their in-store customers by name. A luxury brand’s success is based on its ability to leverage customers’ digital profiles and purchasing decisions in order to tailor engagement.”
Customers with a known digital presence can have a powerful influence on global brand sale revenues. It is increasingly valuable to use customer information gathered from different touch points of the customer journey.
Luxury brands need an online presence in order to connect with their digitally contactable customers, whose extra cross-channel spending is 50% greater than in-store only customers. An integrated strategy will unleash revenue generating potential for brands to influence customer purchasing decisions by using various digital tools which promote customer engagement and encourage brand loyalty.
Personalisation is slowly being seen as the magic bullet to link online and offline sales, and has already delivered a 24% uplift in sales for Waitrose and there have been definitive boosts to sales at M&S , Missguided and JD Williams off the back of personalisation marketing. This latest study shows a definitive link between mobile, online and in-store shopping being boosted by digital personalisation.
Fubini continues: “There is a wave of growth in ecommerce as many customers resort to buying online at the click of a button for convenience and ease, however there are significant advantages if brands can drive these anonymous consumers to a more engaged, cross-channel relationship. In-store digitally contactable customers spend 20% more than those who are simply registered, and those known customers who buy both in-store and online spend even more.
By ignoring online channels through which they can engage anywhere with customers, brands are leaving a blind spot which does not allow them to get an accurate image of their customers’ profiles, behaviour and preferences.”
The worldwide ecommerce penetration is growing steadily, reaching 7%, which increased from 6% in 2014.
