Wednesday, January 17, 2018

COMSUMER SPECIAL .....The Hop-on, Hop-off Consumer

The Hop-on, Hop-off Consumer

SPJIMR’s Dr Renuka Kamath believes brands must seamlessly integrate their online and offline channels because today’s channel hopping consumer wants the best of both worlds.

As the year was slipping by, queer yet expected things were happening! Just like us, brands were living a life of their own. Some in slumber, some in denial, yet a few energetically doing somersaults, but all trying to differentiate. But right through, there was a strange movement– brands were following the consumer who had begun her explorative shopping journey. This journey took her hopping across devices and platforms, and soon she became better at it. She walked across to her favourite store, navigated on her mobile or tab to order her favourite book. She did this while sitting in a restaurant, during a bus ride and even while she waited to pick up her kids from school. The past year saw a hybrid way of shopping that was here to stay. There were estimates of more than 100 million online shoppers (ASSOCHAM-Resurgent India) and the Indian Institute of ecommerce stated that by 2020, India was expected to generate $100 billion online retail sales. The mobile device (proxy for online) was probably the only channel through which a brand could reach every consumer it wanted. The fluidity, with which consumers had begun alternating between platforms and channels for making a choice was remarkable and at the same time also very challenging to marketers. Flexibility in time, ready access to everything at one place, ability to compare prices with greater variety and amazing discounts were the main reasons for shopping online.
With these changes, brand owners were forced to acknowledge the demands of retaining differentiation in the consumer’s mind and ensuring brand loyalty. While these principles were age old and applied to traditional branding, the evolution of channel hopping gave brand building the complexity none had seen before.
In these times of change, this competition between offline and online channels is more of a marathon than a sprint. At times, the transition to online channels was ‘brand-led’. Here brands were ahead of the consumers, pulling them along, while at other times, the transition was ‘consumer-led’, where consumers were ahead in their adoption of online purchases and brands had no option but to follow them. The consumers for brands like Zivame, Roadster, Xiaomi were ‘brand-led’ as these brands were tempting consumers to explore online purchasing. On the other hand, many traditionally rooted brands, masters in the offline world, were ‘consumer-led’ and tried to keep pace with the consumers’ excited discovery of the online world of shopping. These brands elbowed their way into the virtual shopping carts and tried to endear themselves to consumers, while building equity on-ground.
Intriguingly, the year also saw ‘brand-led’ categories comprising purely ecommerce brands, step out of the virtual world, into the real one of brick-and-mortar.
For instance, Myntra and Nykaa both used a mix of setting up shop-in-shops at retail outlets and their own stores since consumers were demanding a sensorial feel of the brands. Moreover cost of customer acquisition, high discounts and logistic costs were hurting online channel profitability and these brands were losing out on the high volumes and profitability of the offline channel. Meanwhile, there was a reverse pressure on brick and mortar brands and an urgency for a well-integrated brand strategy. Brands aspired to give consumers an experience of seamless consistency while dealing with their shorter attention spans and social sharing of content that they either ‘loved’ or ‘disliked’.
Where was all this heading? Clearly towards a need for a plethora of new skills in managing channel conflict and data analysis. Going ahead, a user-centric view will have to be taken for the consumer’s brand experience journey along the cross-channel shopping path. There is no question that online shopping is here to stay and consumers are going to hop across channels. The way forward is probably towards an omnichannel marketing approach. A brand’s physical and online channels can be integrated better to provide a seamless shopping experience for consumer. This will capture the best of both worlds.
In the intervening period, online companies will have to ensure that their brands drive them towards pursuing profits and not GMV. While traditional brick-and-mortar brands will have to embrace the omni-channel way of life.


BE10JAN18

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