I had a very interesting experience recently while shopping for a Father’s Day gift. I was looking for some clothing for my dad and happened to be doing so in a mall (Yes, hark! I was not shopping online!). My mission ended up taking me to the Gap where I found a few items I liked but they did not have them in my dad’s size. After calling to a couple of other nearby locations without success, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the clerk’s next suggestion: “We can order the items online for you without any shipping or handling charges if you’d like.”

“‘If I’d like?!!’ Wow!” I thought, “Now this is a company that really gets it!” Not only is the Gap one of the leaders in the online clothing retailing market, but it’s also viewing its online entity as a complement to its physical stores rather than a competitor. I was duly impressed, and the experience got my mind thinking about the whole traditional retail industry in general. How could they use the Web to their advantage, capitalizing on all opportunities rather than viewing the Web as their nemesis?

Working the System

Combining the tactics of permission marketing (where marketers receive permission from the intended recipients of their efforts before delivering marketing messages) with the recognition that we’re a society suffering just as much from “the daily grind” as we are from information overload, today’s traditional retailers can parlay their brand recognition and customer loyalty into very Web-viable marketing opportunities.

For example, everybody loves a sale. We’re already bombarded with direct mail sale flyers, newspaper inserts, television commercials and radio ads informing us of the latest and greatest items on promotion. That’s all well and good, but guess what? I don’t even have time to check out these big store-wide sales anymore. I go either when I have time (and sales don’t matter) or when I really need something.

The only time this kind of advertising has any appeal to me is when I need to buy something at that very moment and there happens to also be a sale and I also happen to see the ad - how convenient. That’s where I wished that traditional retail stores were a little more “cyber-savvy.” If, for example, while I was at a shoe store I was asked for my permission to be emailed about particular sales or introductions of my favorite style or manufacturer of shoes, I might be more inclined to buy because I would now know when their event fit into my busy schedule and with my need. The airlines have this one down pat - signing up for an airline’s “E-saver” email notifications allows me to take advantage of a sale opportunity when the time is right for me.

Likewise, if these permission requests were more interactive - allowing me to specify preferences, to filter or edit my profile at will, and to offer-up in-store experiential feedback online, traditional stores would be more likely to build upon brand loyalty and even transition me from solely an off-line purchaser to an online one, too (or vice-versa). It’s all about giving me options to buy rather than lose the opportunity to sell me altogether.

It’s a Channel of Opportunity

And why not use every marketing effort as an opportunity to try to connect with me via the Web? For example, sales coupons could have a place for me to fill in my email address. Sales flyers could make available a web site through which I could subscribe to receive these email notifications? Let’s remember that the retailer doesn’t necessarily need to be an e-tailer in order to market to me. The Internet is another marketing channel - the retailer doesn’t have to own a TV station in order to market through television, right?

Of course, having an online presence sure makes sense if for nothing more than the ability to communicate/market/transact more immediately. So how does a traditional retailer reconcile the fact that they have multiple locations (possibly franchised), each with overhead, inventory and staff, while the Web is a single, unified “location” without the same issues? There are really two options, the first being to act like the Gap where a concerted effort is made to fuse the business, making the consumer’s experience with the Gap as seamless as possible. The second is to spin-off a separate dot-com entity, such as Barnes and Noble has done.

The problem with the second option, from the consumer’s perspective, is that it often seems as if the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. If someone wants to return a purchase made online at a physical store location and they cannot, that consumer is going to be very upset, to say the least. Similar problems can arise with exchanges, trying to redeem online gift certificates in-store, and general customer service issues. I find that the answers I get in-store about something I encountered online are all too often, “I’m sorry, I just don’t know Ma’am.” How lame!

Let’s face it: people are still going to shop in stores - heck, we’ve had mail-order shopping for over a century and retail shopping has only grown. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce News, retail sales April - June 2000 are up 8.7% over last year. The thing is, traditional retail stores are now not just competing with another shopping channel in the form of e-commerce; they’re also competing with an even larger foe: our society’s enduring lack of time. To maximize sales and profits, win customer loyalty and offer consumers something of true value - convenience - retailers really ought to step up their Internet-based permission marketing efforts. Until then, I think I’ll just be saving some money.

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