Retail will never be the same again: the future of retail

The coronavirus pandemic has convinced many CEOs that what is actually happening was going to happen in the future. Retail has been hit badly. 

“Retail will never be the same again. There is no turning back and no returning to normal; the future just happened,” said Kelly Slessor, founder and CEO of personalised mobile shopping app Shop You.

“The retail industry was already on course for a huge shake-up and with lockdown forcing the closure of shopping centres and retail stores. The industry has been forced to act.”

COVID-19 has spurred a massive change for the retail industry. Retailers have been scrambling to adapt. As physical stores closed, consumers have shifted to online shopping. As a result, this has forced retailers to create new ways to ensure business continuity and optimise ecommerce business functions. To survive and thrive, retailers need to take advantage of online technology and tools.

Many trends will come out of a post-COVID world. Moreover, the drastic shift from in-store to online is not going to change to its previous state, after the pandemic has passed. Shoppers will continue to go to the physical store. However, their behaviours will change. It is more likely that customers will visit physical stores less and spend more when they do come.

Retailers will need to provide an immersive experience.

Read more at The CEO Magazine.

Ask the Experts: Home Decor & Furniture Retailers

As Australians remain inside during the pandemic, the popularity of housewares have gone through the roof. We look to leading ecommerce experts to rank three home decor and furniture retailers. 

Shoppers are redecorating, updating their home office and keeping themselves occupied during lockdown. We sat down with ecommerce expert, Alita Harvey-Rodriguez, the Managing Director at MI Academy, Kelly Slessor, the Founder and CEO of Shop You, and Jane Magoffin, the Senior Account Manager at Reload Media. We examined and broke down the good, bad and the mediocre.

We’ll be looking at are Temple & Webster, Brosa and Zanui. What do these leading ecommerce experts think of these three retailers?

Temple & Webster - Home decor and furniture retailer

Temple & Webster is a retailer that understands its customers. It is one of the market leaders and experts in Australia.

With so many people searching on their phones for home decor, it is crucial that the homepage is easy to navigate. 

Product review systems is a strong selling point. It shows user-generated content of real customers who own that product and how they have used it.

“Huge range of product images and great size easy to see the product in detail on mobile.”

Brosa - Art-inspired furniture and decor retail

Brosa provides art-inspired furniture and decor. This retailer is design-led and environmentally-friendly.

The homepage gives the user a push into taking action. Customers are faced with options. Calling a stylist, finding a physical store, a virtual conversation or browsing their top product categories. Homepage is focused on sales and uses GIFs to show different products.

“Great imagery on the homepage, but the fonts on imagery are too small to read.”

“Clean imagery coupled with design inspiration.”

Product page has rich information with detailed and visual product descriptions. It is clear that Brosa uses a personal approach. This can be seen by their call to actions – ‘We’re here to help’ and ‘Call us’.

Zanui - Homewares and furniture retail

Zanui is an online leader for Aussie homewares. It provides the trendiest furniture for Aussie online shoppers.

Zanui does a really nice job of adjusting their homepage to whatever device the customer is on. Either mobile or desktop. The mobile experience is slightly different from the desktop experience.

On each product page, there is product description, live stock updates and shipping quotes.

“Image navigation on the homepage is clear and well designed.”

“Two pop ups on mobile product page can be distracting, but there’s great product imagery.”

Kelly Slessor is an Ecommerce Coach and a digital marketing expert passionate about helping retailers grow. Kelly has worked with 100’s of retailers, shopping centres and property groups to develop their digital marketing plans, ecommerce platforms and technology strategy. Companies include Westfields, Woolworths, Big W, Sainsburys, Gluestore and small independent brands and restaurants.

Read the full story at Power Retail.

Stand out in four steps: How local retailers can compete with big brands online

Kelly Slessor, CEO and founder of Shop You, shares her insights on how local retailers can compete with big brands online.

Generally speaking, local retailers have had it tough for some time now. A decrease in high street traffic, a shift to online, increased competition from overseas and changing consumer behaviour has driven many to close their doors.

Businesses that have struggled are now faced with one of the most difficult times in the history of retail.

Not all will make it. For those that do, the opportunities to grow and to stand out in an online world are bigger now than they have ever been.

As we faced restrictions and lockdowns, availability and local convenience became a priority. 

According to Australia Post, local retailers grew more than 80% year-on-year eight weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Shifting to and standing out in a digital world is not easy for many local retailers. They often lack the skillset, funds and time. There is also the fear of the unknown.

Having worked with retailers and running her own digital growth course, Kelly has developed four key steps for growing retail online. These steps are:

  1. Know your customer
  2. Plug-and-play
  3. Offer convenience
  4. Choose your channels

Read the full story at Smart Company. 

BIO

Kelly Slessor, is an Ecommerce Coach and a digital marketing expert. Passionate about retail, hospitality and retail service providers. As the founder and CEO of Shop You, an AI powered personalised virtual shopping mall she has spent 20 years building retail technology that responds to customer needs, drives conversions and increases revenue. Over the past year she has worked with over 1000 retailers and hospitality providers. If you want discover more about digital growth and optimisation, work with me.

Work With Me

Personalisation in Retail – Let’s Get Personal

Online retail is becoming more personalised with every click. As technology advances, so does the customer behaviours that customers present to retailers. In this article, we sat down with Kelly Slessor. To discuss the power of personalisation in retail and the future of ecommerce. In addition, we talk about the changes within the industry and how tech is helping retail reach its full potential. Kelly Slessor is the CEO and founder of Shop You.

Online retail has soared in the last six months. Many trends will come out of a post-COVID world. According to Kelly, the primary trend would be consumer-driven and focused technology. Consumers focus on convenience and safety. Additionally, there will be ongoing growth in contactless and cashless technology.

Two Key Steps

Many retailers have moved towards ecommerce platforms, including but not limited to small-medium enterprises and local retailers. There are two ways that these retailers can grow and survive in the digital environment.

  1. Develop a clear vision of its customers. Target them with the right keywords and messages.
  2. Treat Google as the shop’s front. More than half of customers’ buying decisions start online. Investing in SEO and optimising Google is found to be essential for growth.

There is enough room for existing ecommerce retailers to grow. For example, video chat, guided selling, and immersive experiences.

Opportunities and Impacts for Retail

The retail model is broken. We are not serving what the customers need. The opportunity is in collaboration. Cooperating between technology companies, shopping centres, retailers, the government, and the customers. This helps to build out solutions that address the pain points.

The problem is connecting individual platforms to create one seamless journey. It is a job that sits with the retailer. However, it requires skill and expertise that many retailers do not have.

If platforms can be connected flawlessly, there will be huge growth opportunities for retailers.

Retailers that continue to provide disconnected experiences and barriers between physical and online will not survive. This is one of the biggest reasons for failure. As a result, these retailers go bankrupt and close down.

The Future of Retail

With an increasing number of digital experiences, retails are moving at a faster pace. The significant impact that we will see in retail is using artificial intelligence for personalisation. Personalisation in retail can take of huge amounts of data in real-time and provide the customer with what they need. There is a demand for many touchpoints that allow customers to spend their time and money.

To sum up, online will become an immersive experience. Each customer would have a personalised experience. These experiences will have a seamless connection to the physical store and provide a journey that is connected. From intent to fulfilment.

Read the full article at Power Retail.

COVID-19 – A Wake Up Call For Selling Online

This conversation was posted as a podcast on Business Essentials Daily. Kelly Slessor speaks with Chris Ashmore from SoundCartel about COVID-19 as a wake-up call for retailers to move to selling online. 

Since COVID-19, online retail has seen its most significant growth on record. For businesses, it’s never been easier to set up an online store. Kelly Slessor is a digital growth expert and founder of Shop You, a personalised virtual shopping mall based on AI technology. Kelly has spent the last 20 years working with retailers, property groups, banks and media companies to develop their digital strategy. She explains what businesses need to consider when starting an online process and outlines the digital tools available in which to do so.

The internet has become a great saviour since the pandemic. It makes it easier for customers to shop online for almost anything they want, and selling online. Given that since March 2020, businesses are seeing their online sales skyrocket. So, how can these businesses take advantage of online technology and tools to grow their online presence and increase revenue.

There has been a considerable gap in the connection between the physical and digital worlds. Businesses realise that they cannot have a gap between online and offline. They recognise that they need to have a seamless connection between the two worlds. Companies and retailers have no choice but to make online an experience that reflects the physical experience.

“We see a seismic shift in consumer behaviour and in ways which consumers shop… and it’s becoming more natural”.

Local businesses and retailers will be the ones to win in this scenario. Customers are more likely to shop locally and on-shore than overseas. They will look for local retailers where they can quickly return products they don’t like or get local reviews.

No two customers are the same: Why online retailers need to offer personalised customer journeys

As an unprecedented number of retailers scramble to stand out online, the consumer is hit with a lot of noise that is fast becoming unbearable, writes Kelly Slessor. Kelly Slessor, CEO of Shop You and a digital growth expert, discusses why online retailers need to offer personalised journeys for their customers.

We jump from LinkedIn to Facebook, Instagram to TikTok, and from our mobiles to desktops.

We have an average of eight tabs open on our computers, and yet we still can’t seem to find what we are seeking.

Products are throwing at us on every channel. Out of the 30 images I scrolled through on my Instagram feed, seven were ads for things I have no interest in ever buying.

COVID-19 has quickened the pace of shifting to online. More than 200,000 new households shopped online in April 2020. 

The retailers that personalise the journey will be the ones that truly stand out and connect. Personalisation is not just about sending an email with peoples names. It is about providing services, journeys and experiences that are unique to the customer. It’s about taking the human experience into a digital world.

Somewhere along the line in the digital evolution, we forgot the importance of connection and personalisation. Now everyone is a faceless customer who looks and sounds the same as the next customer and the one before.

There are some steps that retailers can use to create a more personalised journey for their customers.

Read the full article at Smart Company. 

How to create an inclusive digital experience

To create accessible digital experiences, brands need to consider the diverse needs of users and commit to inclusion, writes Kelly Slessor.

Inclusive digital experiences mean many things to many people. For me, it is about creating an online experience that responds to a user’s needs. As a result, this allows the user to achieve whatever it is they set out to do.

Research shows that an incredible 98% of websites have accessibility issues. There are 4.5 billion people online today and it has predicted to grow to 6 billion people by 2025. The question is, how do you create an inclusive digital experience for 6 billion people.

Last year, I received an email from a woman who was struggling to find the right outfit. The person was impaired and struggled to use online sites to shop due to the lack of accessibility. She highlighted the challenges faced by the impaired when shopping online.

One issue that stood out was the accessibility for remote communities. Some remote communities do not have access to high internet speeds or the internet. So, how can we create digital experiences that allow remote communities to gain access to websites, products and services? Also, how can these communities sell their products and services via online platforms?

There are many different areas that make up inclusive digital experiences. To test and learn, we need diverse teams and partners that recognise and understand the issues. We need to commit to change. 

It is a complex topic with many challenging elements. It will become a key area of focus for many retailers and businesses in the next few years.

Read the full story at Marketing Mag.

The Future of Retail Sky News Weekend Edition

Future of retail; Sky News

Shop You ‘virtual mall’ to connect people to physical stores – The Future of Retail Sky News Australia Kelly Slessor

This video was originally published on Sky News in the Future of Retail Sky News Weekend Edition.  Kelly Slessor talks with Jaynie Seal and Tim Gilbert about the future of retail and the impact on local retailers.

Essentially, virtual shopping is the future of retail. Digital growth expert Kelly Slessor, CEO of Shop You, discusses enhancing the shopping experience.  She shares insights on personalised shopping and the importance of connection to a physical store. 

“We’ve under invested in, as a result,  our retailers failing in an omni-channel environment. If we look to the UK, 30% of retail sales are now done online. In Australia 12% to 13% of retail sales are done online, so there’s big growth coming, but retailers are not prepared for it. Nevertheless, we do have time to prepare for the change but we need government initiatives, to help activate not only the big retailers,  but also the small businesses.

Shop You is a mobile shopping app that uses artificial intelligence to boost customers’ virtual shopping experience by matching them to brands and styles. “It knows you… It presents things to you based on your personal attributes and the brands you love”. Shop You provides a seamless customer journey of connection from an online store to a physical store.

For further information feel free to contact Kelly Slessor

BIO

Kelly Slessor, is an Ecommerce Coach and a digital marketing expert. Passionate about retail, hospitality and retail service providers. As the founder and CEO of Shop You, an AI powered personalised virtual shopping mall she has spent 20 years building retail technology that responds to customer needs, drives conversions and increases revenue. Over the past year she has worked with over 1000 retailers and hospitality providers. If you want discover more about digital growth and optimisation, work with me.

Work With Me