Set Store Searches for Ecommerce Mentalities

Ecommerce experiences create in consumers a mentality about shopping, a set of expectations that when met well by brick-and-mortar (B&M) stores gives those stores a retailer’s edge. One shopping function where this is true is the shopper’s search for the right product.
     Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab identified some of these expectations. The scientists then used this information to design what they call “The Glass Infrastructure,” intended, among other things, to be a forerunner of search systems we’ll see in retail stores.
     Until those futuristic systems appear, here are ways to configure searches in your B&M store to meet the expectations of shoppers with ecommerce mentalities:

• Personalize the search. The Glass Infrastructure depends on each regular customer having an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag containing information about what that particular consumer has tried out, rejected, and purchased. The hint for B&M salespeople: As part of selling, ask the shopper what alternatives they’ve tried out and what characteristics they seek in the product they’re searching for. Use data from frequent shopper programs to make in-store suggestions to the customer. Anticipate what the customer will be searching for next by considering not just what they select, but also what they reject. When a shopper turns down the top quality pillows in favor of the budget alternative, but selects the top quality mattress, and then asks us to recommend a sofa, which sofa are they most likely to purchase?
• Narrow down searches, but progressively. The Media Lab researchers noted two characteristics about B&M store searches: First, consumers often weren’t aware of every alternative available to them, since they’d have to walk all the aisles to see everything. Second, store directories—even electronic ones—often all read the same. The Glass Infrastructure starts out with a directory that covers a great many alternatives in which the consumer might be interested. But as the consumer moves toward one part of the selection, the directory narrows itself. In your B&M store, progressively narrow the search list the consumer is using
• Encourage collaborative searching. The Glass Infrastructure includes networked large LCD screens so that a set of consumers can each display and discuss their searching progress and intentions. In your B&M store designed to serve the ecommerce mentality of social networking, provide places where shoppers can collaborate.

Click below for more:
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Use Search Engines to Influence Merchandising
Design Store Operations for Ecommerce Brains
Anticipate Intentions of Ecommerce Shoppers
Reduce Uncertainty for Ecommerce Customers