Partnerships are vital in 2018 for retail brands to reach as many consumers as possible online and offline with the lowest customer acquisition costs. The medium that has been greatly under invested in is physical retail and we are seeing the largest digitally native brands capitalize on the opportunity by partnering with, rather than competing against, brick and mortar retailers online.
Partnerships Critical for Retail Success in 2018
A growing list of partnerships are forming between the largest digitally native brands with brick and mortar retailers. No better examples than Amazon & Best Buy, Amazon & Whole Foods, or Casper & Target to demonstrate the growing need of brands to have a physical retail presence that compliments its online business.
Key Goals for Cross-Channel Retail Partnerships
Partnerships vary in scope and goals but there are 2 key areas of focus as to why these partnerships are forming:
To Build Brand Loyalty
Retail is definitely morphing and its becoming evident it isn’t just about the transaction anymore. Physical retail is required to evoke emotion from consumers to leverage all their senses to create a greater bond between consumer and product. Stores are also the place that bring a sense of belonging or community to digital nomads to connect with others in real-life as they seek out experiences. The top brands are recognizing giving consumers great experiences before, during, and supporting them locally after purchase are critical for building brand loyalty which simply doesn’t exist online only.
Extend Reach & Lower Customer Acquisition Costs
The key goal for digitally native brands is offline discovery to reach more consumers and lower their customer acquisition costs. With 9 out of 10 transactions still occurring at brick and mortar the channel is quite simply too large to ignore for any company that wants to scale. Digital advertising is in structural decline as everyone piles money on, the smart companies are zigging into physical retail.
With over two dozen ad platforms raising prices by over 10%, and digital advertising budgets at firms increasing its becoming increasingly more difficult to rise above the noise online only making physical retail the bargain for savvy marketers. Not to mention improved ad blockers, the GDPR, and the fact wealthy young consumers we all are targeting are either blocking or tuning out advertising. The store within a store concept is coming back as brands need physical retail and vice versa retailers need consumer traffic in store to sell other items.
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Sell Everywhere Your Consumers Buy
Keep reading to discover how physical retail is fuelling online sales, but if you’d like an executive guide distilling everything, download The Enterprise Guide to Omni-Channel Commerce.
Inside, you’ll get one-pagers detailing …
Comprehensive data on the opportunities and threats
Merchant spotlights for insights on combining sales channels
A checklist to consider when implementing an omni-channel program
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Physical Retail is Fuelling Online Sales
According to Nick Kolobutin, CEO of ShipEarly “we are seeing the complete merger of online and physical retail to the point brands are becoming channel agnostic as to whether consumers buy offline or online. In our opinion the greatest collaboration is between branded manufacturer with a brick and mortar retailer” he says. “The partnership benefits both parties, as the National Brand is able to acquire consumers cheaper as a result of physical retail where most consumers prefer to and still do shop. From the retailers perspective the National Brand is able to narrate stories that drive traffic to stores where retailers sell more to those in-store customers and feed more consumers back to the brand in a mutually beneficial relationship.”
What’s Your Strategy?
As Digitally Native brands aggressively pursue partnerships with retailers, what’s our strategy to partner with brick and mortar online to keep your spot in store secure? Interested in learning more? Contact us to see if we can help.
