Apple Store Changes Signal the Next Era of Retail

Apple Store Changes Signal the Next Era of Retail
by Chris "The Brain" Hoyt

June 17, 2014

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If you go to an Apple Store on a slower day, you may notice there is still a pretty large amount of “blue shirts.” A second look, and it is easy to discover the reason for this: they aren’t just selling anymore. Just about any other retail store in the mall will have a ratio of about one employee to five customer. Apple is running almost one-to-one on non-peak days. This isn’t just because of Apple’s popularity. No, it is a sign of the next era of retail: selling expertise and ecosystems.

When Supply and Demand Switch Places
Supply and demand has been the pillar of economic development for centuries. Innovations have largely been centered around delivering more “in demand” products at lower cost and with greater efficiency. Demand came first, and then businesses would respond by producing supply. The iPhone is, however, a great example of a new phenomenon beginning to emerge: supply coming before demand. More specifically, the ability to create something no one was asking for, and suddenly everyone wants.

Not that Apple is the only company to do this, inventions have been creating demand from Thomas Edison's light bulb to Sony’s Walkman in the 80s. However, there is something unique about Apple’s revolution, creating demand for a product people don’t know how to use. For that one, I can only think of Henry Ford’s Model-T as a possible parallel. Even today, we all still have to learn to drive a car before we can buy one. But in all, there haven’t been a lot of world-changing products that weren't pretty easy to just pick up and use.

Because We Aren't Smart Enough to Know What We Want
Modern emerging products, such as cloud based solutions, software as a service, and integrated technologies are all being developed PAST the demand curve. Meaning that we have more supplied products and solution that most of us even know how to use or integrate into our daily lives. So where are these companies coming from if we aren’t demanding their products and services? Well, investors have come to realize that the marketing doesn’t really know what it wants next. Everyone is betting on the next Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to tell us what we want.

Selling a Lifestyle
In order to get the most from your shiny new Apple products: MacBook, iPhone, and iPad (the holy tech trilogy), you have to have a certain amount of base knowledge for using them. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon (sorta) are all now competing on lifestyle solutions more than the actual products. Each company providing a whole range of integrated software and tech to handle our lifestyle needs. In other words, we no longer buy products to match our daily needs and habits. We are beginning to model our lives around the systems created for us.

Education and Accessibility: The New Battleground
So this comes back to the INVASION OF THE BLUE SHIRTS at Apple retail stores. Apple is still showing they are ahead of the curve by throwing their resources at helping as many people as possible adapt to the Apple/iCloud lifestyle. Microsoft is learning to follow suit, and Google is still hoping their loyal geeks will be enough to bring their immediate families up to date (*guilty*). Samsung has also been proving their obsession with copying Apple by trying to do the same thing at Best Buy stores (but not very well.)

In-store training, access to advice and experts, classes on how to maximize products and software tools, large support communities; these are the new ways retail is going to have to grow their competition. And as we keep growing this competition, switching from one ecosystem to another is going to become harder and harder, meaning that converting a customer is worth more than ever before.

Tech Retail is Only the Start!
Furniture retail has learned that you can’t just sell furniture, you have to sell rooms and designs. Kitchen retailers are starting to teach customers how to cook. There are even new online clothing retailers coaching their customers on how to dress! (http://www.trunkclub.com/) Everyone thinks the Internet is killing retail, but really it is just changing its core purpose.
Before the Internet we needed retail to SHOW us what we could buy, something the Internet does a hundred times better. However, a physical retail store can still have an advantage with showing us how to USE products, especially when we need to use multiple products together. Retail stores that innovate ways to be a gateway for customers to better their life or enter a lifestyle are the ones that will last through the next couple decades.

Digital brochure

http://www.3dissue.com/online-brochure-design/

What’s the Right Frequency of Email Marketing?

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/pages/what-s-the-frequency.aspx?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

What’s the Frequency?

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief
Email is the virtual workhorse of digital marketing and every Web worker knows it.

According to the Experian Marketing Services’ “2013 Email Market Study,” 99 percent of those surveyed say that their company currently uses email. While marketers consider email a highly effective practice, many don’t consider customers’ email preferences – and that’s a significant problem. For instance, 60 percent of marketers don’t offer customers the opportunity to select the types of emails (text or HTML) they want to receive. What’s more (and potentially more damaging) is that just over one third of respondents (35 percent) let customers determine how frequently they want to be mailed. Too much email from a sender, of course, could negatively impact their performance.



So, what determines when you should hit send? What is the “right” frequency?

Unfortunately, there is no “right” answer when it comes to the optimal delivery rate, as there are too many variables. Ask the following questions to find out, however, and your email campaigns (and your broader digital marketing strategy in general) will be more effective.

Why is this email being sent? Many digital marketers send email because they believe it’s the right thing to do - and it is - but it is essential that each individual distribution and each broader multi-send campaign or ongoing distribution have a clear aim and objective.

The aim of a single-send, for example, might be to raise awareness of a technical issue or a new feature; it might also be to sell an individual product. A campaign with multiple sends, however, is much different. For instance, those that engage in a more prolonged distribution strategy are those whose objectives are typically to offer ongoing education or support. The reason to ask “why is this email being sent” is so that marketers don’t lose sight of the original objectives; knowing the “why” helps prepare and prioritize the content.
The Inbox is a Battlefield

Everyone who sends email is a brand’s competitor. See just how crowded recipients’ inboxes are in this infographic at wsm.co/inboxbattle.

How long is the sales cycle? Another reason that there is no one answer to the optimal frequency for email is that sales cycles vary by industry, company and even product. If the sales cycle is short, the frequency should be more compact, while a longer sales cycle allows for a slower and more regular schedule. Knowing the average time it takes for a user to enter and exit the sales funnel can help determine the optimal frequency. There is, of course, a learning curve that comes with figuring out the distribution frequency, but once a standard has been set, marketers can turn their attention to other concerns like deliverability or the many available optimization opportunities.

One such opportunity comes from a free software solution called ROEmails (developed by WebNova). It can help improve campaign performance by adding “scarcity” information to emails by including an email countdown timer that appears in a recipient’s inbox. Say for example a retailer is running a 24-hour special. When the recipient opens the email 20 hours after being sent, he will see that he has just four hours remaining to take advantage of the offer. Leveraging “scarcity” can increase open rates, traffic and conversions and deepen engagement.

When are users most active? Of all the advice given to email marketers about the optimal day and time to send, taking advantage of users’ activity levels on a website is often the most actionable (although not the most sophisticated). A quick examination of a website’s analytics will reveal not just the day that customers are visiting the most but also the general time of day. While most activity can be attributed to the goings-on of marketers themselves (e.g. social media posts, advertising, etc.), activity is a rather obvious opportunity to increase performance - at least incrementally. While many will go round-and-round about whether Thursday at 10 a.m. or Tuesday at 4 p.m. works best, optimal send times (particularly for regular distributions) do provide a testable moment.

Email marketing, despite the attention that Internet advertising, SEO and social media receive, is here to stay. Understanding users and maintaining a regular schedule will be useful for every digital enterprise.
- See more at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/pages/what-s-the-frequency.aspx?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter#sthash.ARPbl40c.dpuf

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

Email is the virtual workhorse of digital marketing and every Web worker knows it.

According to the Experian Marketing Services’ “2013 Email Market Study,” 99 percent of those surveyed say that their company currently uses email. While marketers consider email a highly effective practice, many don’t consider customers’ email preferences – and that’s a significant problem. For instance, 60 percent of marketers don’t offer customers the opportunity to select the types of emails (text or HTML) they want to receive. What’s more (and potentially more damaging) is that just over one third of respondents (35 percent) let customers determine how frequently they want to be mailed. Too much email from a sender, of course, could negatively impact their performance.
- See more at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/pages/what-s-the-frequency.aspx?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter#sthash.ARPbl40c.dpuf