Goals related to digital and brick and mortar efforts are usually centered around the same thing; increasing sales.
However, the road to achieving this goal in each strategy requires research to launch. Once launched, they also require measurements to keep tabs on performance and make improvements.
This week we’re going to compare the research and measurement process for each. So, it ’s going to be a bit of an oversimplification. However, it sets the stage for part two, where we’ll discuss how digital strategists can adopt some of the concepts used in retail to improve their websites.
Alright, let’s get going.
Digital Strategy and Retail Are Pretty Similar
Even though these ecosystems are usually treated very differently, it’s interesting how similar they actually are. Both, in terms of researching and measuring success.
We’ll look at brick and mortar first, then digital.
First, Let’s Talk About a Brick and Mortar Store
If you were planning on opening a store you might want to do some research. You might look at things like…
- Local market competition, to see if there’s room in the market for you to turn a profit.
- Foot traffic, to see if people are walking or driving around the area where we want to open up shop.
- Local demand, to see if those people are interested in doing business with us.
- Buildings available, to see what kinds of buildings or lots are available in the area.
Now, let’s fast forward a little. We’ve opened the store, we got the location we wanted, the building is nice, and we’re in business. At this point, we want to start measuring the success of our business. To oversimplify a little, we’ll look at some of the following items:
- Local competition — Are there other stores showing up around us?
- Foot traffic — Look outside, is there anyone out there?
- Local demand — Are these people coming into our store specifically?
- Buildings available — Is this building facilitating the goal of our business? Are people shopping, ordering food, drinks, or are they entering and leaving right away? Is it wheelchair accessible?
Now, Let’s Look at a Digital Strategy
If you were planning on launching a digital strategy you might want to do some research. You might look at things like…
- Digital competition (vs local competition), to see how many other websites are offering similar services.
- Impressions (vs foot traffic), to see if internet users are seeing us as they browse the internet.
- Share of voice (vs local demand), to see if those people are interested in doing business with us.
- Web presence (vs buildings), to see what domains or social handles are available.
Alright great, let’s fast forward a little. We’ve launched a digital strategy, we got the domain and social handles we wanted, the website is nice, and we’re working our digital strategy. At this point, we want to start measuring the success of our strategy. To oversimplify a little, we’ll look at some of the following items:
- Digital competition — Where do we rank in advertisements and organic search?
- Impressions — Are people seeing our website throughout the internet? How about performance metrics on emails? Do we have a good social media following? In general, are people seeing our brand from their computer?
- Share of voice — What’s our click-through rate on our advertisements and emails? Are we generating traffic from social media? How many users and new users are we attracting to our site? In general, are people visiting our brand from their computer?
- Web presence — Is the website facilitating the goal of our business? Are people entering the website and leaving immediately? What’s our bounce rate? Average time per session? Conversion rates? Is it accessible to people with disabilities?
Know’m sayin’? Not that different, huh?
Alright, next up we’ll discuss how retail concepts can be used in website design.
