3 expert retail leader insights for Peak Season

Peak Season—Instore trends

Michal Chyczewski stressed his company, Komfort’s recent focus on combining online and offline shopping experiences and cited a general trend towards making in-store shopping experiences more closely mirror online shopping.

He believes that we are beginning, and will continue, to see more and more screens in stores.

“What they (customers) enjoy and what they will be getting used to is shopping in an offline store the same way they shop in an online store, with the advantage of having some samples being presented in the store and an opportunity to feel and touch the product.”

Michal Chyczewski – Komfort

The business case for screens: They allow relatively small stores to showcase a fuller scope of their offerings and can cleanly facilitate selection while guiding customers through the steps of both the sales and delivery process.

Peak Season—Customer Acquisition & Attribution

When asked about new trends to optimize peak season customer acquisition costs, Facebook’s Emin Aliev was clear:

“Being able to track all of your impressions and conversions is the most important thing, especially during peak season.”

Aliev noted that server to server solutions can be a big help in this tracking; and in navigating operating system changes and stricter privacy practices. He went on to disclose how important it is to understand your own customer attribution model, asking,

“How do you attribute sales to this or that provider, in terms of advertising? That’s extremely important. At Facebook we have MMM (Marketing Modeling Mix) which is really helpful in determining if customers come from Google, from TV advertising, etcetera.”

Emim Aliev – Facebook

Finally Aliev highlighted the importance of retailers A/B testing their strategies weeks and months in advance of the onset of peak season to make certain they’re prepared to optimize sales.

Michal Chyczewski spoke to how his company is optimizing customer acquisition costs,

“What we’ve done at Komfort is to implement an omni-channel CRM system. This allows us to track, very precisely, how the client moves around channels–stores, contact center and online, of course.”

Michal Chyczewski – Komfort

This CRM system offers insights as to how Komfort can optimize acquisition costs by enabling the company to see what their customer’s journey to their brands and products looked like.

Peak Season—Preparedness

“Even if you are prepared for everything—you have the right offer at the right time, good products, your team is ready, logistics are working 24/7—a power cut might happen, a traffic jam might happen.”

e-Commerce Poland’s Jakub Gierszynski

He emphasized that retailers must keep in mind that a “mishandle” can always happen and that it’s best to have contingency plans formulated in the event of the unforeseen. Gierszynski further stated how critically important it is for retailers to notify IT of the oncoming increased server traffic in advance of mega sales and peak season promotions so that servers aren’t overwhelmed and sales lost. For a successful peak season, Gierszynski suggested the following:

• Thoroughly analyze eCommerce KPIs from the past year.
• Double SLAs. 
• Orchestrate the work of your teams: customer service, logistics, marketing.
• Be ready for anything. 

For more peak season insights from industry experts, tune into Insights for Peak season on demand.