Many customers enjoy the in-store retail experience because they can pick up, feel, and try products firsthand. But how do you get them to engage with your product over the plethora of other options on the crowded shelves?
According to Rare, engagement with a product is driven by price (81%), quality (80%), and convenience (55%). Long-term loyalty comes with sustained product engagement, sales associate interaction, and satisfied sales. Likability (86%) and trust (83%) will hold these new converts steadfast to your brand.
Hashing out the many reasons why engagement is so important for driving sales will help you prioritize marketing efforts. Going a step further, exploring exactly how to increase product engagement and implementing best practices will help you boost sales, referrals, and long-term customer loyalty.
How to Increase Product Engagement
Gain attention with attractive in-store displays.
Visual merchandising matters now more than ever in this digital age. If store displays are dull and uninspired, customers will feel the same. Visuals have been found to increase message retention by 42%.
Among the best ways to make lasting impressions and invite shoppers to engage with products, brands and retailers should:
- Follow a unified theme of colors and messaging to draw audiences and be easily recognized.
- Feature “tester” products out of the packaging to entice shoppers to try them out.
- Arrange displays with popular items that naturally “go together” to cross-sell.
- Include informative product details on display racks to show utility.
- Dedicate a corner to a “pop-up” of rotating, seasonal, holiday, or themed displays.
- Be witty and visual with quotes on your displays to encourage Instagramming.
Sometimes products can sell themselves if given the open space and right lighting to draw in shoppers. This is especially true for clothing, where gallery-style merchandising is effective.
Tap the power of the mobile experience.
Increasingly, shopping trips are initiated from mobile devices. More than half of consumers (56%) use mobile devices to research products at home before investigating them later in-store. Another 34% of shoppers have used mobile devices to research products in-store during the consideration phase.
One way to bridge the gap between mobile and in-store shopping is to harness the power of a mobile app. With Shopkick—an innovative shopping rewards app—users are encouraged to explore nearby retailers and products. Once inside the store, app users engage with featured products by locating them on store shelves, scanning their barcodes, watching promotional short videos, and making purchases to earn reward points that can be used toward gift cards of their choosing.
Shopkick is a proven way to increase the consideration of new products. For instance, Shopkick drove trial-in-aisle direct product engagements with multiple Rimmel London beauty products, which stole 14% market share from a competitor. Additionally, 38% of those who went on to purchase had never used Rimmel products before. Best of all, this outcome was achieved with a 5:1 ROI. Mobile engagements are on the rise and by partnering with an app like Shopkick, brands and retailers have the advantage of reaching an already loyal user base.
Shopkick is a proven way to increase the consideration of new products.
Use videos and demos to show off product features.
When asked what would best assist them in making a purchase, 69% of consumers chose product demos. To execute a successful demo, the first step (and perhaps the most important) is to hire the right company or salesperson to interact with shoppers. Brand ambassadors must be friendly and personable, but knowledgeable enough to answer any possible question that arises in the field. Demonstrators should actively encourage shoppers to experience the product by using all of their applicable senses—picking the product up, touching it, tasting it, smelling it. Giving away samples is a great way to create a positive experience and reinforce awareness.
Another 15% of customers surveyed said they most preferred watching an explainer video. Of those who watched a video, 80% had “more confidence to purchase” afterward. A great script is of utmost importance for your explainer video; make it a short and sweet elevator pitch. Consider whether you’d like it to be conversational or professional, humorous or fun. Focus on three key benefits the user can expect, rather than simply listing cool features. Show how your product works in three or four steps. Wrap it up with a compelling call-to-action. While videos can be sent through email or social media, also consider utilizing a mobile app. With Shopkick, videos are built right into the app, giving brands and retailers the opportunity to introduce their product with a captivating video at the most crucial moment—in-store or even in-aisle as shoppers are considering, or even holding the product.
Ready to Put Product Engagement Into Practice?
There are many ways to increase product engagement. Modern marketers are using multiple channels to foster direct engagement, whether online, via mobile, or in-store. Employing a modern tool like Shopkick is a great way to get ahead of the curve.
Want more innovative ideas for increasing product engagement? Read our success stories or contact Shopkick to become one of our partners and start driving greater loyalty right away.
Image courtesy of Dmitri Ma
