Jamila Jamani is the founder and CEO of Parla, a one-to-one live commerce platform designed to help retailers replicate their in-store experience online, by providing a more personalised and interactive shopping experience. Here, she explains how live video can help close the all-important ‘conversion loop’ between store and screen …
Most retailers are familiar with the statistic that 20-50% of visitors to brick-and-mortar stores convert to sales, while online conversion rates hover around just 1-2%. The truth is that ecommerce costs – notably, exploding customer acquisition costs (CAC), escalating return costs, and growing operating expenses – are skyrocketing.
In a headlong (and sometimes, let’s be honest, reluctant) effort to attain omnichannel omnipotence in recent years, too many brand leaders have allowed their eyes to stray from the profitability ball. This begs the question – how can online become a truly profitable channel?
In this environment of rising costs, ecommerce operators are under pressure to raise online conversion rates, increase AOV, and decrease returns. So, what is it about in-person shopping that inherently boosts sales?
Fundamentally, ecommerce is designed to be efficient and transactional. It saves us consumers time because we can shop day or night, from anywhere – without needing to travel or carve time out of busy schedules – and receive goods reliably at our doorstep.
However, while these online advantages are universally accepted in global retail practice, fully 70% of retail purchases are still made in brick-and-mortar retail stores. Let’s dig into this apparent mismatch.
Physical benefits
Two crucial advantages of offline retail are notoriously challenging to replicate online, especially in the case of carefully considered or bigger-ticket purchases: browsing and discovery; and real-time assistance from knowledgeable salespeople. These elements help customers make informed and confident decisions, contributing to higher conversion rates within the physical storescape.
Well-trained staff with strong relationship instincts provide knowledgeable and personalised service, generating the all-important ‘trusted advisor’ effect, which is notably valuable in closing high-consideration sales like electronics and luxury items, and keeps customers coming back.
Shopping in-person provides a range of benefits:
Personalised experiences: Tailored interactions with practiced and instinctive professionals that resonate more deeply with customers.
Expert product knowledge: Immediate access to specific and relevant information from sales associates.
Ease of discovery: The ability to explore and find new products effortlessly, promising the potential delight of an unexpected discovery.
Speed to purchase: Obtaining immediate answers and making more confident purchase decisions, thus reducing the number of touchpoints prior to purchase.
Quick checkout process: Streamlined purchases, without the frustrating delayed gratification that is inherent to ecommerce delivery.
For brands, these in-store advantages, when executed effectively by experienced professionals, lead to both increased sales and enhanced customer loyalty.
In-store interactions often result in more effective closing of sales due to real-time customer service and effective upselling by sales associates. Customers tend to purchase more items in-store, influenced by the tactile experience and persuasive recommendations from staff. Transactions involving sales staff are typically +81% higher, thanks to their expertise in recommending premium products and bundles – while engaging effectively in-store boosts long-term customer loyalty and repeat purchases, leading to a higher lifetime value.
Closing the loop
Achieving online conversion rates that rival in-store experiences isn’t about keywords, promotions, payment plans, AI magic, product videos, or multi-faceted search. Customers – whether online or offline – simply want to talk to a helpful person who is knowledgeable about the product, to generate the reassuring confidence and excitement they need to buy in the moment.
Live video interaction between salespeople and customers bridges this gap more effectively than any other tool, based on real-world results from our clients. Capital One research similarly indicates that retailers who effectively embrace omnichannel engagement increase sales revenue by an average of +179% over those who do not.
Live video selling empowers customers to interact with knowledgeable salespeople who can offer personalised advice, answer questions, help them browse potential purchases for ideas, and guide them through the purchase process – almost exactly like a typical in-store experience. This builds confidence in purchases, and replicates the buzz of an in-store experience online.
In a recent survey conducted by a US$2b+ retailer, asking their customers what is the ‘most valued customer service’, one-to-one live shopping was a top selection, beating same-day delivery, installation and design services. One-to-one live video with in-store sales staff also gives each side of the transaction a reassuring tie-back to the authentic feel of the brand’s physical offline retail environment, which ‘completes the loop’, building trusted sales relationships and cementing deeper brand loyalty.
Fans of a brand’s website are therefore evolved into broader brand support, leveraging the brick-and-mortar infrastructure in tandem with investments in ecommerce, which foots back to shareholder value.
Case in point
Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM), a Berkshire Hathaway-owned national furniture retailer, sought to bridge the gap between their online and offline customer experiences. They aimed to deliver a virtual customer journey as engaging as their famous in-store service.
By integrating one-to-one live video selling, NFM supercharged their online conversion rate to more than 58%, raised the ATV, and enhanced customer loyalty.
As NFM’s general sales manager Rodney Rahl explains: “We draw customers from a distance of up to 150 miles away from our stores – that can be a six-hour round trip. So one-to-one live selling helps us give customers, especially those who can’t easily access our stores, a way to understand and look at the details of something they’d like to purchase by connecting with our sales agents.”
Retailers with the following characteristics typically benefit the most from implementing a one-to-one live shopping solution: products with multiple features and specifications – items like appliances, skincare, or furniture often have various attributes that affect performance, usability or compatibility; highly-trained staff – investments in product knowledge ensure sales staff are experts in the category; customer seeks out help when shopping – customers often seek guidance or education about product features, benefits, and proper usage via stores and/or call centres; and a longer decision-making process – customers usually take more time to compare options, seek expert advice, and evaluate their choices.
If any of the above attributes resonate with your own situation, then one-to-one live shopping would be a powerful tool to support customers, and supercharge their shopping journey.
The missing piece
The fusion of online and offline strategies, best exemplified by one-to-one live video shopping, offers a powerful means to enhance customer experiences and boost sales. Live video interactions with knowledgeable sales staff not only provide real-time, personalised service but also build trust, deliver detailed product information, and guide customers through purchasing decisions.
This hybrid approach bridges the gap between digital and physical retail, ensuring that the convenience of online shopping does not come at the expense of the personalised service that in-store shopping offers.
The key to success for retailers lies in embracing this hybrid model. By leveraging the strengths of both digital and in-store environments, brands can offer a cohesive and compelling customer experience that not only attracts new customers but also improves existing relationships.
As a retailer, you are already doing everything you need to make live video selling a reality – you have fully trained sales staffing resources, which is the most critical component, and you have probably already developed a reasonably robust ecommerce functionality.
Years of efforts by brand managers to achieve pie-in-the-sky ‘omnichannel strategic initiatives’ that aspire to magically make everything right in the universe have produced mixed results for most retailers – one-to-one live selling is the missing piece that mates ecommerce directly with offline retail, simply and effectively.
It’s time to leverage the assets you already have by closing the loop from store to screen and back to store.
