There’s no question that Amazon.com has thoroughly upended the retail industry. Every retailer, from mom-and-pop shops to big boxes, have had to rethink their strategies from the ground up to compete in today’s new digital reality.
Home improvement retailer Lowe’s is no exception. And in spite of having many products that are too bulky or require too much configuration to be well-suited to ecommerce, Lowe’s is feeling the pinch nevertheless.
The solution: leverage its strengths, especially in areas where Amazon has weaknesses.
“We are providing solutions to consumers (and our pro business) to help customers along their home improvement journeys,” explains Stephen Carvelli, VP of Digital Technology for Lowe’s. “Customers manage their own journeys how they feel comfortable.”
The notion of a customer journey is central to any modern digital strategy: the idea that interactions between a brand and a customer begin well before the purchase and continue long afterward.
Amazon understands customer journeys as well, but as an online-only player, it cannot deliver the same personal touch that Lowe’s can. “The customer journey includes online, point of sale, phone calls to customer service, and professional services in customers’ homes,” Carvelli says. “A lot of times you’re mixing the digital and physical worlds.”
In other words, Lowe’s delivers an omnichannel experience – another term central to digital strategy, especially in retail. Omnichannel refers to how customers combine multiple touchpoints with a brand into a single interaction, for example, when people use their phones to shop in a store.
Read the entire article at http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2016/11/01/how-lowes-battles-amazon-with-omnichannel-digital-performance/.
Intellyx publishes the Agile Digital Transformation Roadmap poster, advises companies on their digital transformation initiatives, and helps vendors communicate their agility stories. As of the time of writing, SOASTA is an Intellyx customer. None of the other organizations mentioned in this article are Intellyx customers. Image credit: Lowe’s.
