The aim of this report is to analyse the Customer Experience Model in
a digital context. The organisation I chose for this analysis is
Warehouse.co.nz.
To derive a vivid picture of the model, the practical and
theoretical perspective of this model has been analysed.
The second three months of the current year, April-June,
has shown a sales lift in retail business in New Zealand. Overall, “ strong
consumer confidence, low interest rates and rising house prices should continue
to support spending," said ASB Bank economist Daniel Smit .
I could say, the Consumer confidence in Online
shopping has also increased. NewZealanders' use of the internet has
"evolved considerably" to a point where more than half the population
is now shopping online, according to Statistics NewZealand. "The fact
that more than 1.8 million people made online purchases in 2012 shows that the
internet use has evolved considerably from sending the occasional email,"
Hamish Hill, Statistics NewZealand spokesperson. The major drivers for this
growth are , e ticket booking, applications, books ,music downloads, clothes, Electronics, shoes, toys, glasses, video games
, and the list goes on to even matrimonial. Those segments like exotic food,
canned and preserved food will be gaining momentum in the coming future on
online platforms.
The stake holders benefit by the way of cost saving in many ways like
Communication, staff, and various commercial savings .I coined a formula for consumers benefit- *4C Makes a big C,
Consumer *convenience, choice, comparisons,
consumer reviews.
The Customer experience starts when a need arises
in customers mind and flow from searching information, interacting with brands,
communicate with consumers, try out products and finally own it. This results
in sales and customer loyalty.
The Customer behaviour depends on process of the
sites he or she visits, mood, attitude, social and functional interactivity,
realistic, sense of being there , presence etc.
The report concludes with the findings from the
survey among 3 customers real virtual experience in the online shopping
platform.
The gender behaviour is tested and found that
purchase pattern of male buyers are goal
oriented and information seeking while female buyers are more of experiential
and ” feel good factor” style .
These findings can help marketers to find ways to
channel their customers online and offline behaviour to trigger sales.
The Relevance of Online Shopping business
It is
interesting to learn that, 2.18 million New
Zealanders are now buying online and will spend on average NZ$1,859 online in
2013 and this is expected to grow by 14.9% compound per annum for the next 3
years. Online represents 5.9% of New Zealand retail sales. It is predicted that online spending would rise to $5.37bn by 2016.
The major reasnons
are
Greater variety and
choice of goods, Customers seeking greater value for money, rapidly increase
usage of smart phones and tablet devices, continued strength of the New Zealand
Dollar, increasing level of sophistication and digital awareness across all age
groups, use of social media such as Face book and Twitter to drive brand and
product awareness.
Internet
user Profile
Half of all
Internet users aged 25–44 years are doing their reading online, and 76 percent
of 15–24-year-olds use the Internet to listen to or download music. Social
media remains popular, with two-thirds of the country engaging in social
networking, a 20 percent increase since 2009. While the young dominate the
social networking scene, you’ll find 1 in 6 Internet users aged 75+ there too. These
figures come from the Household Use of Information and Communications
Technology Survey, which measures the access to and use of the Internet by
individuals and by New Zealand households.
Price factor
The world has become a much
smaller place for the 21st century consumer. These days, a shirt with a $300
price tag at a Newmarket shop might be picked up for $150 or less from a
web-based store in the United States.
Convenience Factor
New Zealanders had to take a trip
Stateside, or to Hong Kong or Singapore, where greater economies of scale have
benefited shoppers for decades.But the meteoric rise of online stores such as
Amazon, which has reported sales of about US$48 billion ($59 billion) over the
past year, have made overseas prices available to anyone with an internet
connection and credit card, changing the face of retailing forever.
Global Market
About 34 per cent, or $910 million, of Kiwis' online purchases
are expected to be have been made on overseas websites last year, according to
research by Price Water Coopers and Frost & Sullivan.
Experience
brings customer onboard :
In recent years a number of technologies
that permit consumers to search for information, interact with brands,
communicate with other consumers, try out products, and buy real and digital
products over the internet have emerged. Some examples of these types of
technologies include online product simulations (e.g. test driving automobiles,
virtually trying-on clothing), avatars [“animated representations of the user”;
see Holzwarth et al. 2006]
In South Korea , Tesco has created a
virtual store in the subway where customers can order their groceries from a
virtual wall . This innovation and convenience has contributed to making Tesco
the no:1 grocery brand online in South Korea. It has been suggested that consumers may behave realistically in a
virtual environment when the environment has a high degree of realism
[Suntornpithug and Khamalah 2010], Brand experience has recently been defined
in the marketing literature as the sensations, feelings, cognitions, and
behavioural responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a
brand’s design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments
[Brakus et al. 2009]. Brand experience has been shown to have a significant
effect on consumer perceptions of the brand and purchasing decisions [Brakus et
al. 2009]
The digital is moving into the physical
Built in collaboration with IBM, the Jaguar
Land Rover Virtual Experience is an example of how the physical and digital
worlds are merging to reshape the consumer shopping experience. The Jaguar Land
Rover Virtual Experience begins with a customer signing in with a tablet device
and selecting a car, which is projected on a nearby screen. Motion-sensing
technology enables the customer to use his or her body to control the image of
the car and inspect its features, such as opening the driver’s door to examine
the interior.
Brand experiences have a significant impact on consumers' offline
purchase intentions and behaviour
Recent
research from Play Network has revealed that luxury retailers are investing the
most into digital technologies in their bid to enhance the customer experience.
The research found that the focus for higher-end brands was overwhelmingly
geared towards enhancing the in-store experience, with almost all of them (90%)
offering in-store video, compared to less than half (44%) of high street
retailers.
By
staying ahead of the curve, luxury retailers are offering their customers a ‘wow
factor’ shopping experience, which sets them apart from the rest of the
market.
These
virtual environments may offer important advantages over traditional,
two-dimensional websites through increased functional and social interactivity,
and can provide valuable brand experiences that lead to increased customer
loyalty and sales.
Know your customer behaviour
Today’s
shoppers have an increasing appetite for new ways of shopping, and all
retailers need to adapt in order to remain relevant.
With Burberry’s sales rising 13% in the second
quarter of 2013, they understood their customer behaviour – customers are tech-
savvy .They introduced radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips were tagged
onto items of clothing to allow customers to interact with videos of said items
being worn on a catwalk. Full-length screens and live-streaming hubs were also
fitted throughout the store, creating an entertaining and engaging customer
experience.
Ted
Baker, on the other hand, has identified its core audience to be young and
quirky, with plenty of disposable income. Ted Baker’s sales booming by 31% in
the five months to June Positioning itself as “no ordinary designer
label”, the company has carefully developed its brand’s distinct and quirky
style. When asked about the reason for its continuing success, Ray Kelvin commented
last year: “Better product, better design. It’s that simple.”
Virtual
environments serve as potential platforms for retailers in understanding and
influencing offline purchasing behaviour, in addition to promoting the
company's brand and products. It has been suggested that consumers may behave
realistically in a virtual environment when the environment has a high degree
of realism [Suntornpithug and Khamalah 2010], and when consumers
replicate their real identity and existence into the virtual world. Studies have shown that brand experiences and
consumer behaviour in an online channel may affect consumer decision making in
other marketing channels [Kwon and Lennon 2009]. An understanding of consumer
behaviour across multiple marketing channels may provide further insights into
how consumers view their multichannel shopping experience and the relationships they
develop with retailers
Consumer
Real Virtual Experience :
The
concept of real virtual interaction is the interlock between Virtual Interaction,
Marketing Relationship Strategy, Real Interaction and Consumers Experience.The survey among 3 consumers’ are done to
understand the real customer experiences that propel shopping behaviour in real virtual world, in
the context of ware house .co.nz.
The respondents have been asked to define the process ( real interaction) and
service brand ( Virtual Interaction ).
Ware house (WH) were able to deliver
their brand promise.
Warehouse
promise- Everyone gets a -bargain /discount and Making the desirable
affordable .To an extent they were successful in
creating the wow factor among their online customers .
Enclosed below is the
comment from one my respondent, I categorized him as information seeking and
goal oriented male customer.“Yes,
I think this is a very good site. Plenty of information provided and always
shows something which is cheap/on sale” Ash, a frequent online buyer.
Another comment by the second category
customer:Female
buyer with experiential behaviour .About Briscoes “ Duplicate links to departments (shop by
department and the category above in the beginning of same page ) Instead they could have highlighted
some deals based on categories like Top Picks, Great Bargain like Warehouse done
in their site , Anisha, Occassional online buyer..
Theoretical
Implications:
The experiences and
behaviour exhibited by the customers were supporting the theories suggested and proved by several authors from
the marketing fraternity
The e commerce site that
delivered the promise made in the virtual platform in the real world has
succeeded in the game. The answers for the theoretical questions like: why consumers consume? What value the customer
got from the brand are answered
practically .The real value is the experience the brand( WH) has delivered by
way of Online experiences ( Product Display ), service attributes( filter,
sort, Track) experiential images(Recipes)
, functional consequences (payment safety), symbolic images(review comments),
etc.
Managerial Implications:
These findings can
help marketers to find ways to channel their customers online and offline
behaviour. For
example ,in Briscoes /Warehouse sites
if the deals are displayed based on one’s
previous search history (as both sites have log in) it will help to
create tailor made virtual experience in online
platform .
The goal oriented
customers should be provided with distinct search options , educational tool
for information seekers, involvement
generating options , positive feeling ,productive experience, required amount
of challenge to provide a memorable experience .Then only the customer gets the
speed or the Convenience factor for his/ her
purchases. Managers need to assess the level of customer satisfaction. The
involvement with a particular brand or site also increases when all the above
factors are considered by the e commerce designers of organisations.
Conclusion:
The report concludes with the findings from the
survey among 3 customers real virtual experience in the online shopping
platform.
The gender behaviour is tested and found that
purchase pattern of male buyers are goal
oriented and information seeking while female buyers are more of experiential
and ” feel good factor” style . Further more , we can conclude that the
experience and usage of e commerce is affected by the affective state and the
process/ technology embedded on it .
